Loren Klein Wins 2018 World Series of Poker $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

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Loren Klein has proven to be an incredibly consistent tournament pot-limit Omaha player, having made five WSOP final tables in the discipline since 2010 and another in a no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha mixed event. He took down that tournament in 2016 for his first gold bracelet and then won his second in the $1,500 pot-limit Omaha event in 2016. Roughly a week after that win he finished second the 2017 $10,000 buy-in championship event of the variant. A year later he managed to improve on that showing, defeating a field of 476 entries to win the 2018 WSOP $10,000 pot-limit Omaha championship for his third bracelet. The 36-year-old poker pro joined the likes of Matt Matros and Allen Cunningham as the only players since the poker boom to have won a bracelet each year for three consecutive summers.

“The variance in getting a bracelet is pretty wild. Like, I was the same player I was three years ago before I had any bracelets,” Klein told WSOP reporters after the win. When asked about whether or not his results in pot-limit Omaha events make him one of the best players of the game he demured. “Perhaps, but you’ll never know because of the way tournaments go. There’s a lot of guys that make good runs all the time. So, I’m probably right there with them. But who knows?”

In addition his third bracelet Klein also earned the top prize of $1,018,336 and 1,800 Card Player Player of the Year points. This was the largest cash of his career, and it brought his total live tournament earnings to $2,707,577. This win was Klein’s first final-table finish of 2018, but it was enough to catapult him into 56th place on the overall POY leaderboard.

Klein came into the fourth and final day of this event in third chip position with six players remaining. Klein overtook the lead early on and then scored the first knockout of the day, sending recent WSOP $2,500 mixed big bet event champion Scott Bohlman home in sixth place ($157,097). Klein’s stack soared above 11 million after the hand, giving him roughly 45 percent of the chips in play with five remaining.

Two-time bracelet winner Ryan Hughes was the next to hit the rail. He got all-in preflop with AAK10 against Klein’s JJ108. Klein spiked a jack on the flop and held from there, eliminating Hughes in fifth place ($216,391).

Brandon Shack-Harris was the second shortest stack, but he eliminated 2016 WSOP main event eighth-place finisher Jerry Wong in fourth place ($303,491) to close the gap somewhat with Klein and Rep Porter, who had doubled up through Klein to take the lead.

Shack-Harris was not able to maintain any momentum after that knockout, though. The two-time bracelet winner and 2016 winner of this event ultimately got all-in with the AQ84 and was called by Porter’s AAK5. The board came down 8722Q and Porter’s aces and deuces earned him the pot. Shack-Harris was awarded $433,259 for his deep run.

Despite winning that hand Porter still entered heads-up play at roughly a 3-to-2 chip disadvantage. Porter was going for his fourth WSOP title, but his tournament came to an end with a preflop cooler. He got all-in holding the KKJ5, only to find that he was up against the AA32. The 104249 runout keot Klein’s aces ahead, earning him the pot and the title. Porter added $629,378 to his career live tournament earnings, bringing his lifetime total to just shy of $3.8 million.

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

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2018 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

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