Cesar Garcia, Artur Vyborov Thrive As PLO Takes Onyx Center Stage

The first Onyx High Roller Series of 2026 has taken over North Cyprus. Across two weeks of high-stakes tournament action at the Merit Royal Diamond Casino & Spa, there have been a multitude of highlights and millions of dollars won across more than a dozen tournaments.

Early on, Jean-Robert Bellande picked up a cool $1.5 million in a single event. Omar Ladva, Matthias Eibinger, and Alex Kulev joined in the winning ways in the days that followed.

As the festival nears its end, the focus turns towards pot-limit Omaha. Among the headline PLO events of this Onyx High Roller Series were a pair of multi-day tournaments with significant guarantees.

A $10,4000 PLO event opened the second half of the schedule, followed by a four-day, $50,500 buy-in PLO tournament. Combined, the two tournaments generated almost $7 million in prize money.

$10,400 Pot-Limit Omaha

Artur Vyborov of Russia came close to PLO glory back in September 2024. In a $5,000 online PLO event, Vyborov fell two spots short of his first career World Series of Poker bracelet.

This time around, in the Onyx High Roller Series, a breakout signature victory was realized. Vyborov outlasted a field of 232 entrants to win the opening PLO event of the festival, claiming a $450,000 first-place prize and 960 Card Player Player of the Year points towards the year-long race presented by CoinPoker.

“Today, I think there won’t be any celebration,” Vyborov told PokerNews reporters following his long road to victory. “I’ll just go to sleep, and all the celebration will be tomorrow.”

After three starting flights, 35 players advanced to the final day of action in this $2 million guaranteed tournament. The returning field included eight WSOP bracelet winners and two EPT main event winners, and Jeremy Trojand of Germany held the overall lead.

By the time a final table of nine was reached, a number of hours later, WSOP PLO bracelet winners Joni Jouhkimainen and Tom Vogelsang, and 2025 EPT Barcelona main event winner Thomas Eychenne stood out among the rest. They were three of the first four players at the final table to hit the rail.

As some of the heaviest hitters were sent packing, Vyborov bided his time. Aren Bezhanyan eliminated both Vogelsang (9th – $48,800) and Jouhkimainen (8th – $57,000) to pad his lead. During seven-handed play, Vyborov got all in on an A♥J♣7♣6♥ board with A♦J♠9♠5♦, against Bezhanyan’s A♠K♥Q♥3♥. Vyborov’s top two pair held, and briefly elevated his chances. Losing to a five-outer for Trojand on the river a short time thereafter sent Vyborov tumbling back down the counts, though.

Vyborov Strikes First

Quan Zhou of China, a Triton champion and regular on the high roller scene, dispatched Eychenne in sixth place ($85,000) when pocket aces managed to hold through an entire runout.

Laszlo Bujtas, the winningest tournament poker player in the history of Hungary, was next in fifth place ($115,000). He’d soon return with another final table appearance, though, making back-to-back runs in PLO events.

Vyborov ultimately got his revenge on Trojand in a massive spot. The last of his chips went in on the turn of a 6♣5♥3♥A♠ board, with Vyborov holding J♠7♦6♥3♠. His two pair tailed Trojand’s 10♣6♠5♣4♠, but the J♣ river made Vyborov’s two pair strongest. That pot crippled Trojand’s stack, and those remaining chips also made it into Vyborov’s stack when he eliminated Trojand in fourth place ($160,000).

Zhou’s last few chips also found their way into Vyborov’s stack, in a three-way pot that was checked down after Zhou’s stack was committed on the flop. Zhou earned $225,000 as the third-place finisher after Vyborov won with queens up. Vyborov held an almost 4:1 lead to start heads-up play, and the battle didn’t last long.

Bezhanyan got all in in a solid spot, holding A♠K♣Q♠2♠ against Vyborov’s K♦Q♣8♠6♦. Both players flopped straight draws on a J♣10♣10♦ board, but Vyborov found diamonds on the turn and river to secure the pot and the title. Bezhanyan settled for $312,000.

Final Table Results

$50,500 Pot-Limit Omaha

Spain’s Cesar Garcia enjoyed his first taste of poker’s brightest spotlight all the way back in 2016, when he won a WSOP bracelet. His standing in the high-stakes tournament world took a major step forward in 2025, with an EPT Monte Carlo PLO high roller win and a first career Triton final table in Jeju.

All of those results pale in comparison to Garcia’s accomplishment in North Cyprus. He took down the $50,500 buy-in, $5 million guaranteed PLO event at this festival, claiming $1.2 million and his first career seven-figure result. It was a dominant performance, as he carried the chip lead from the start of the final day through the finale, dispatching several other PLO heavy hitters along the way.

VENI, VIDI, VICI – GARCIA CONQUERS THE PLO GRAND SLAM 🏆

They called him Caesar. And like his namesake, Cesar Garcia came, saw, and conquered.

The Spaniard didn’t just win the $50.500 PLO Grand Slam, he dominated it. Leading from start to finish, Garcia controlled the final… pic.twitter.com/2l0DppBRzE

— Merit Poker (@meritpokerlive) February 11, 2026

“It means a lot,” Garcia told PokerNews reporters. “Right now it feels super tired, because of it being a long journey. I came as chip leader to the final table. I ran very well in the tournament. So it’s like a dream. It’s my biggest score, and right now I’m super happy.”

In all, 98 entrants participated in this particular Onyx event.

Garcia’s Freight Train Let Loose

Fifteen players reached the money on day 2 of the tournament. Action carried the field all the way down to the final seven players. Rob Yong went out in ninth place ($160,000), followed by Laszlo Bujtas in eighth ($160,000). It was the second of back-to-back final tables for Bujtas, and his eighth-place performance in this event was actually worth more than his fifth-place finish earlier in the festival.

At the start of the third and final day, Garcia had more than 40 percent of the total chips in play. He earned the first elimination at the expense of Espen Myrmo (7th – $210,000). The Norwegian winner of a €25,000 pot-limit Omaha high roller at EPT Barcelona in 2025 ran head-first into a flopped set of sevens from Garcia.

The second elimination also belonged to Garcia. Australian Danielle Noja (6th – $265,000) called off his chips with A♣Q♥J♠10♠, and looked down to see Garcia’s A♥A♦Q♣7♣. Noja flopped a pair and open-ended straight draw, but Garcia’s pair of aces ultimately held through the river.

Garcia then made quad threes in a big pot, but his momentum was briefly stalled when Gruffudd Pugh-Jones found a pair of double-ups. Pugh-Jones then doubled through Dutch player Nino Pansier, making himself one of the primary challengers to Garcia’s supremacy. Garcia soon made it three straight eliminations, though, when he took Pansier’s (5th – $340,000) few remaining chips.

Pugh-Jones’ comeback story hit another high in a nearly 100 big blind pot. Pugh-Jones rivered a jack-high straight in the all-in confrontation to take the pot, pulling well within range of Garcia and his chip lead in the process.

A Moment Of Doubt, Before Glory

After an extended period of four-handed play, Filip Aleksic finally stopped Garcia’s streak of eliminations. Aleksic picked off PLO standout Sean Rafael in fourth place ($430,000), turning two pair, eights and threes, to outrun Rafael’s flopped top pair of nines.

Pugh-Jones then flopped trip eights and called a bluffing Aleksic down, leaving him with a fraction of a big blind. He took the last of Aleksic’s  (3rd – $555,000) chips with a flopped trip jacks a few hands later.

Heads-up play started with Garcia on 27.3 million, while Pugh-Jones had 21.3 million. Pugh-Jones wrested the chip lead from Garcia for the first time at the final table during heads-up play. He also managed to fade a serious freeroll from Garcia, with both players turning a straight and getting all in. Garcia’s heart flush draw failed to come in on the river.

Garcia reclaimed the lead, only for a flopped straight to give Pugh-Jones a 2:1 advantage in short order. Garcia doubled into a 3.8:1 lead when he flopped a set of fives and bet it all the way to the end, shoving all in on the river. Pugh-Jones called with naked aces to see the tables turn yet again.

While Pugh-Jones held on for a lengthy stretch after that, he never pulled back into the match. The last of his chips went in on the turn of a Q♣10♠5♦4♠ board, with Pugh-Jones tabling A♦J♦5♣2♠ for a pair and a couple of gutshot straight draws. Garcia had two separate open-ended straight draws with K♣J♠7♥6♣, and the seven-high straight came in on the 3♥ river to finish off the tournament. Garcia’s win came with 918 POY points.

Pugh-Jones secured $840,000 as the second-place finisher, a new personal-best for the PLO pro from the UK.

Final Table Results