Just 51 weeks ago, Luo took down his first WSOP gold and followed it up a month later with number two. Yesterday he was chasing the hatrick in Event #24: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Double Board Bomb Pot.
Brand new for 2025, the PLO Double Board Bomb Pot event may be new to some, so here’s the (very) basic rules:
- Antes paid, no betting pre-flop
- Two community boards (flop/turn/river) dealt
- Players use 2 of their 4 cards to make the best possible 5-card hands on both boards
- Best hand wins top board, best hand wins bottom board
With that out of the way, the 1452 entries showed how popular (and fun) the game already is and the $1,927,530 prizepool would be shared out among 213 players.
Phil Hellmuth, Jeremy Ausmus, Chris Brewer, Mike Mat8usow, Ryan Riess and Joao Simao all fell on day one, while other big names such as Nacho Barbero, David “ODB” Baker, Michael Mizrachi, Huck Seed, and Ari Engel did make the money but didn’t trouble the latter stages.
By the time day 3 arrived, only 13 players were in contention, with Luo out front in chips but plenty of action still to come.
To give you an idea of how the PLO Double Board Bomb Pot plays, here is Ian Matakis’ exit in 7th spot…
Matakis: K♥ 7♥ 5♣ 2♥
Wong: A♦ Q♣ J♦ 9♥
Matakis bet pot on the turn and his stack ended up in the middle by the river…
Board 1: A♠ A♥ Q♥ 7♣ K♦
Board 2: K♣ 10♦ K♠ 10♠ A♣
Wong’s full house won the top board and his straight won the bottom board, sending Matakis to the cage to pick up $40k plus change.
It wasn’t all a walk on easy street for Luo, despite KOing Brian Smith in 5th and helping to dispose of Wong in 4th, as Robert Klein battled back into the chip lead.
Stranak fell in 3rd when his last few antes went to Luo, leaving the Chinese pro heads-up against New York state rec, Klein. What followed was mostly one-way-traffic until Klein had little choice but to get it all-in on the flop (no pre-flop betting, remember?!)
Robert Klein: A♥ K♠ 9♠ 6♣
Xixiang Luo: A♠ 10♦ 2♠ 6♥
Klein had to spike the 10♠ on the board 1 runout and/or hit his gutshot on board 2, but both attempts failed…
Board 1: J♠ 7♠ Q♠ 3♣ 9♣
Board 2: 3♥ 7♥ 5♦ 4♠ 3♠
And that was that, Luo had just scooped his third WSOP gold!
Final table results
1 | Xixiang Luo | China | $290,400 |
2 | Robert Klein | USA | $193,517 |
3 | Samuel Stranak | Slovakia | $137,805 |
4 | Danny Wong | USA | $99,413 |
5 | Brian Smith | USA | $72,664 |
6 | Bjorn Verbakel | Netherlands | $53,824 |
7 | Ian Matakis | USA | $40,410 |
8 | Jacob Baumgartner | USA | $30,756 |
9 | Yang Wang | China | $23,735 |
“This game is new. Very, very fun,” said Luo through a translator after his 3rd WSOP bracelet win.
He added: “Mixed games are better for me. Hold’em is okay, but too many players. I like new games. Much more fun than just Hold’em,” though he did state he would be playing the Main Event.
