It may seem like the PokerGO Tour has just gotten finished with an event…and that would be because they just did! Only two weeks ago, the PGT wrapped the 2025 Poker Masters, and on Wednesday, they started their semi-annual festivities regarding Omaha Hold’em in the PLO Series II. It has been a case of the “rich getting richer” through the first two events, with two men high on the PGT Championship standings, Jesse Lonis and Alex Foxen, taking down the first two tournaments on the schedule.
Lonis Draws First Blood
The PGT PLO Series II is a semiannual celebration of the game of Omaha Hold’em, and it usually draws some names that we do not hear much of on the tournament circuit. For the PGT PLO Series II, the first two tournaments with a $5,000 buy-in each saw some more familiar names in the mix. The final table for Event #1 saw a plethora of star-studded faces, and it seemed they wanted to get the job done quickly on Wednesday afternoon.
David ‘Chino’ Rheem, who has a couple of the PLO Series titles in his pocket, was the chip leader to start the day from the 146 original entries, but Lonis came charging out of the gate looking to challenge him. Isaac Haxton was the first one to knock off a player, however, taking down Anthony Hu in sixth place when Hu’s Q-J-J-10 failed to connect strongly enough with an A-7-6-3-Q board to defeat the dominant A-A-K-3 of Haxton.
From there, it was Lonis who went on a rampage. After seeing an 8-3-9 flop, Haxton committed the remainder of his chips, and Lonis looked him up:
Lonis: A-4-3-3
Haxton: A-J-J-5
The trey on the flop switched the fortunes of the two gentlemen, moving Lonis into the lead and Haxton into the hunt for a Jack to change the game. Alas, the case trey came on the turn to give Lonis quads and render Haxton drawing dead. Haxton was out in fifth place and on the way to the next tournament in the PGT PLO Series II before the final card hit the felt, an insignificant Ace.
Lonis now held the lead, and he would not let it go. From start to finish, the Event #1 final table took just over an hour, as Lonis laid waste to Artem Maksimov, Josh Arieh, and finally Rheem to finish the tournament. On the final hand Rheem, with scraps in the pot, saw his J♣ 9♣ 2-A fail to top the K♣ 3♣ 10-9 of Lonis when a monochrome flop of A♣ 7♣ 6♣ decided the championship in favor of Lonis.
1. Jesse Lonis, $175,000 (175 PLO Series II points)
2. David ‘Chino’ Rheem, $106,000 (106)
3. Josh Arieh, $106,600 (107)
4. Artem Maksimov, $58,400 (58)
5. Isaac Haxton, $43,800 (44)
6. Anthony Hu, $36,500 (37)
Foxen Extends PGT Championship Lead
Not to be outdone, Alex Foxen accepted the challenge of fellow PGT Leaderboard member Lonis. He came to the final table of Event #2, another $5,000 PLO tournament, with the chip lead, and save for a fleeting period, he was never touched on his way to his eleventh PGT championship.
Thursday’s action saw Foxen come back with three other competitors left in the battle for the PGT trophy. As it was a bounty tournament, Foxen already had nine bounties in his pocket to earn $72,000, but he wanted more. The players arranged against him, Mike Wang, LaDarren Banks, and Kamel Mokhammad, seemed powerless against Foxen as he marched through them.
Although Wang would momentarily eclipse Foxen about forty minutes into the battle (and after knocking out Mokhammad in fourth), that was only like waving a red cape in front of a charging bull. Foxen proceeded to take a load of chips off Banks to move back into the chip lead and, from there, took down Banks to move to heads-up action against Wang. With a 4:1 lead over Wang, it only took thirty minutes for Foxen’s 10-10-9-8 to outrun Wang’s K-K-Q-5 on a J-9-2-4-Q board, with Foxen’s Queen high straight beating Wang’s pocket Kings.
1. Alex Foxen, $87,000 first prize payday/$90,000 bounties (144 PLO Series II points)
2. Michael Wang, $60,000/$24,000 (100)
3. LaDarren Banks, $44,000/$16,000 (73)
4. Kamel Mokhammad, $32,000/$0 (53)
5. Joe Serock, $24,000/$16,000 (40)*
6. Christopher Hannel, $20,000/$0 (33)*
7. Dan Shak, $16,000/$8,000 (27)*
* – defeated on Day One on Wednesday, part of official final table
There are still eight more tournaments on the roster, culminating in the $25,000 PLO Championship that will begin on October 24. Even though their concentration is on this current series, Foxen has extended his overall lead in the PGT Championship race over World Champion Michael Mizrachi. At the same time, Lonis punches his way into the PGT Championship Top Ten with his finish. These two and the remainder of the players have their focus set on the PGT PLO Series II battles, however.
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