Chen Wins PGT PLO Quattro Bounty With 8

Chen Takes Down Quattro Bounty Event

James Chen won the $10,500 PLO Quattro Bounty tournament at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas, securing his second career title on the PokerGO Tour (PGT) circuit. Chen collected $107,000 for first place and an additional $132,000 in bounty rewards, a total that reflects how heavily the Quattro Bounty format rewards elimination play.

The event drew 57 entries. Under the Quattro Bounty structure, $6,000 of each buy-in went to the main prizepool and $4,000 formed the bounty pool, meaning a large share of the money on the table was paid out hand by hand rather than through finishing positions alone. That structure tends to loosen play, since knocking out an opponent carries immediate financial value on top of the chips won.

Chen dominated the bounty phase from the start, collecting 8 of the 14 bounty rewards available across the entire tournament. That figure alone explains the size of his bounty haul relative to his first-place prize.

Bubble and Final Table

Chen burst the money bubble in dramatic fashion, eliminating Cesar Garcia and sending Jonas Kronwitter out in 9th place in the same hand. From there the final table produced a rapid sequence of eliminations. Jeremy Ausmus finished 7th, and Lautaro Guerra followed in 6th after a four-way all-in.

Chen kept accumulating, sending Ben Lamb to the rail and then eliminating PGT founder Cary Katz. He entered the second and final day as the chip leader.

Richard Gryko reached heads-up after knocking out Youness Barakat, but Chen never surrendered the lead in the duel.

The Decisive Hand

The tournament ended on a board of Td 4c 2d 7h, with both players all-in. Chen held Qd 9c 8d 6s, while Gryko showed 5d 4s 3s 2c. On the numbers, the two hands were an exact coin flip, roughly 50 percent each. The river Jh completed a straight for Chen and sealed the title.

That kind of near-even all-in is a useful illustration of how thin the margins can be in pot-limit Omaha, particularly in a bounty format where players are incentivized to get stacks in. In a typical situation, a hand like Chen's — a run-down double-suited hand with straight and flush potential — performs well against a low, connected holding, but the equity distribution is often close to even when both hands are live and share outs.

Results of Event #4: $10,500 PLO Quattro Bounty

• 1. James Chen, USA — $107,000 prize, $132,000 bounty rewards
• 2. Richard Gryko, United Kingdom — $68,400 prize, $32,000 bounty rewards
• 3. Youness Barakat, Italy — $47,900 prize, $48,000 bounty rewards
• 4. Cary Katz, USA — $34,200 prize, $0 bounty rewards
• 5. Ben Lamb, USA — $25,700 prize, $16,000 bounty rewards
• 6. Lautaro Guerra, Spain — $18,800 prize, $0 bounty rewards
• 7. Jeremy Ausmus, USA — $14,300 prize, $0 bounty rewards
• 8. Chino Rheem, USA — $14,300 prize, $0 bounty rewards
• 9. Jonas Kronwitter, Austria — $11,400 prize, $0 bounty rewards

Why the Format Matters

Bounty tournaments change the incentives at every stage. Because a fixed sum is paid for each elimination, players are more willing to call off with marginal hands when a short stack is involved, and chip leaders can pressure medium stacks more aggressively than in a standard freezeout. In a four-card game like pot-limit Omaha, where equities run closer together than in no-limit hold'em, that dynamic is amplified: the difference between a favorite and a dog is often small, so the bounty premium can justify plays that would be questionable in a pure prizepool event.

The Quattro Bounty format, with its split between prizepool and bounty pool, is one example of how the PGT has experimented with payout structures to keep high-roller fields engaged. For Chen, the result adds a second PGT title to his record and a bounty total that exceeded his first-place prize.