Lou Garza Wins First WSOP Bracelet and $1.3 Million In $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship

AP Louis ‘Lou’ Garza has won the 2023 World Series of Poker $10,000 pot-limit Omaha championship event, defeating a field of 731 entries to earn his first gold bracelet and the massive top prize of $1,309,232.

This marquee victory was by far the largest on the Texas resident’s tournament resume. He now has more than $3.3 million in lifetime earnings, with roughly half of that coming from successes at the WSOP.

Shortly after Garza was handed a bracelet, he offered his girlfriend Carla a ring.

“Don’t think any other time would be right besides now because I don’t think I would even be right here without her,” Garza told PokerNews reporters about the proposal.

In addition to the money and the jewelry, Garza also earned plenty of rankings points for this win. The 2,280 Card Player Player of the Year points he secured were enough to catapult him into 52nd place in the 2023 POY standings presented by Global Poker. He also took home 1,200 PokerGO Tour points, climbing to fifth place on that leaderboard as a result.

The strong turnout for this event built a prize pool of $6,798,300. The top 110 finishers made the money, with at least six-figure paydays for the top eight finishers.

Notables that ran deep in this event included Adam Hendrix (17th), bracelet winner Dylan Weisman (14th), two-time bracelet winner Juha Helppi (12th), bracelet winner and 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event champion Dimitar Danchev (10th), top POY contender Ren Lin (8th), and bracelet winner Sam Soverel (6th).

The final day began with just five players still in contention, with Stanislav Halatenko bagging up the largest stack while Garza sat at the bottom of the chip counts when day 3 concluded.

Garza scored an early double-up with pocket aces against Halatenko’s pocket kings. He continued to fight his way up the leaderboard during five-handed play. Then, Peng Shan got all-in with a single-suited A-Q-J-2 against the single-suited K-K-J-9- of Halatenko. The pocket pair held up and Shan was knocked out in fifth place ($296,154).

Garza scored the next knockout, with his AKQQ besting the JJ107 of Travis Pearson in a preflop all-in confrontation. Garza ended up making queens full to win the pot and narrow the field to three. Pearson was awarded $407,915 for his fourth-place showing.

Three-handed play saw plenty of movement between the three remaining players, but Halatenko was ultimately the next to fall. He lost the majority of his stack in big clash with Arthur Morris, whose pair and a straight draw overcame Halatenko’s flopped two pair after the money went in before the turn. Halatenko was left with just over a single big blind and was eliminated soon after in third place ($570,307).

Heads-up play began with Morris holding 23,650,000 to Garza’s 20,100,000. Early action favored Garza, who quickly overtook the lead and then began to pull away. Morris got a big bluff through to close the gap a bit, but Garza soon regained control.

In the final hand, Garza limped in from the button with A433 and Morris potted from the big blind with AQ99. garza called and the flop came down Q42. Morris bet pot and Garza raised, putting his opponent all-in. Morris called and the turn brought the 8, keeping Morris’ pair of queens ahead. The river was the 4, though, giving Garza trip fours for the win.

Morris took home $809,167 as the runner-up, the largest tournament payday of his career. The Texas resident now has more than $2.1 million in lifetime earnings.

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

Visit the Card Player 2023 World Series of Poker page for schedules, news, interviews, and the latest event results. WSOP coverage sponsored by Global Poker.

Winner photo credit: WSOP / Spenser Sembrat. Proposal and Morris photo credits: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes.

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