Lou Garza Bags $1.3million WSOP Gold and a Fiancé

Image courtesy of PokerGO.com

AP “Sweet Lou” Louis Garza not only scooped a gold bracelet and a $1.3million payday, but also bagged himself a fiancé as he celebrated his victory in the $10k PLO championship with a marriage proposal...

Garza was one of 731 entries to event #50 on the WSOP summer schedule, a $6,798,300 prizepool set to be shared out between the top 110 finishers.

First order of play was to burst the money bubble on day two and it saw ben Yu and poker baddie Jake Schindler fall at the same time to give everyone else a cash...

Ben Yu: K♥ Q♥ J♣ J♠
Jose Castillo: A♦ A♠ J♥ 2♥

“Look at all these vultures!” was Yu’s joking comment as the crowd’s gathered to see if they were in the money or not, Yu all-in pre-flop and at risk against Jose Castillo

Flop: 4♦ 9♥ 3♠
Turn: 10♠
River: 7♠

Among those making the paid spots but not troubling the final table were Jeremy Ausmus and Dan Smith with $16,088 min. cashes, Erik Seidel (77th for $17,596), Alex Foxen (69th for $20,110), Phil Hui (53rd for $25,148), Sean Winter (33rd for $33,823), and Finland’s Juha Helppi (12th for $60,136).

Highstakes reg Sam Soverel was the big name who made it to the final table, with Ukrainian Stanislav Halatenko holding the chip lead and six-figures locked up for everyone.

Soverel’s run ended in 6th spot when all the chips went in on the flop, with a “pure flip” as Arthur Morris described it deciding Soverel’s fate...

Sam Soverel: Q♣ 9♦ 8♣ 7♠
Peng Shan: K♠ J♣ 10♥ 9♠

Flop: J♦ 10♣ 6♣
Turn: 4♥
River: 6♠

The remaining five players returned for a fourth day’s play and it was Shan who fell first, his 5th spot worth $296,154, an order of magnitude bigger than his previous best.

Travis Pearson then had to settle for 4th place when his jacks were second best to Garza’s queens...

...and Halatenko fell to a double whammy from Morris then Garza.
Heads-up was a relatively short affair, Morris getting his stack in with a slight edge holding top pair, top kicker, but Garza having multiple outs, the river deciding the destination of the WSOP gold bracelet...

Final table results

The celebrations were doubled when Garza dropped to one knee to propose to his girlfriend, explaining later: “Don’t think any other time would be right besides now because I don’t think I would even be right here without her.”