Leif Force Wins First Ever No-Limit Hold’em/PLO Event
Event #3, the first heads up no-limit Hold’em/PLO event with a $3,000 buy-in, scheduled for three days, came to an end with Leif Force finishing in first place and Jason Koon becoming the runner up. At the end of the 512 max player event – which started a day after Event #2 – Force walked away with more than $200,000 in prize money and a bracelet for winning the event. Force became the victor, when he managed to send his last competitor, Koon, to the rails in just two hours of starting the day.
All-ins build excitement at PLO table
In the No-Limit Hold’em event, the most excitement was seen during an all-in move. However, in the PLO event, there were several interesting moments. At the start of the day, Koon made it to the position of the chip lead. Once the PLO event started, his chip stack fluctuated. At a point when Koon became the short-stack, he opted to re-buy. It was then that he got a J-J, which bested Force’s Q-9. This helped him double his and shorten Force’s stack. Soon, Force doubled twice before he faced a hand where his kicker in K-5, landed him in trouble against the K-T in Koon’s hand. This drove Force to re-buy the first time in the event.
Force lands top spot – just 20 minutes into fourth level at PLO event
This way, they made it to the fourth level in the PLO event. A few hands down, Force got a number of good hands, which helped him land the top spot and the bracelet to the event, in just 20 minutes. Force was dealt a pair of eights which, along with a two pair in a later hand, helped him push his chip stack from 1.5 million to 2.5 million. Soon after, the players went all-in and Koon’s hand of A-T-9-6 was staring at the K-K-T-7 in Force’s hand. With the board giving them Q-T-J-3-T, Force’s hand trumped Koon’s. Koon then used his last rebuy chip, knowing that he was at a disadvantage of 5:1 in chips, with Force’s re-buy chip still unused.
Win marks Force’s fourth in-the-money finish
This was Force’s fourth inthe money finish at the WSOP. His first, was when he debuted at the tournament in 2006. On Day 11 of the tournament, the player for more than $1.1 million. The second win was in 2009, when he finished in tenth place at a PLO event and the third, was atthe final table of a WSOP event – PLO Hi-Lo.
In a few hands, the players were on a board that had 8-7-5, which prompted the players to go all-in. Force’s outs for a backdoor flush, overs and top pair with his A-K-J-8, bested Koon’s T-9-8-5 with an out for a two pair, when the turn brought a T and the river a Q, which helped Force complete his hand that landed him the top prize.