Keith Lehr shipped the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Poker Masters event for $333,000 on Monday at the PokerGo Studio on the Las Vegas Strip, while Brandon Adams finished in 5th place ($74,000), his third final table appearance in as many events.
Is Everyone Else Playing for Second?
Adams has been the star of this Las Vegas show throughout the first few days of the 2018 Poker Masters. The Harvard economics lecturer has a 4th, 1st, and 5th-place finish in the first three of seven scheduled events.
With the 90 points he earned in Monday’s PLO tournament, he now has 510 for the series — 210 more than David Peters and Keith Lehr — both of whom earned 300 points each for winning Events #1 and #3, respectively.
The player who accumulates the most points over the course of the seven events wins a coveted purple jacket. Adams’ performance the past few days has been reminiscent of 2017 purple jacket winner Steffen Sontheimer — aka “Goose” — at last year’s Poker Masters.
“Goose” ran loose all over the competition for a week last fall, winning two events and final tabling another. He cashed for over $2.7 million during the series.
This week, it’s been all Brandon Adams, a former Full Tilt pro and long-time high stakes grinder. He has $543,000 in cashes this series. Subtracting the $62,500 in buy-ins, that’s a $480,500 profit.
Adams is likely one more deep run away from putting a stranglehold on the purple jacket. He doesn’t have the Poker Masters championship locked up, yet. But it’s now his ballgame to lose.
Lucky River Propels Keith Lehr to Victory
Some days, the river crushes your hopes and dreams. Other days, it puts food on your table. Lehr, who hails from Louisiana, got a lucky diamond on the river to defeat Jonathan Depa heads-up for the Event #3, $25,000 PLO title for $333,000.
Depa, a PLO specialist, had turned a set and moved all-in against Lehr’s 12-outer, which hit on the river. The bad beat left the eventual runner-up with less than one big blind. That was, for all intents and purposes, the final hand of the tournament.
Lehr won his first tournament since a $25,000 Aria High Roller in 2015 ($300,000). He’s a two-time WSOP bracelet winner (2003 and 2015) and now a Poker Masters PLO champion.
He now has over $3.2 million in lifetime tournament earnings, most in no-limit hold’em. In this event, however, he conquered the “great game of pot-limit Omaha,” as podcaster Joey Ingram likes to say.
Poker Masters Event #3, $25,000 PLO Final Table Results
- Keith Lehr ($333,000) 300 points
- Jonathan Depa ($222,000) 210 points
- Ben Yu ($148,000) 150 points
- Isaac Haxton ($92,500) 120 points
- Brandon Adams ($74,000) 90 points
- Dan Shak ($55,500) 60 points
Event #4, $10,500 Short Deck Hold’em played down to its final table which will conclude on Tuesday. During that final table, Event #5, $26,000 No-Limit Hold’em will begin.
We’ve already penciled Brandon Adams into the final in at least one of those events.
