Event #51: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship

Brandon Shack-Harris has just won his second World Series of Poker gold bracelet.

The professional poker player from Chicago won the $10,000 buy-in 8-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, which was played over four days and three nights and concluded on the ESPN main stage at the Rio in Las Vegas.  

Shack-Harris collected a whopping $894,300 in prize money, making this the biggest win of his career.  In fact, it was his second WSOP victory in Pot-Limit Omaha.  Shack-Harris previously won the $1,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha event, in 2014. 

This marked the latest champion’s most satisfying performance.  He’s now accumulated $2.5 million in career series earnings.  Shack-Harris also has two second-place finishes and two thirds on his resume, proving once and for all he’s been one of the game’s most consistent performers since his first cash at the annual Las Vegas summer series back in 2011. 

When asked to compare this victory with his previous results, Shack-Harris pointed to this achievement as a personal and professional milestone. 

“This one meant a lot more for sure, and that’s for several reasons,” Shack-Harris said in a post-tournament interview.  “The last time was easier….and I won it because I sucked out on the last hand.  I felt really bad for the guy (I beat).  That’s not the way you want to win.  You want to get it in good.” 

Shack-Harris also noted that this tournament was much tougher than others where he’s gone deep, including his 2014 win. 

“This tournament I had really tough people on my left all the time and they would play back at me,” Shack-Harris said.  “I was having to play out of position all the time.  You have to do a weird balancing act….it was really difficult.  All my friends were with me this time, too and that’s really gratifying winning a really tough tournament.” 

Shack-Harris won his victory by coming out on top at a final table which included several players seeking their first WSOP victory, and Loren Klein, who was also hoping to win his second victory at this year’s series.  Shack-Harris knew that achieving victory would require some non-standard play on his part. 

“There are a lot really great players in this final table.  But I didn’t want to play again Loren (Klein) heads up….Loren is a really special player,” he said.  “He plays a very unorthodox style.  We played some street PLO.  He plays great.  Even the bracelet when I won, he was the chip leader in that going into Day Two.  I was reminded why he’s done so well.” 

Perhaps somewhat foreseeable, that previous final table experience really mattered.  The two former winners faced off in Day Four’s head-up battle.  When the duel began, Shack-Harris had a close to a 2 to 1 chip advantage over Klein.  It took about 90 minutes for the battle towards a second WSOP win to be decided.  

The moment of triumph came when Shack-Harris scooped the final pot of the tournament against Klein, who finished as the runner up.  Klein, from Northern Nevada, couldn’t have been too disappointed, at least financially speaking.  He pocketed $552,713 less than a week after winning the $1,500 buy-in Mixed NLHE/PLO tourney. 

This tourney attracted 400 entrants which created a prize pool totaling $3,760,000.  The top 60 finishers collected prize money. 

Aside from the winner, here’s a brief report of the other top finishers who made the final table: 

Second Place:  Loren Klein, from Verdi, NV came close to winning what would have been a second gold bracelet victory after winning Event #45 just a week earlier.  Klein overcame a decisive chip disadvantage and took the lead heads up at one point, but could not maintain the edge.  He ended up finishing in second place, which paid  $552,713.  Klein now has $1.1 million in WSOP earnings in what was his 24^th time to cash.  He’s now posted five in-the-money finishes at this series and jumped into contention in the “Player of the Year” race with another impressive finish. 

Third Place:  Tommy Le, from Tustin, CA made his second final table of the series, coming in fifth and now third.  However, this deep run sure paid off handsomely.  Le collected $376,667 in what was his tenth time to cash at the series. 

Fourth Place:  Melad Marji, from Oneida Castle, NY has posted five min-cashes before arriving at this final table, which ended up paying more than a quarter-million dollars.  Marji raked in $261,652 for finishing in fourth place. 

Fifth Place:  Matthew Parry, from Fairport, NY cashed for the second time at this series and sixth occasion overall by taking in $185,337 for fifth place. 

Sixth Place:  Harley Stoffmaker, from Cote Saint Luc, QB (Canada) had just one cash prior to this event, which was a nice run in last year’s “Millionaire Maker.”  This tournament turned out to be something slightly less than that lofty goal, but still worthy of six figures.  The only Canadian at the final table earned $133,918. 

Seventh Place:  Junayed Khan, from New York, NY cashed for the first time ever in a WSOP event by coming in seventh place in this tournament.  He received $98,748. 

Eighth Place:  Dominique Mosley, a former poker dealer from Miami, FL had six min-cashes coming into this tournament.  He made his first final table and although he busted out early, Mosley still raked in a nice payout totaling $74,339. 

Brandon Shack-Harris opens the button to 500,000, and Loren Klein three-bets to 1,500,000 from the big blind. Shack-Harris calls.

The flop is    . Klein pots for 3,000,000, leaving just 800,000 behind. Shack-Harris spends about two minutes considering, then surrenders his cards into the muck. "Close," he says.

"Nines?" Klein asks with a smile.

The next hand, Klein opens the button to 500,000, and Shack-Harris defends his big blind. Both players check through the     flop, and the turn is the  . Shack-Harris leads for 400,000, Klein raises to 1,400,000, and Shack-Harris folds. Klein wins the pot, refusing to go down without a serious fight in this match.

Loren Klein - 7,700,000 (32 bb)
Brandon Shack-Harris - 12,300,000 (51 bb)

Loren Klein (pictured) has come tantalizingly close to taking the chip lead on a couple different occasions, but he's so far been unable to leapfrog ahead of Brandon Shack-Harris. Here's a series of three consecutive hands in which he gets close once again:

On the first hand, Klein opens the button to 500,000, and Shack-Harris defends his big blind. The flop is    . Shack-Harris checks, Klein bets 400,000, and Shack-Harris folds. Stacking up that pot, Klein has 9,900,000 of the 20,005,000 chips in play.

The next hand, Shack-Harris limps the button, and Klein checks his option in the big blind. Both players check through the     flop, and the turn is the  . Klein bets 300,000, and Shack-Harris calls. The river is the  . Klein checks, Shack-Harris bets 400,000, and Klein folds. Shack-Harris wins the pot to protect his narrow chip lead.

One hand later, Klein has another shot. He opens the button to 500,000, and Shack-Harris defends his big blind. The flop is    . Shack-Harris checks, Klein bets 600,000, and Shack-Harris calls. The turn is the  , and Shack-Harris leads for 1,200,000. Klein folds, and he's still yet to have his hands on the big stack during this back-and-forth duel.

Brandon Shack-Harris - 11,780,000 (49 bb)
Loren Klein - 8,225,000 (34 bb)

Brandon Shack-Harris limps the button, and Loren Klein checks his option in the big blind.

The flop is    . Klein bets 300,000, and Shack-Harris calls. The turn is the  , and Shack-Harris checks. The action is not on him yet, though.

"Oh, shit," he says. "I checked out of turn. Is that binding?" He is informed that his action will stand if Klein checks.

"Angle?" Klein asks with a smirk. Shack-Harris apologizes, and Klein laughs it off as he checks.

Both players check through the   river, as well. Shack-Harris appears to be prepared to concede his hand until Klein announces, "Jack-high." Shack-Harris shows     , winning the pot with a pair of treys. He apologizes again for his out-of-turn action as the chips are pushed in his direction.

Brandon Shack-Harris - 12,655,000 (53 bb)
Loren Klein - 7,350,000 (31 bb)

The two finalists are on a 15-minute break. Here's how they'll stack up when they return to 120,000/240,000 blinds: