Matthew Wantman Bounces Back From 3 Big Blinds To Win Latest PGT PLO Series II Title

Matthew Wantman was on the wrong side of a 13:1 chip disparity with the title of event no. 3 of the 2024 PokerGO Tour Pot-Limit Omaha Series II hanging in the balance. Roughly three hours into the final day, after chopping the pot in back-to-back all-in confrontations, Wantman had just shy of three big blinds in his stack with 1,400,000, while his opponent Jonas Kronwitter sat with 17,975,000.

Incredibly, Wantman was posing for winner’s photos just a quarter of an hour later.

The World Poker Tour champion reeled off three consecutive double ups to find himself holding a 2:1 chip lead of his own, and from there was able to close out the win, earning $178,250 and the trophy. Wantman’s career earnings grew to $7,201,420 in the process.

Wantman also secured plenty of rankings points with this title run, which was his second of the year. The 576 Card Player Player of the Year points brought his total to 3,052, which is good for 54th place in the 2024 POY standings presented by Global Poker. He has made 11 POY-qualified final tables so far, accruing $893,000 in POY earnings along the way.

This victory was also good for 178 PokerGO Tour points. With 650 total, Wantman climbed to 64th on that high-stakes-centric leaderboard. He also moved into the outright lead into the PGT PLO Series II points race, with 198 total points thanks to this win and a ninth-place finish in event no. 2.

This event featured a $5,100 buy-in. With 155 entries, the prize pool swelled to $775,000. The top 23 finishers made the money, with event no. 2 champion Dylan Weisman (20th), two-time bracelet winner Bryce Yockey (19th), two-time bracelet winner Alex Livingston (18th), seven-time bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu (17th), two-time bracelet winner Dylan Linde (14th), Sean Winter (13th), and bracelet winner Ronald Keijzer (10th) all running deep.

The second and final day began with seven players returning to the PokerGO Studio inside ARIA Resort & Casino Las Vegas, with Wantman in the lead and bracelet winner Eelis Parssinen hot on his heels.

Parssinen lost a big one early after getting all-in with aces and sixes up against nut flush draw and aces and sevens of Kronwitter. A river blank saw Kronwitter overtake the lead, while Parssinen was left with just a couple of big blinds. He went on to finish seventh, earning $31,000. The Finnish poker pro now has more than $7 million in career tournament cashes.

Eran Carmi got all-in with pocket kings and ace-high diamonds against the double-suited pocket kings of Wantman, who flopped a king-high heart flush and held from there. Carmi secured $38,750 as the sixth-place finisher.

2022 World Series of Poker main event third-place finisher Michael Duek got the last of his stack in with top set of nines against the top pair and open-ended straight draw of Wantman. The turn gave Wantman tens and nines, adding a couple of outs to higher full houses to go with his straight outs. The river brought one of the two remaining tens, giving Wantman tens full to best Duek’s nines full. Duek earned $46,500 for his fifth-place showing. He now has nearly $6.4 million in career cashes.

Like Duek, Joe Serock also made a run to the WSOP main event final table. Serock finished eighth in the big dance earlier this year for a career-best score of $1,250,000. In this event, he got all-in with an overpair after seeing a jack-high flop, only to find himself up against top set for Kronwitter. Serock was unable to spike the two-outter on the end and was sent to the rail in fourth place ($58,125). The score grew his lifetime haul to over $6.8 million.

The next big clash saw Kronwitter open to 1,400,000 on the button when the blinds sat at 200,000-400,000 with a big blind ante of 400,000. Zachary Schwartz three-bet shoved with AK44. Kronwitter called with A952 and the board ran out J9395 to see Kronwitter flop the nut flush and wind up with nines full of fives. Schwartz walked away with $77,500 as the third-place finisher just one day after placing seventh in event no. 2 for $19,080.

Heads-up play began with Kronwitter holding 13,775,000 to Wantman’s 5,600,000. Wantman battled his way into the lead briefly, but lost a big pot with flush-under-flush to give up most of his progress. It happened again not long after that, with Wantman’s turned nut straight improving to a ten-high flush, only to have Kronwitter reveal a king-high flush. That blow is what landed Wantman in the danger zone.

As previously mentioned, the final two chopped a pair of all-ins ahead of Wantman’s final surge to victory. His first double up saw JJ22 best Kronwitter’s J963. The following hand, Wantman got all-in after the flop with top pair and a gutshot against bottom pair and the same gutshot. Wantman wound up winning with kings and queens.

Wantman took the lead thanks to the third all-in. Kronwitter shoved after the QJ54 turn with A1086. Wantman held top pair and an open-ended straight draw with KQ76. He made the call and the river brought the 5 to see Wantman chip up to 12,700,000. Kronwitter slid to 6,675,000 after the hand.

The final hand of the tournament began with Wantman raising to 1,800,000 on the button with A763 with the blinds at 300,000-600,000 with a big blind ante of 600,000. Kronwitter called holding K1075 and the flop came down AJ9. Kronwitter went into the tank before moving all-in for 3,775,000 with his double gutshot and backdoor diamond outs. Wantman called with top pair. The 2 turn and 5 river kept Wantman ahead, earning him the pot and the title. Kronwitter was awarded $112,375 as the runner-up.

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

Photo credits: PokerGO / Antonio Abrego.

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