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Scott Abrams is the winner of Event #6: $10,300 Dealer's Choice at the PGT Mixed Games series. Abrams returned for Day 2 to face off with Ben Lamb for the Event #6 title. After trading blows in variants of Omaha, a hot streak in Badeucey secured Abrams the win and the $179,200 first-place prize.
A constant in mixed tournaments at the World Series of Poker, Abrams has cashed 33 times. Only four of those have been in No-Limit Hold'em events, and from six final tables, Abrams' best finish is a runner-up finish last year in the $1,500 Mixed PLO. Abrams, however, has never secured a live tournament victory until he shook that monkey off his back in Event #6.
"I have a second, a third, and a couple of fifths. I thought it might be a while before I get a first," Abrams said on getting his first-ever victory. "But now it's good to have it. It's done. I'm very happy with it."
Lamb is regarded as an expert in Pot-Limit Omaha, and was probably surprised when Abrams chose a fellow Omaha variant in Big O.
"I definitely have experience in Big O," Abrams said on his first game choice of the heads-up match. "Honestly, it's a respectful play to Ben because I know Ben is choosing PLO, and I know very deep that Ben has an advantage over me in heads-up PLO. My thought was that I want to play a very high-variance game where a lot of chips can go in. If I play small limit games like Stud-8, where we're just trading small chips back and forth, we're going to play a lot of hands where I'm really deep with Ben, and that's not good for me. Basically, it's a play to almost increase luck into the tournament because Ben is such a strong player."
When Abrams isn't grinding a full schedule of mixed games at the WSOP, he can be found in cash games around Las Vegas. The PGT Mixed Games series was built for players such as Abrams and will likely be a staple on the tournament schedule in the future.
"I saw this tournament series announced and thought that it looked interesting," Abrams said about PGT Mixed Games. It's probably going to be a lot of high-stakes crushers. I don't know if I'm very good at those tournaments against high-stakes crushers, but I also wanted there to be more mixed-game tournaments. So let's go play, let's break even, maybe have a tiny edge, and then make it work. And then I won a tournament."
Abrams' first career live tournament victory was also his first PGT Mixed Games cash. Abrams now moves into seventh place on the PGT Mixed Games leaderboard with 179 PGT points and two events remaining on the schedule including the Event #7: $25,500 10-Game Championship and Event #8: $5,300 No-Limit 2-7 Single Draw. At the end of the series, the player with the most PGT points will be crowned series champion and win the $25,000 championship bonus.
Place | Player | Country | Prize | Points |
1st | Scott Abrams | United States | $179,200 | 179 |
2nd | Ben Lamb | United States | $117,600 | 118 |
3rd | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | $78,400 | 78 |
4th | Nick Schulman | United States | $56,000 | 56 |
5th | John Monnette | United States | $44,800 | 45 |
6th | Dan Zack | United States | $33,600 | 34 |
7th | Bryce Yockey | United States | $28,000 | 28 |
8th | Johannes Becker | Germany | $22,400 | 22 |
Following a whirlwind end to Day 1, just two players would remain at the conclusion of play with Abrams holding the lead with 4,760,000 in chips over Lamb with 3,640,000 in chips.
Lamb's game choices remained strictly on Pot-Limit Omaha, while Abrams began with Big O, and then switched to Badeucey. The early rounds of the match went to Abrams as he turned a straight in Pot-Limit Omaha and extended his lead to more than a three-to-one advantage.
In an orbit of Badeucey, Abrams would ride a heater over the course of four hands. It begun with him making number one-number two, and then a wheel with the nut-three-card dugi. On the final hand, Abrams made a nine-low, eight-dugi on the first draw and faded against Lamb's three-card seven draw to be crowned the Event #6 champion.
This victory put Abrams into seventh place on the PGT Mixed Games leaderboard, while Lamb climbs into third place. Lamb currently still has to conclude his heads-up match with Maxx Coleman in Event #4: $10,300 Big Bet Mix. Currenly, Lamb and Coleman have each locked up 138 PGT points - second place points - but have an additional 48 PGT points awaiting if they can emerge victorious. A victory for Lamb would push him into second place on the PGT Mixed Games leaderboard with two events remaining.
Rank | Player | Country | Winnings | Points |
1st | John Monnette | United States | $316,000 | 316 |
2nd | Nick Guagenti | United States | $275,475 | 290 |
3rd | Ben Lamb | United States | $255,600 | 256 |
4th | Shaun Deeb | United States | $208,800 | 209 |
5th | Dan Zack | United States | $179,700 | 181 |
6th | Eli Elezra | United States | $155,000 | 180 |
7th | Scott Abrams | United States | $179,200 | 179 |
8th | Brian Rast | United States | $167,700 | 169 |
9th | Alex Livingston | Canada | $179,325 | 164 |
10th | Craig Chait | United States | $157,000 | 157 |
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