Daniyal Iqbal Wins Record-Breaking PokerGo Tour PLO Event

The PokerGo Tour set a new attendance record over the weekend, and for once it wasn’t a Texas Hold’em tournament that drew the crowds.

Daniyal Iqbal, an engineer from the USA, has beaten some of poker’s best players in a record-breaking event of the PokerGo Tour PLO Series. (Image: PokerGo)

PokerGo has grown into the go-to place for streaming and video content since launching in 2017, but over the past two years has been equally revered for its live events.

The PokerGo Tour (PGT) kicked off in 2021 and on March 11th kicked off its first Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) Festival. The pros were in great numbers, but it was amateur poker player Daniyal Iqbal who won the opening event for a $5,000 buy-in

Players love Pot Limit Omaha

The PGT PLO series follows another innovation, the Mixed Game Festival, which took place in February. The prospect of playing Omaha instead of Texas Hold’em was clearly appealing to many poker pros as the opening event drew 200 participants.

Of these, 140 were unique buy-ins. Those are record numbers for a tournament owned and operated solely by the PokerGo Tour. With new records for the number of total and unique entries, attention soon turned to the prize pool.

There was $1 million up for grabs over the weekend. The prize pool and the fact that familiar faces like David Williams, Jeff Madsen and Ethan “Rampage” Yu made it to Day 2 ensured it was going to be an entertaining finale.

When the finals kicked off at PokerGo’s Las Vegas studio on Sunday, it didn’t disappoint. The above names put on strong performances, as did one of the best PLO players in the world, Eelis Parssinen. However, when the betting ended, Daniyal Iqbal emerged victorious.

Result of PokerGo Tour PLO Series Event #1

1. Daniyal Iqbal – $160,000
2. Rousso’s Koliakoudakis – $120,000
3. Stanislav Halatenko – $90,000
4. Eelis Parssinen – $70,000
5. Peng Zheng – $60,000
6. Jeff Madsen – $50,000
7. Sean Troha – $40,000
8. Ethan Yau – $40,000
9. David Williams – $30,000

Unlike his final table opponents, Iqbal doesn’t play poker full-time. By day he is an engineer. However, in his spare time he plays poker, including PLO cash games. What he lacked in experience, Iqbal made up for in patience and timing.

Amateur beats pros in PokerGo Tour PLO opener

He started Day 2 with the chip lead but had to bide his time after losing late in the finals. This strategy served Iqbal well as he soon regained the lead after hitting a set to eliminate Parssinen in fourth place.

From then on he never looked back. After defeating Stanislav Halatenko and Roussos Koliakoudakis, Iqbal won his first PokerGo Tour trophy. Not only that, he raked in $160,000, which is the biggest win of his career.

Beating a record-breaking field is impressive, as is the fact that Iqbal had to face off against some of the best PLO players in the world. More impressively, however, Iqbal’s win was a mic-drop moment.

Though he plans to play a few more PokerGo Tour PLO Series events, he won’t be staying long due to work. So Iqbal won a record-breaking PokerGo Tour event like a boss and walked away with his trophy and pocket full of cash.

Written by

Daniel Schmidt

Dan Smyth is a fellow in the poker media who politely reminds CardsChat readers that poker is played all over the world, not just in America.