Ka Kwan Lau Wins Largest Pot-Limit Omaha Tournament in World Series of Poker History

The 2023 World Series of Poker $25,0000 buy-in pot-limit Omaha event attracted an astounding field of 449 entries, creating a $10,551,500 prize pool to set the record for the largest PLO event in WSOP history (by prize money). This same event drew 264 entries in 2022, which means there was a 70 percent increase in year-over-year turnout.

After four days of intense four-card action, Spain’s Ka Kwan Lau emerged victorious with his first WSOP bracelet and the $2,294,756 top prize. This win came just two years after Lau finished second in the 2021 running of this same event. He also final-tabled this event in 2019, placing eighth that year. The pot-limit Omaha specialist now has nearly $4.6 million in recorded tournament earnings, with more than $3.2 million of that coming from cashes in this tournament alone.

In addition to the title and the money, Lau also earned a bevy of rankings points for this massive victory, including 2,520 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was his first qualified final-table finish of the year, but this win was sufficient on its own to catapult him into 38th place in the 2023 POY standings presented by Global Poker. The 800 PokerGO Tour points he secured brought his total in that high-stakes-centric race to 945, which is currently good for 13th place on the PGT leaderboard.

Below is a look back at the eight-year-history of this event:

Lau came into the fourth and final day of this event as the chip leader among the remaining five contenders. The money bubble had burst way back on day 2, with monsters of the game like three-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe (38th), five-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh (37th), two-time bracelet winner Joao Vieira (29th), three-time bracelet winner Yuri Dzivielevski (27th), two-time bracelet winner Andriy Lyubovetskiy (23rd), three-time bracelet winner Dan Zack (22nd), two-time bracelet winner Ben Lamb (19th), three-time bracelet winner Chad Eveslage (18th), three-time bracelet winner Dash Dudley (13th), bracelet winner Isaac Haxton, bracelet winner Dylan Weisman (10th), three-time bracelet winner Chance Kornuth, and six-time bracelet winner Jeremy Ausmus (8th) among the 68 players that made the money but failed to advance to day 4.

Mads Amot was the first to fall on the final day. He got all-in after a flop of KQ3 with KQQ10 for middle set. He was up against an absolutely massive draw for Lau, whose AQJ10 gave him a flush draw and a wrap straight draw. The 7 on the turn kept Amot ahead, but the 8 on the river gave Lau a winning flush. Amot earned $505,588 for his fifth-place showing.

The next key pot saw World Poker Tour champion Roger Teska get all-in with top two pair on the turn, only to find himself trailing the flopped wheel of Sergio Martinez Gonzalez. The river brought a blank and Teska was knocked out in fourth place ($701,522). This was the second-largest cash yet for Teska, trailing only the $2,000,000 he earned as the champion of the Caribbean Poker Party MILLIONS World $25,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em event.

Andjelko Andrejevic’s run in this event came to an end when his QQ73 ran into the AA108 of Martinez Gonzalez. The board ran out AQJK8 and Martinez Gonzalez’s broadway straight earned him the pot. Andrejevic took home $989,464 as the third-place finisher. This was his second-largest cash ever, with the largest being a $1.1 million payday for a win in an Asia Pacific Poker Tour $500,000 HKD ($64,500 USD) buy-in high roller back in 2015. The WPT champion from Serbia now has more than $5.5 million in lifetime cashes to his name.

With that, Martinez Gonzalez edged into the chip lead going into heads-up play against Lau. Martinez Gonzalez was able to extend his lead to more than 3:1 before Lau scored a crucial double-up with an eight-high straight besting his opponent’s seven-high straight to surge ahead.

The two traded the lead again, but Lau was eventually able to take control and had a healthy chip advantage by the time the final hand rolled around. Martinez Gonzalez potted from the button with AA74 and Lau repotted with AKQ10. Martinez Gonzalez four-bet shoved and Lau called. The board came down 10969J and Lau rivered a king-high straight to win the pot and the title. Martinez Gonzalez earned $1,418,270 as the runner-up finisher.

Here is a look at the payouts and rankings points awarded at the final table:

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Winner photo credit: WSOP / Spenser Sembrat. Andrejevic photo credit: PokerGO / Enrique Malfavon.