Seth Davies Wins PGT PLO Series $25,000 Buy-In Championship EventTop Player of the Year Race Contender Awarded $522,000 After Overcoming A 72-Entry Field |
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Coming into the 2024 PokerGO Tour Pot-Limit Omaha Series $25,000 buy-in championship, none of Seth Davies’ top ten tournament scores came in events he had won. That streak ended when he emerged victorious from a field of 72 entries in the aforementioned high-stakes PLO event with the top prize of $522,000. This victory became his 10th largest payday on the circuit. Davies, a World Poker Tour main event champion, now has nearly $25.8 million in lifetime earnings.
This was the first title and ninth final-table finish of the year for Davies. With 2,814 Card Player Player of the Year points and more than $1.7 million in to-date POY earnings, he is now ranked sixth in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker. The victory also moved him into the same spot on the season-long PGT leaderboard, with 590 points earned over four qualified cashes in that points race.
This was Davies’ only cash of the PGT PLO Series, but the 313 points he secured were sufficient to see him finish in third place in the overall points standings for the festival. He was outscored only by a pair of multi-event champions in Samuli Sipila (1st – 749 points) and Eelis Parssinen (2nd – 565 points). Sipila finished as the runner-up his fourth cash of the series, with wins in a $10,000 buy-in standard PLO event and in the $15,000 buy-in PLO progressive bounty event. His $776,140 in total prize money for the series was the most of any player. He also secured $239,000 in bounty payouts along the way. The Finnish poker pro was crowned the series champion, earning a trophy and a $10,000 PGT Passport for his efforts.
The solid turnout for this event built a prize pool of $1,800,000 million. The top 11 finishers made the money, with Tomas Ribeiro being knocked out on the $54,000 bubble. Lou Garza was sent to the rail with that sum shortly before day 1 action inside the PokerGO Studio at ARIA Resort & Casino Las Vegas came to a close. Davies held the chip lead among the remaining 10 contenders that moved on to day 2.
He was still among the top two stacks when the field combined onto a single table. Two-time bracelet winner Joao Simao fell in sixth place ($72,000) at the hands of Stefan Christopher. Not long after that, Davies’ flopped two pair held up against the overpair of aces held by Sean Winter (6th – $90,000) to narrow the field to five.
Allan Le slid into the danger zone after losing a big pot to Silpila. Not long after that, the same two clashed on an A737 board. Le got all-in with AK94 for aces and sevens with a king-high flush draw, but he was drawing dead against the AA96 for Sipilia. Le made his flush with a Q river, but it was still second best to aces full of sevens. Le, who won the kickoff event of the series, earned $126,000 as the fifth-place finisher.
Stefan Christopher was the next to fall. He got the last of his stack in prefop with A-J-10-5 and flopped jacks up, but Bruno Furth’s had flopped queens up with his A-Q-J-6. The higher two pair held through the river and Christopher was paid out $171,000. This was his third final-table finish of the series.
Despite scoring that knockout, Furth was ultimately the player eliminated in third place. His chips went in on a JJ42 board with J874. His jacks full of fours ked the KK5 of Davies, but the 5 on the river gave Davies a higher full house. Furth earned $243,000 for his third final-table finish recorded at this festival.
Heads-up play began with Sipila holding 8,170,000 to Davies’ 6,225,000. The lead changed hands after Davies won a sizable pot with queens full of fours. He began to pull away, only to have Sipila fight his way back into the lead in time for one of the key hands of the day. Davies raised from the button and then four-bet over the top of Sipila’s three-bet, committing the majority of his stack in the process with AAJ3. Sipila made the call with KK1010 and the flop came down 886. Davies shoved and Spilia called. The 7 turn and 5 river kept Davies ahead to earn him the double up into a commanding lead. Sipila was left with just over 15 big blinds.
Sipila managed one double-up after losing that huge pot, but was soon all-in and at risk a second time. The two saw a 765 flop after a raise from Davies on the button and a call from Sipila in the big blind. Sipila led out as the first to act with AQ74 for the nut flush draw, top pair and an open-ended straight draw. Davies shoved with KKQ6 and Sipila made the call. The 2 turn and 5 river left kings and fives as the winning hand for Davies. Sipila earned a career-high payday of $342,000 as the runner-up.
Here are the payouts and rankings points awarded to the top six finishers:
Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points | PGT Points |
1 | Seth Davies | $522,000 | 588 | 313 |
2 | Samuli Sipila | $342,000 | 490 | 205 |
3 | Bruno Furth | $243,000 | 392 | 146 |
4 | Stefan Christopher | $171,000 | 294 | 103 |
5 | Allan Le | $126,000 | 245 | 76 |
6 | Sean Winter | $90,000 | 196 | 54 |
The top ten in the final series-long points race standings are as follows:
Rank | Player | Points | Titles | Cashes | Winnings |
1 | Samuli Sipila | 749 | 2 | 4 | $776,140 |
2 | Eelis Parssinen | 565 | 2 | 4 | $515,850 |
3 | Seth Davies | 313 | 1 | 1 | $522,000 |
4 | Dylan Weisman | 309 | 1 | 4 | $328,105 |
5 | Stefan Christopher | 302 | 0 | 3 | $369,250 |
6 | Allan Le | 291 | 1 | 4 | $334,650 |
7 | Ronald Keijzer | 278 | 1 | 4 | $220,200 |
8 | Bruno Furth | 258 | 0 | 3 | $341,260 |
9 | Lautaro Guerra | 226 | 0 | 3 | $209,850 |
10 | Alex Foxen | 224 | 0 | 1 | $224,100 |
Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.