Tom Vogelsang Proves Four-Card Prowess in PLO Grand Slam Opener
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Tom Vogelsang has been a force to be reckoned with in high-stakes No-Limit Hold'em tournaments for the past few years, traveling the European circuit to play five- and six-figure buy-ins. However, Vogelsang also knows his way around four cards, most notably winning a $25,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha tournament in 2022. Today, he added a Diamond Poker Series PLO trophy to his collection by winning the €5,200 Opener at the PLO Grand Slam, conquering a field of 225 entries on his way to victory.
Vogelsang received the Lion's share of the €1,057,500 prize pool, taking home €234,200. He bested Sean Rafael, who travelled from the United States to Arena Casino Tirana for some Omaha action, during a short and back-and-forth heads up battle. Rafael was awarded €158,100 for his runner-up finish, while Nino Pansier took home the bronze medal and the final six-figure payout of €108,800.
Other players at the final table included back-to-back final tabler Youness Barakat, 2019 WSOP Main Event winner Hossein Ensan, and PLO bracelet winner Ronald Keijzer.
€5,200 PLO Opener Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom Vogelsang | Netherlands | €234,200 |
| 2 | Sean Rafael | United States | €158,100 |
| 3 | Nino Pansier | Netherlands | €108,800 |
| 4 | Youness Barakat | Italy | €88,700 |
| 5 | Fabian Riebau-Schmithals | Germany | €70,700 |
| 6 | Hossein Ensan | Germany | €54,300 |
| 7 | Harry Casagrande | Austria | €39,600 |
| 8 | Ronald Keijzer | Netherlands | €28,700 |
| 9 | Andrew Ige | United States | €23,700 |
Winner's Reaction
"It's been a while since I've won a live tournament, so I'm really happy," Vogelsang shared after his victory. "Winning a tournament always feels like a relief to me. If you have the chip lead, it feels like your tournament to lose. So I feel relieved first, happy next."
"I think I'm better in Omaha tournaments compared to hold'em ones, relative to the field at least," Vogelsang stated when asked about his preference for one or the other. "Everyone is good in no-limit hold'em but Omaha tournaments are relatively new, a lot of people don't know a lot of stuff yet. I've been playing more PLO than hold'em for the last few years, but it's mostly online cash so it flies a bit under the radar."
It was Vogelsang's first time playing a Diamond Poker Series event, but he was assured he would be back for more. "It's amazing here, I would love to visit every series. The buy-ins are perfect, not too low, not too high, and apparently, they're easy to win since I'm one for one."
Early Day 2 Action
Long before Vogelsang's eventual victory, 42 survivors of the two starting flights took their seats at the beginning of today. With one full level of late registration to go, they were joined by 26 more entries, breaching the €1,000,000 guarantee with ease.
Diamond Poker Series ambassador Max Kruse was one of the early casualties of the day, busting shortly before the end of late registration and deciding not to fire a last shot. Soon, the likes of Bernd Gleissner, Blaz Zerjav, Joni Jouhkimainen, Tom-Aksel Bedell, and Nikolaos Lampropoulos joined him at the rail to leave 32 players remaining.
With 27 spots paid, Lautaro Guerra fell just short of the money, as did Gergo Nagy, whose elimination left the field on the stone bubble. Hand-for-hand did not last long before anonymous player "Alakazam" got his kings in against the tens of Barakat, but the latter flopped a set to burst the bubble, securing the min-cash of €10,600 for the remaining players.
Defending champion Aaron Pahlawani made the money but had to make due with a min-cash, and the same fate befell his former heads up opponent Pavel Izotov. Eventually, Espen Myrmo and "Lion King" busted almost simultaneously in 11th and tenth place to leave a final table of nine players.
Final Table
Andrew Ige started the final table near the bottom of the leaderboard and was the first to depart after bluffing off the majority of his stack. Not long thereafter, Vogelsang grabbed the tournament chip lead from Barakat, who had led from the start of the day until that point, by catching another bluff.
Pansier then landed in a dream spot when he had two players all-in while holding aces. Both Keijzer and Harry Casagrande had a pair of kings in their hands and were unable to perform a miraculous escape. Ensan was next to go, shipping his top pair into Rafael's aces, and Day 1b chipleader Fabian Riebau-Schmithals finished in fifth after getting some pay jumps with his middling stack.
Meanwhile, Barakat was looking to improve upon his third-place finish in this event from last November but could not seem to win any significant pots at the final table. Hemet his seemingly inevitable demise in fourth place after jamming his kings into Vogelsang's aces, falling one place short of equaling his previous placement. Three-handed play then lasted only for ten minutes before Pansier had his aces cracked by Vogelsang, setting up the heads up.
Vogelsang started the battle for the title with a two-to-one chip advantage, but Rafael won the majority of the early pots and took over the lead. However, Vogelsang quickly bounced back and soon had the same amount of chips he started with.
The last hand of the tournament came when Rafael three-bet aces preflop and shipped in his chips on a seemingly harmless flop. Vogelsang, however, had flopped a set of fives, leaving Rafael drawing slim. Indeed, Rafael did not hit the few outs he still had, declaring Vogelsang the champion.
