Sergio Martinez Gonzalez raised to 1,200,000 on the button for Ka Kwan Lau to defend the big blind.
On a flop of 7♣4♠3♥, Lau checked and then called a bet worth 1,000,000 by his opponent which brought them to the 6♥ turn.
Lau checked and Martinez Gonzalez bet 2,400,000, prompting a pot-sized raise to 12,000,000 by Lau. Martinez Gonzalez vaulted out of his chair to eyeball the stack of his opponent and moved all-in for Lau to call.
Ka Kwan Lau: K♠Q♦8♦5♣
Sergio Martinez Gonzalez: A♥7♥5♠5♦
Lau was ahead with the nut straight and Martinez Gonzalez needed a heart to win the bracelet right there. However, the 2♣ river only gave him an inferior straight and Lau doubled back into a lead of fewer than two big blinds.
Ka Kwan Lau opened to 1,200,000 with J♠8♠6♠3♠ and Sergio Martinez Gonzalez made the call with Q♥9♠9♦3♣.
The flop came out 8♣K♥5♠ and Martinez Gonzalez checked to Lau who continued for 1,800,000 with his inferior pair of eights and received a quick fold from Martinez Gonzalez to win him the pot.
Both players limped in to see a flop of A♦8♥5♠ and checked through to the turn 2♠. Ka Kwan Lau then bet 1,000,000 with A♥9♠4♥3♦ and Sergio Martinez Gonzalez appeared to not like it but made the call anyways with his 8♣7♦6♦2♥.
The turn came the 4♣ on the river to give Lao a straight but also gave Martinez Gonzalez a bigger straight. Lau checked over to Martinez Gonzalez who bet the pot of 3,200,000 and Lau made the call. Martinez Gonzalez then tabled the superior hand to win him the large pot to swing him back into the lead.
Sergio Martinez Gonzalez opened to 1,500,000 with A♣Q♥4♥4♠ and Ka Kwan Lau made the call with J♣7♣6♣5♥.
The flop came out 8♦4♦5♣ to give Lau the nut straight and Martinez Gonzalez a set of fours. Both players decided to check through to see the 9♠ on the turn and Lau led out for a pot bet of 3,500,000 and Martinez Gonzalez made the call to see the 7♥ on the river.
Lau then checked and Martinez Gonzalez checked back and Lau was awarded the large pot to swing him back into the lead.
Sergio Martinez Gonzalez raised the pot to 1,500,000 with the Q♣J♠9♣6♣ and Ka Kwan Lau defended the 10♥10♣8♠4♥ out of the big blind, which led them to the J♥10♠9♥ flop. Both checked to the 6♠ turn on which Lau bet 2,500,000 and Martinez Gonzalez called.
That led them to the 3♣ river and Lau fired another bet worth 4,500,000 into a pot of 8,500,000. Martinez Gonzalez reluctantly called and lost another big chunk of his stack to fall further behind.
Sergio Martinez Gonzalez made it 1,500,000 to go from the button with the Q♠J♥8♥7♦ and earned a call from Ka Kwan Lau with the A♥6♠6♥5♠. Lau checked the nut flush draw on the Q♦9♥2♥ and subsequently called a bet worth 2,000,000 to then hit the 5♥ on the turn.
Both players checked it to the 4♥ river and Lau bet 6,000,000 to receive a quick call by Martinez Gonzalez as he leaped into an even bigger lead.
Ka Kwan Lau opened to 1,500,000 with K♠K♥K♣4♣ and Sergio Martinez Gonzalez called with A♠J♠6♥3♠ to see a flop of 8♥4♥7♣.
Action checked through to the turn 8♦ and Martinez Gonzalez checked to Lau who bet 1,200,000 with his big two-pair and Martinez Gonzalez made the fold to award him the pot.
Sergio Martinez Gonzalez raised the pot to 1,500,000 and Ka Kwan Lau potted to 4,500,000. What followed was the four-bet pot by Martinez Gonzalez with a stack of 15,000,000 and Lau looked him up to create a pot of 29,500,000.
Sergio Martinez Gonzalez: A♥A♦7♠4♠
Ka Kwan Lau: A♣K♠Q♣10♠
The 10♦9♣6♥ flop gave Lau a pair and gutshot while the 9♥ turn took away some outs. Lau needed a ten or jack to seal the victory and the J♠ river secured the victory, as Lau immediately jumped to his rail from Spain to celebrate.
Martinez Gonzalez had to settle for a consolation prize of $1,418,270 while Lau finished one spot higher than in 2021, taking home the coveted WSOP gold bracelet and a top prize of $2,294,756.
The second winner of a Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller Event of the 2023 World Series of Poker has been crowned at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Out of a staggering field of 449 entries in Event #57: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, PLO specialist Ka Kwan Lau defeated Sergio Martinez Gonzalez heads up as both Spanish-speaking four-card aficionados earned the biggest slice of the $10,551,500 prize pool.
It was the biggest prize pool for a Pot-Limit Omaha live poker event in the history of the WSOP and Lau sealed the victory two years after he came up one spot shy of earning his maiden WSOP gold bracelet in the very same tournament. Known under his online moniker of "kaju85", he is one of the most-feared players in PLO tournaments on the live and online poker circuit. He was born in Spain and has a Hong Kong passport as well, but quickly became an integral part of the close-knit Spanish poker community ever since entering the live poker scene back in 2010.
Lau resides in Andorra and that's where he will be heading a few days from now because the birth of his second daughter is imminent. The four-card specialist will even skip the upcoming $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, as well as the remainder of the 2023 WSOP, to be home with his family. His return to Europe will be sweetened with the top prize of $2,294,756 and his first bracelet, while Martinez Gonzalez receives a consolation prize of $1,418,270.
Andjelko Andrejevic came into the final day as the shortest stack but laddered to third place ahead of Roger Teska and Mads Amot. All five of the finalists were competing for their maiden WSOP victory in the Horseshoe Event Center and Lau has further cemented his status as one of the best among the four-card aficionados.
Final Table Result Event #57: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller
Place
Player
Country
Prize (in USD)
1
Ka Kwan Lau
Hong Kong
$2,294,756
2
Sergio Martinez Gonzalez
Spain
$1,418,270
3
Andjelko Andrejevic
Serbia
$989,464
4
Roger Teska
United States
$701,522
5
Mads Amot
Norway
$505,588
6
Quan Zhou
China
$370,498
7
Firas Kashat
United States
$276,141
8
Jeremy Ausmus
United States
$209,392
Ka Kwan Lau and his Spanish rail
Winner's Reaction
"I feel great. It feels like I have been missing something and now it is complete ... I am very happy with that. I came here two years ago to win the bracelet. I can't really say yet how happy I am not," an overwhelmed Lau said after the frenetic celebrations with his Spanish rail were done and the winner shots had been taken care of.
Lau is arguably one of the most accomplished PLO tournament players and his strategy for success seems rather simple.
"My secret is to grind a lot. I love poker and push hard," he said with a big grin on his face.
He also competes in No-Limit Hold'em tournaments once in a while as well and has had a deep run in the 2016 WSOP Main Event where he collected $269,430 for his 20th-place finish. However, the four-card variant has very much been his bread and butter for more than a decade now.
"My game in No-Limit is very poor. I just play a couple of tournaments. When I have no games or nothing better to do, I play probably one tournament of No-Limit Hold'em," the Spaniard admitted.
With two times as many cards, he is a force to be reckoned and the number of entries in each of the PLO events has been growing by a lot during the 2023 WSOP, very much to the delight of the Spaniard.
"PLO is getting more and more popular. The number [in this event] speaks for itself. I didn't come the last year, but people told me that it is almost double the field and that is a lot. Also in the 10k, the field was up a lot. I think the game is getting more popular."
Another high-stakes event in his preferred four-card variant is just around the corner with Event #71: $50,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, which gets underway on June 30, 2023, but other PLO specialists may be relieved that Lau won't be among the participants.
"I will miss the tournament. I am waiting for my second daughter and she is going to come in a week or ten days. I think it is a great moment to come back home and be with my wife and my daughter. It is okay for this year, I will just relax and see how my daughter grows, but next year it is very probable that I will come here again with them."
Action of the Final Day
The final day recommenced with five players remaining and Lau in the driver's seat, while fellow Spanish-speaking Martinez Gonzalez was in distinct second place. Lau suffered a minor setback when Andrejevic extracted value with a full house, but he more than made up for it soon after.
In a large clash with the third-biggest stack Amot, Lau flopped an open-ended straight and flush draw against the middle set of the Norwegian. The turn was a blank, but the river brought another spade without pairing the board to vault Lau into a commanding lead.
Next to go was one of the two short stacks when Teska put his hopes on the top two pair and a gutshot. However, he was drawing very thin against the flopped wheel of Martinez Gonzalez and bricked the river to reduce the field to the final three after fewer than 90 minutes of play.
Andrejevic kept his short stack afloat with a double against Martinez Gonzalez but still had a mountain to climb for a shot at the title. The big lead of Lau was then decimated to just a handful of big blinds when Martinez Gonzalez earned value from a superior full house, which had the potential to shift the momentum.
The Serbian stuck around for a while but never pulled away from the bottom of the leaderboard by some margin. He eventually made a stand with double-suited queens against the pocket aces of Martinez Gonzalez in a preflop contest. Both players flopped a set and Andrejevic didn't catch the miracle one-outer to bow out in third place for nearly $1 million in prize money.
Heads-up play between Lau and Martinez Gonzalez started with an incredible average of 84 big blinds, as the final two contenders were separated by just two big blinds with a pay jump of more than $800k and the WSOP gold bracelet on the line. It would only take fewer than two hours to determine a winner, however, and it was Lau who came out on top.
Runner-Up Sergio Martinez Gonzalez
Martinez Gonzalez started pulling away in the first half of the heads-up duel and was just one card away from victory. His nut flush draw, however, missed and Lau doubled into a narrow lead with the nut straight. It was a pivotal turning point as Lau regained his composure after having been frustrated previously and he raked in several big pots in quick succession to jump into a commanding lead.
Ultimately, they got it in preflop with naked aces for Martinez Gonzalez against a double-suited broadway rundown of Lau and the latter rivered a straight to finish the job he missed out on two years ago in Las Vegas.
That concludes the PokerNews live reporting from this event, but several other tournaments are currently taking place in which a WSOP gold bracelet is up for grabs.
