Jerry Li Bags Big in the Spring Super Stack Main Event

Friday was all about the opening flight of the Main Event, and it was a pretty decent showing. Double-ring and bracelet winner Jerry Li took down the lead from the opening flight at the end of the night, with more than $150k already in the prize pool.

But Friday wasn’t exclusively a big two-card affair. Across the room, the PLO Bounty game played out with almost 100 entries and more than $26k in combined prizes.

Day 1a of the Main Event Goes to Jerry Li

The opening flight to the Big Show played out on Friday with 122 entries recorded by the time the desk closed at 9:30 pm. That left three levels to play with 36 players still alive.

There might have been an early end to the night if they’d played down to 12 players, but at the end of Level 15, there were still 20 players left with chips. That means Day 2 will return with at least 8 players outside the money spots, but it seems likely Day 1b will also go the distance and finish with more than 10%, so there will almost certainly be 10-20 players returning on Sunday and going home empty-handed.

With 20 bags in the vault, Jerry Li was the big bag. He bagged more than 650k, almost 200k above the second stack of Saeed Ganji. Li is no stranger to big wins here at Deerfoot, as he’s picked up two PLO rings at WSOP-C events in the past few years, and he clearly knows the two-card game just as well.

One interesting storyline from the end of the night saw Alberta’s power-poker couple go head-to-head in a huge pot. Thomas and Haven Taylor are regulars on the local and global poker scene, with Thomas playing some of the biggest mixed games on the planet and very much holding his own. Haven isn’t just a “poker wife”, though — she’s held the title of Best Female Player in Alberta for two years running in the Alberta Poker Index standings, and they are both devoted to the game.

As the bubble approached tonight, they were also seated at the same table. Married or not, they are both poker players first and foremost, and as it happened tonight, they found themselves in a pretty big cooler. Thomas opened and Haven shoved a small-ish stack from late position.

As Haven said, with a smile, “He almost beat me into the pot.” It was a big flip for all of Haven’s chips with her fives needing to hold against the big slick of her husband. It wasn’t to be for her tonight, and Thomas stacked her chips to bag a respectable stack of nearly 300k for Day 2. No doubt, Haven will be back for another kick at the can tomorrow, and at least she won’t have to worry about getting busted near the bubble by her hubby.

Three-Way Deal Ends PLO Bounty

The side game on Friday evening was the PLO Bounty. It ran for about 8 hours with 93 entries for a combined prize pool of $26.5k.

It might have gone longer, but the final three players decided to chop it up and end the game after they came back from the break following Level 21. That was after a fairly stacked final table that saw some crazy action to start.

In addition to the top three of Hoshang Sarwari, Richard Kosterman, and Viet Do, the final table included four-card regulars like Red Deer’s Darrell Moore and Calgary’s Gerry Edwards, as well as the 4th place finisher from Thursday’s PLO Megastack, Arnel Alontave (he got 4th again here tonight). The 2024 Hendon Mob Flag Hunter champ for 2024, Dominick French, was also in the final nine tonight.

In the end, the final three agreed to a deal that saw chip leader Sarwari earn $4,250, Richard Kosterman pocket $3,725, and Viet Do take $3,382 for their respective finishes.

Place	Player	Prize
1	Hoshang Sarwary	$4,250
2	Richard Kosterman	$3,725
3	Viet Do	$3,382
4	Arnulfo Alontave	$1,720
5	Brenton Pilling	$1,204
6	Dominick French	$860
7	Darrell Moore	$774
8	Marcio Kondo	$688
9	Gerry Edwards	$602