It's been a long time coming, but Leo Zhang picked up his first Circuit ring tonight at the end of the PLO Bounty game. Zhang is one of the most formidable PLO tournament players on the local scene, a regular feature at final tables with four cards as well as two.
He won The PLO Megastack last year at the Summer Super Stack here at Deerfoot, taking down Colten Yamagishi, who was also at this final table, heads up for the title. That was just a few weeks after he and Yamagishi battled heads-up with four cards in Edmonton on the PPT with Yamagishi grabbing the title.
Tonight's win is his third live win and should come in as his third-best career score as well. With the prestige of the ring attached, however, it may well be his most memorable,
Marc Kudjick didn't quite make it as deep as he wanted to tonight, but he did manage to go better than his last time at a final table here in Calgary. In January, Kudjick came 6th in the Monster Stack, but tonight he went four spots better in the PLO Bounty game, for second place.
He was in tough during the endgame. If you were to make a list of five local players you wouldn't want to see at your PLO final table, there's a good chance that at least two of the players tonight would be on that list. When play got three ways, Kudjick was facing down Dylan Descheneaux and Leo Zhang, among the top four-card players around.
Kudjick dispatched Descheneaux in 3rd place with a flopped set of jacks, giving him the chip lead against Leo Zhang heads up. Bu Zhang proved a tougher nut to crack and while the lead flipped a few times, one of the big hands that turned things away from Kudjick happened when he flopped the low end of a straight but Zhang got there for the top end.
In the final hand, Kudjick outflopped Zhang again, hitting two pair with kins and nines against Zhang's top-top. When the river paired, however, it gave them both kings and jacks with Zhang's ace kicker playing for the win.
Tonight's runner-up was Judjick's best live score to date, both in terms of the 2nd place, as well as based on the money. The $8k score tonight almost equals his previous lifetime total, so it was certainly a good day for the man from Montreal.
The lead has see-sawed a lot during this heads up, but Leo Zhang is back on top again after a big double where he had the top end of a straight on 
while Marc Kudjick hit the bottom end and paid him off.
They are on a break now, and Leo Zhang took a slight lead right before the break He has about 3 million now compared to about 2.2 million for Marc Kudjick. Just before the break, Zhang check-shoved the turn of a 
board and after about four minutes in the tank, Kudjick folded to give Zhang the pot and the lead.
Marc Kudjick started heads up as the chip leader, but they are close to even now after Leo Zhang hit Broadway with ace-king-five-four on a board of 
.
The money went in on the flop after three-bet preflop action and Marc Kudjick's pocket jacks flopped a set against Dylan Descheneaux' ace-king-seven-three that flopped top pair with the ace. The set of jacks held for Kudjick and Descheneaux, who is a regular feature at PLO final tables in local series, had to settle for third place.
They are down to three players now after Harvey Cox shoved his big blind over an under-the-gun open from Leo Zhang. Zhang called and was looking to hit overcards with ace-seven-four-three against the six-six-seven-eight for Cox. Zhang hit his ace on the flop and took it down.
There was an error with the payout amounts in the backend as I used payouts from the wrong event. All the names have been right so far, but the prizes attached were incorrect until a couple of minutes ago. My apologies - it's either very late in the night, or very late in the series, or, you know, maybe both.
Harvey Cox just got a quadruple-up when he shoved 60k and was called by everyone. Action checked through the 
board and the aces of Cox took it down.
In the next hand, Dylan Descheneaux got his stack in with suited cards and hit clubs for a double-up against Marc Kudjick.
It's moving fast now with the field down to four as Essam Saadeddine busted out in 5th place while I was writing up the 6th place bust.
They are down to five now after Remi Monita potted early from a small stack, then called off when Leo Zhang raised enough to put him in. Both players were double suited, but the 
for Zhang was well ahead of the 
for Monita. Zhang hit his clubs this time and sent Monita to the rail in 6th place.
They are down to 6 now after Nicolas Storie ended his run tonight in 7th place for $1,476.
Jason Sorichetti's triple didn't last long as he was off to the desk to get his payout slip signed while I was writing up the previous triple-up.
Leo Zhang raised to 100k from the middle, and Remi Monita called from the small blind before Jason Sorichetti shoved for a little bit more. Both other players called to the 
flop and after a check from Monita, Zhang potted.
Monita folded, and Zhang was on a club draw against the set of ducks for Sorichetti. Zhang missed his flush again and Sorichetti got the triple.
Nicolas Storie raised early to 140, leaving himself about 50k behind. Leo Zhang called from the big blind and both players checked the 
flop. Zhang bet the 
turn to put Storie all in, and Storie snapped it off.
Zhang was on a heart draw against the turned set of tens for Storie and the river bricked Zhang's flush.
They are down to 8 remaining now after Rishi Makkar ended his day in 9th place for $1,184.
Colten Yamagishi was the first player off the final table tonight in 10th place. I missed the action, but he was kind enough to pose for a picture after getting his payout slip signed.
They are down to the final table of 10 players now after Josh Stevens bubbled the final 10. Ill grab some pictures and names for the final 10 shortly.
I had a look around at the final 11 stacks and it looks like two players are pretty close to even. On one table, Marc Kudjick has 1 million while on the other table, Leo Zhang is just a bit below that with 975k. Those look to be the big stacks in the room right now.
They are down to 11 left in the PLO Bounty game to start Level 22. 39 players get a piece of the $85,470 prize pool tonight and the prizes to 12th place are loaded into the Payouts tab already.
The remaining 11 players are on a break now and will return for Level 22 in about 10 minutes.
Entries are closed for the PLO Bounty game now with 259 entries on the board and 63 players still in action. Those numbers aren't confirmed, but if they hold, 39 players will be sharing in the $59,570 in the prize pool while the $25,900 in bounties is out there as well, though much of that is already in players' pockets.
Paul Sokoloff is running well in the early action in the PLO. I haven't been able to watch much action, but he's been over to my table a few times showing off an ever-growing stack of bounties. He's already up to 14 bounties with more than 350k in chips in front of him, so he'll be tough to beat as they get deeper into the game tonight.
There are 156 entries on the board in Level 4 of the PLO Bounty game. That puts the combined prizes at more than $50k with $15,600 in bounties and $35,880 in prizes. Entries are still open for about another 2.5 hours.
Date: May 10, 2024, 6 PM
Start Stack: 20k
Blinds: 20 Min
Late Entry: 9 Levels (~9:30 PM)
The side game for Friday night is the PLO Bounty game. They'll get underway at 6 pm tonight with a 20k start stack to play 20-minute blinds until someone owns a ring. Entries are open for 9 levels, putting the final chance to enter at about 8:30 pm tonight.
It's likely this will be a late one and I won't likely be watching it too closely until the end of the night. I plan to finish out the Flip & Go Day 2 before moving over to the Main Event to pick up the Day 1b cashers and qualifiers. Once the Main bags, I'll move back over to finish this one out, likely as they approach the final table.
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