Allen Shen defeats Daniel Negreanu to win the PGT PLO $5,000 bounty event

Allen Shen won his first live poker tournament title in style, defeating Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu heads-up to emerge victorious in 2023 PGT PLO series $5,000 Bounty Event.

Shen, a pot-limit Omaha specialist, earned $91,290 from the main prize pool as the champion, along with $36,000 in additional payouts thanks to 18 bounties. That was the highest tournament score on record for the Toronto native, who surpassed his $20,000 cash for a 13th place finish in the same series’ kickoff event and the $14,049 he won for winning one WSOP online circuit Pot Limit Omaha event last December.

In addition to the title and money, Shen also earned 624 POY points and 91 PGT points for victory. Negreanu, Canada’s all-time money leader with more than $49.7 million in lifetime cash, secured $69,810 and $70 PGT Points as runner-up. This was already his eighth Cash in a PokerGO Tour event in 2023. He is now fourth this season with 396 points and more than half a million in earnings PGT leaderboard.

Shen bagged the majority of his bounties during the day 1 action in PokerGO Studio within the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas. Of his total of 18 bounties, 16 were secured on day one.

“It’s interesting because it’s so much more important to bounties and it doesn’t matter when you’re later in the tournament,” Shen said PokerGO Reporter. “I really jeopardized it in the first few levels by only taking negative chip EV spots. hunting bonuses.”

His approach meant he had a huge lead at the end of the day with 9,495,000. Negreanu held the next largest stack with 5,460,000. The knockouts began when Ky Nguyen defeated Nathan Zimnik (6th – $26,850). Despite earning that first elimination, Nguyen was the next to fall as he ran into the corner of Negreanu with a top set. Nguyen took home $32,220 for fifth place.

Negreanu continued to rally thanks to winning a big all-in with pocket queens against Isaac Kempton’s pocket jacks (4th – $37,590). He then went all-in with a turn straight that faced bracelet winner Joseph Cheong’s flush draw and straight chip outs. The river brought a brick and Cheong was sent home with $53,700.

The heads-up play started with relatively tight stacks. The lead changed hands a few times, with Shen capitalizing on the crucial advantage when his pocket aces improved to a set after chips came in on the flop and Negreanu held two pair. Negreanu found a double up but was soon all in and threatened again after a flop of J52. Shen held J543 for top two pair, a flush draw, and an open-ended straight draw. Negreanu held AA108th for an opposite pair. The A The turn gave Negreanu the best set while also improving Shjen to a flush. The Q failed to pair the board and Negreanu was eliminated in second place.

The 520th card player The Player of the Year points Negreanu earned for his second place finish were enough to put him in the top 50 in 2023 POY Race classification presented by Global Poker. Negreanu made a strong start to his campaign to earn a third place finish POY Award, having secured the honor in both 2004 and 2013.

Here’s a look at the payouts and leaderboard points awarded at the final table:

Copyright: PokerGO Tour / Antonio Abrego.