From Rebuy King to King of Tirana: Tom-Aksel Bedell Conquers PLO Grand Slam Championship for €438,000
Five days ago, on Day 1a of the €5,200 Opener event at the PLO Grand Slam, Tom-Aksel Bedell was awarded a free ticket to the €10,300 Championship event for having fired the most bullets.
The eight entries Bedell made were worth their weight in gold. The Norwegian high roller turned his freeroll into €438,000 after claiming victory over 191 entries in the PLO Championship, bringing home a beautiful Diamond Poker Series trophy to add to his vast collection.
Bedell beat accomplished pot-limit Omaha professional Lautaro Guerra heads up for the title. Guerra finished in third place during the first edition of this event back in November 2024 and went one better this time, taking home €296,000 for his runner-up performance, the second-biggest share of the €1,880,000 prize pool.
Start-of-day chipleader Daniel Tordjman could not continue his hot run long enough and ended in third place, while Opener champion Tom Vogelsang had another deep run, ending with a fourth-place finish. Andrew Ige also made the final tables in both events and finished in eighth this time, one spot higher than in the Opener.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tom-Aksel Bedell | Norway | €438,000 |
| 2 | Lautaro Guerra | Spain | €296,000 |
| 3 | Daniel Tordjman | France | €197,500 |
| 4 | Tom Vogelsang | Netherlands | €161,500 |
| 5 | Oleksii Kovalchuk | Ukraine | €129,500 |
| 6 | Sofoklis Palekythritis | Cyprus | €100,500 |
| 7 | Gergo Nagy | Hungary | €74,500 |
| 8 | Andrew Ige | United States | €54,500 |
| 9 | Maksim Shuts | Belarus | €43,500 |
Winner's Reaction
"I feel great," Bedell told PokerNews after the win. "It's always nice to win in PLO, as you need to have a lot of luck, rarely getting it in with more than 65 percent. I never look at the pay jumps but was lucky that I had the chipleader on my right. That way, I was the only one who could play back."
Bedell, a self-described gambler since the age of seven, is well-known for appearing in high-stakes poker tournaments all over the world. He admitted he loves the competition, but emphasized that the most important thing at a poker tournament is to feel welcome, which is why he chose to return to Albania after visiting the first-ever PLO Grand Slam two months ago.
"I got invited to this event the first time and I loved the treatment they give you, the hotel, they treat my wife lovely as well. The atmosphere at the tables is also amazing."
Day 3 Action
Twelve players returned to Arena Casino Tirana for the final day, and the three short stacks all doubled their stacks in the first 20 minutes of play. Although he had first doubled up, “Jay” (12th - €32,000) got his aces cracked not much later and was the first elimination of the day. About an hour went by with more double-ups, including Kasparas Klezys, who cracked Leon Freiholz’s aces in a five-bet pot. Freiholz was left short and busted in 11th place for €36,500.
Even though Klezys had just won a huge pot, he would end up being the final table bubble when he lost big back-to-back pots against Tordjman. Klezys went to pick up the same amount as Freiholz while Tordjman started the final table with about half the chips in play.
The final table is where Tordjman really turned up the heat. Within 15 minutes of the final nine being reached, Maksim Shuts (9th - €43,500) and Ige (8th - €54,500) were eliminated by the chipleader in preflop confrontations. Gergo Nagy (7th - €74,500) was next to go, calling off Tordjman’s straight. Nagy’s elimination set off a chain reaction, as Sofoklis Palekythritis (6th - €100,500) and Oleksii Kovalchuk (5th - €129,500) turned in their short stacks to Tordjman as well.
Meanwhile, Vogelsang remained hopeful for a second title in two events, but his dream would end in fourth place. Vogelsang had not been very active at the final table, and his stack had dwindled to around 20 big blinds. Then, he got in a flopped combo draw against Tordjman’s top two pair. Vogelsang missed the turn and river, adding a €161,500 score to his resume.
Tordjman looked unstoppable, having provided all of the final table’s eliminations. Three-handed, his stack contained roughly 80 percent of the chips in play as the tournament started to look like a done deal. However, his fortune would soon change. Tordjman lost most of the pots he played against Bedell and doubled up Guerra after running into his aces.
After an hour of three-way battling, Bedell took over the chip lead with a full house, getting paid off by Tordjman. From that point, Bedell had all the momentum, taking most of the pots and building as big a chip lead as Tordjman had at the start. Eventually, Tordjman was down to around ten big blinds and lost them in a preflop all-in against Bedell. He was awarded €197,500 for his third-place performance, his highest recorded cash ever.
The heads up was a short but eventful one. Guerra started with about four and a half times fewer chips than Bedell but doubled up twice and started to make a comeback. This was cut short when Bedell placed a big value bet with the nuts, leaving the Guerra with 15 big blinds. Those soon went in preflop, with Bedell winning the confrontation and with it, the trophy and the title of PLO Grand Slam champion.
That concludes the PokerNews coverage of this Diamond Poker Series event. The dates for the next event have not been announced yet, but with another hugely successful week in the books, it seems almost certain that more is on the horizon.