The PokerGO Tour is once again in action, this time traveling down the street in Las Vegas to the Venetian for their 2026 PGT Pot Limit Omaha Series. The series, set to run to March 29, is completely dedicated to the four-card variety of Hold’em, and it has drawn some power players to its opening tournament. When the final table takes place this afternoon, Bruno Furth will be at the head of the table, but the specter of David ‘Chino’ Rheem, a multiple-time PGT PLO champion, is hovering over him.
Sizeable Field for Two Day Ones
Event #1 of the 2026 PGT PLO Series, a $3,000 buy-in tournament, was surprisingly popular among players at the Venetian. On Friday, 127 entries were logged for the tournament, with another 122 stepping to the cage on Saturday. This built an impressive 245-entry field, with forty players earning a share of the $762,000 prize pool, and first place earning a $150,000 payday.
The Day 1A carnage was thorough, as only twenty players emerged from the action with chips for Day Two. Maxx Coleman was the best of these survivors, booking the chip lead for Day 1A with his 675,000 chips. Trying to keep pace with Coleman was John Riordan, who gathered 598,000 chips for combat on Sunday. Here were the top finishers from the Friday Day 1A action:
1. Maxx Coleman, 675,000
2. John Riordan, 598,000
3. Giuseppe Pantaleo, 594,000
4. Eran Carmi, 542,000
5. Andy Seth, 447,000
Day 1B, while not as large as the Day 1A field, still would send twenty of its players to the Day Two action (and complete the players who would be paid). It was Brian Smith who ran roughshod over the field on this day, stacking an astounding 1.025 million chips for battle on Sunday. He was pursued by Matthew Anderson, who slipped into the overall Top Five with his 595,000 in chips, while Furth set himself up well for the Sunday action with his 578,000 in chips. This was the top of the leaderboard from the Saturday play:
1. Brian Smith, 1.025 million
2. Matthew Anderson, 595,000
3. Bruno Furth, 578,000
4. Makoto Yoshimichi, 483,000
5. Vadim Shlez, 418,000
Battling Down to the Final Table
Although he was stacked as the only million-chip club member at the start of the day, Smith would not take advantage of that position. He would struggle throughout the Day Two action, with some of his chips sliding through his hands to other players, but Smith would be able to stanch the bleeding. Smith will be one of the members of Monday’s final table action, albeit with only 635,000 of his once-monstrous stack.
Furth would be the massive mover of the Sunday action, yo-yoing his stack up and down as he gradually built his stack. He would not be forced to show down much in this stacked field, but on the one occasion he did, he displayed a straight to beat Jason Funke and Tyler Brown. Rheem also was a silent assassin on this day, increasing his paltry 159K at the start of Day Two into a potent force of 2.295 million chips, putting him in second place to start the Day Two play.
Here is how they will line up for the Event #1 final table at the 2026 PGT PLO Series:
1. Bruno Furth, 2.595 million
2. David ‘Chino’ Rheem, 2.295 million
3. John Riordan, 1.83 million
4. Brevin Andreadis, 1.215 million
5. Eran Carmi, 1.115 million
6. Brian Smith, 635,000
7. Allan Le, 505,000
The winner will greatly appreciate the $150,000 payday from this tournament, but it is a long road ahead in the 2026 PGT PLO Series. Rheem is the defending champion, and he is off to a good start in Event #1, but four $5,000 tournaments and the $10,000 Main Event will put the four-card specialists to the test. Earning the first trophy from this schedule is critical, but the battle is just beginning in the 2026 PGT PLO Series.
(Photo courtesy of PokerGO)
