Klein joined an exclusive club of three with this win.
A total of 476 players showed up to compete in the 8-handed event, who generated a prize pool of $4,474,400. 72 made the money, with some PLO-heavyweights like Ben Lamb (42nd; $18,664) or Joe "ChicagoJoey" Ingram (17th; $28,502) in the mix.
The field got reduced to the final eight on Monday evening. Alexey Makarov busted in 8th place, while Mike Leah got 7th. This 7th place finish was also the 7th WSOP cash this summer for Leah.
The remaining six returned on Tuesday, to play down to the winner on the live stream. Brandon Shack-Harris started the play as the chip leader but Klein took the lead early, after winning a sizeable pot against Shack-Harris in a pot where he was able to get value with two pairs. “That took him out of a pretty commanding position,” said Loren. “It was an important pot for sure and I was pretty selective about which one I was going to do because I knew the first pot I played with him was going to be a big deal and change the dynamics. I got lucky and flopped it.”
Klein kept on pushing the pedal to the metal, eliminating Scott Bohlman in 6th and Ryan Hughes in 5th place. Despite Loren’s 8 was dominated by the KT of Hughes’, he was able to spike a Jack on the flop to take down the pot.
The four-handed play saw the two shortest stacks clashing, with Jerry Wong getting the worst of it, busting in 4th place. Shack-Harris, Rep Porter and Klein with a total of 7 bracelets continued to play, with Shack-Harris busting after about an hour against the A-A-x-x of Rep’s.
Despite busting Brandon, Porter started the heads-up from behind and couldn’t manage to turn things around, as Klein was able to extend his lead and eventually took down the tournament in a cooler situation when he got dealt A against Porter’s K.
The board didn’t help Rep this time and he got eliminated in 2nd place for $629,378, while Loren received a paycheck of $1,018,336 and his third bracelet in the third consecutive year, an achievement which only Allen Cunningham and Matt Matros was able to do since the "Moneymaker-effect".
When asked whether this takes luck or skill, the champion replied: “The variance in getting a bracelet is pretty wild. Like, I was the same player I was three years ago before I had any bracelets.”
Final results:
1st: Loren Klein – $1,018,336
2nd: Rep Porter – $629,378
3rd: Brandon Shack-Harris – $433,259
4th: Jerry Wong – $303,491
5th: Ryan Hughes – $216,391
6th: Scott Bohlman – $157,097
7th: Mike Leah – $116,166
8th: Alexey Makarov – $87,522
