An ultra-high-stakes pot-limit Omaha tournament came to an unusual end on Thursday, Aug. 21 at the Merit Crystal Cove Hotel.
The Onyx Super High Roller Series $100,000 buy-in PLO invitational concluded after a three-way deal, which is a fairly common result. What made this particular agreement noteworthy, though, outside of the massive stakes and the two top-flight Omaha specialists involved, was that the final terms of the deal were expressly not released.
Live updates from the event said simply that the players involved would keep the details of the deal between themselves. The eventual champion seems to be a player that requested anonymity. They went by a nickname throughout the coverage of the tournament.
Finland’s Samuli Sipila apparently finished second, while Spain’s Lautaro Guerra placed third. There was more than $4.2 million still to be awarded when the deal was struck.
The top three payouts were originally listed as follows:
- 1st – $1,923,000
- 2nd- $1,340,000
- 3rd – $950,000
Guerra was the shortest stack at the time the deal was made with 18,100,000, while Sipila had 27,400,000 and the anonymous chip leader had 33,900,000.
This tournament drew 79 total entries, which resulted in a prize pool of nearly $7.7 million.
While their exact payouts in this are unknown, Sipila is likely approaching $5 million in career earnings after this deep run. He came into this event with more than $3.8 million in prior cashes, including two Triton Poker PLO titles and a pair of PGT PLO Series wins.
Guerra has almost assuredly taken the lead on the PLO money list thanks to his performance in this event. He already boasted $7,726,651 in career cashes in PLO tournaments, which trails only Eelis Parssinen and Ben Tollerene, who both have more than $7.8 million. All but three of Guerra’s 60 live cashes have come in four-card events. His top career payday is the $2.1 million that came with his win in the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise $100,000 PLO high roller. His largest non-PLO score is for $450,000. He earned that sum with a 15th-place showing in this year’s WSOP main event.
Action From The Final Day
The money burst on the penultimate day of action, with Biao Ding (13th), 2025 Poker Hall of Fame inductee Nick Schulman (11th), and 11-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey (10th) among those who cashed but fell before play concluded.
The final table began with the anonymous player out in front and Cong Pham in second chip position. Sergei Nesterenko (9th) was the first to fall, with two-time bracelet winner Ben Lamb (8th) soon following him to the rail. Robert Cowen ran into the pocket aces of Laszlo Bujtas to finish seventh. The two-time bracelet winner from the UK earned $370,000 for his efforts.
Denmark’s Martin Dam (6th) was sent packing by Sipila, who made the nut flush on the turn to leave Dam drawing dead. Dam added $450,000 to his career haul with this deep run.
Bujtas got the last of his stack in with K♦K♦4♦3♣ leading the Q♦Q♣10♠9♣ of Sipila. The board ran out J♦10♥9♠Q♠J♣ and Sipila made queens full to narrow the field to four. Bujtas took home $565,000 as the fifth-place finisher.
Pham’s pocket queens didn’t fare as well. He got all-in with Q♥Q♦J♦3♥ facing A♣K♥8♥8♣ for Guerra. The 7♥5♥5♣ flop and J♠ turn were safe for Pham, but the A♦ river gave his opponent aces and fives for the win. Pham secured a career-best score of $725,000 as the fourth-place finisher.
Soon after that, play was halted to hash out the details of the agreement that brought the tournament to a close.
Final Table Payouts (That We Know Of)
| Place | Player | Payout |
| 4 | Cong Pham | $725,000 |
| 5 | Laszlo Bujtas | $565,000 |
| 6 | Martin Dam | $450,000 |
| 7 | Robert Cowen | $370,000 |
| 8 | Ben Lamb | $305,000 |
| 9 | Sergei Nesterenko | $255,000 |
Photo credits: Merit Poker.
