Cesar Garcia Wins PGT PLO Championship for $420,000
Garcia overcame a heads-up deficit against Robert Cowen to claim his first PokerGO Tour title in the 48-entry series finale.
Cesar Garcia won the $26,000 PGT PLO Series Championship for $420,000, closing the eight-event festival with his first PokerGO Tour title. The Spanish pro defeated Robert Cowen heads-up in a 48-entry pot-limit Omaha finale that generated a $1.2 million prize pool.
Garcia collected 252 PGT points and finished third in the Player of the Series race. The win also earned him 420 Card Player Player of the Year points and lifted his recorded live-tournament earnings to about $5.7 million.
Twelve players returned for the final day, with only the top seven paid. Alex Livingston was the bubble, eliminated in eighth when Youness Barakat flopped trip deuces. Garcia and Barakat then began the final table essentially level atop the counts, each holding more than three times the chips of any other remaining player.
Barakat later lost a full-house pot to Garcia and doubled both Matthew Wantman and Cowen before exiting fifth for $96,000. Wantman, who had started the day 11th of 12, climbed to third place for $174,000. Lautaro Guerra finished fourth for $126,000, while Sean Rafael and Brevin Andreadis received $72,000 and $48,000 respectively.
Cowen took two big pots from Garcia and briefly built nearly a 2:1 lead in heads-up play. Garcia turned the match around when he made a nut flush on the river against Cowen’s set of aces, leaving him with 10.3 million chips to Cowen’s 1.7 million. On the final hand, Cowen flopped a queen-high straight, but Garcia turned a king-high straight and improved to Broadway on the river to seal the title.
Cowen earned $264,000 for second, his second runner-up finish of the series, and moved to 63rd on the season-long PGT leaderboard. Garcia added the championship trophy to a résumé that already included a World Series of Poker bracelet and a $1.2 million Onyx High Roller Series victory.
Jonas Kronwitter won the overall PGT PLO Series standings and a $10,000 PGT Passport after recording two wins and a runner-up finish. Kronwitter, who won Event No. 5 as covered earlier this week, and Sam Soverel, also a two-time series winner, finished ahead of Garcia in the points race.
