2025 WSOPC Calgary – Event #14: $400 PLO Bounty

Jerry Li might just know a thing or two about 4-card poker. Coming into today’s bounty event, he already had a ring from the very first WSOP-C Calgary in Jan 2022 from the $600 PLO as well as a bracelet in the PLO Bounty in Vegas later that same year.

He’s now added a PLO Bounty ring to his jewelry collection with the win here in Event #14. He played the big stack very well for most of the final table, maintaining his lead throughout. He almost had the ring about a half hour earlier when he had runner-up Brandon Sampson all in at risk with kings over queens, but Sampson spiked a queen to stay alive.

That didn’t tilt him though, and he stayed on task, chipping Sampson back down pretty quickly. In the final hand, Sampson was double-paired but Li ran out to a straight for the win. The win tonight will likely push him very close to $700k in lifetime winnings.

Brandon Sampson always had an uphill climb tonight heads up. Not only did he come into heads up with the chip deficit, but the player across the table was Jerry Li, who has a ring and a bracelet in four-card poker already.

While Sampson was able to claw some chips back a few times, he never did manage to get the upper hand. The closest he came was when he had one foot out the door with queen-queen-x-x against king-king-x-x but spiked his queen for a double. That put him around 3 million but that was as close as he got.

In the final hand Sampson got it in double paired with tens and fours against jack-seven-five-three for Li. Li flopped a pair of threes and an open-ended straight draw, then rivered the straight for the win. After the game, Sampson said he wasn’t even planning to play this one but max-late reg’d after he busted 1b of the Main. He may not have gone quite as far as he wanted, but $12k is a decent consolation prize for busting the Main.

It looked like it might be all over when Brandon Sampson raised, then shoved over a pot from Jerry Li. Li snapped it off with king-king-jack-ten against queen-queen-ten-six and looked set to take his second PLO ring here in Calgary but Sampson spike a queen on the flop and held for a big double to stay alive. Li still has the chip lead, but it’s closer after that hand.

They are heads up now after Nick Storie hit the rail in 3rd place tonight. He’d been chipped down over the last level and put the remainder in from the small blind after Jerry Li raised to 350k. Li called it off and he had A♦K♠8♣6♠ against Q♠J♠9♥6♦ for Storie. When the 2♣7♦5♠6♥9♦ board was out, Li had a straight and the win.

Li goes into heads up as the big leader with nearly 6 million of the 8.6 million in play.

Jerry Li has 4.67 million at the break, with Brandon Sampson on 2.06 million and Nick Storie on 2.02 million. They’ll be back in action at 60k/120k/120k in about 10 minutes.

Brandon Sampson raised to 300k from the small blind and Jerry Li potted to 900k from the big blind. Sampson repotted all in for 2.26 million and after getting a count and then counting out the call from his stack, Li elected to fold. The hand put Sampson over 3 million with Li still on about 4 million.

Ed Zurawell was 4th place tonight but I missed the action as he busted while I was writing the previous hand.

They are down to 4 after Colin Miller shoved over button raise from Jerry Li to 150k. Li called it off with A♥Q♥9♥3♣ against A♠A♦K♥4♦ and then hit trip threes on the 3♥7♠3♠7♥8♣ to crack the aces.

They are down to 5 left now with Level 27 just underway. Scott Bodnarek, who was leading earlier in the night, ended his day in 7th place while Nick Lloyd finished 6th.

They are down to 7 left on the PLO Bounty FT after Wes Peters (9th) and Gerry Edwards (8th) hit the rail while I was getting the FT pictures uploaded. Jerry Li is still the leader with close to 4 million but Brandon Sampson looks to be in second with around 2 million.

They are down to 9 players left now in the PLO Bounty on the final table after bustouts on both tables in the same hand. I’ll grab pics and full names from the final table shortly but in the meantime, below is a look at the recent payouts.

Place	Player	Prize
10	Brad Ellis	$1,250
11	Leanne Brown	$1,250
12	Viet Do	$1,027
13	Nikhil Madadi	$1,027
14	Marc Kalvari	$864
15	Ryan Cairns	$864

The PLO Bounty field is down to 15 players left now with about 15 minutes to play in Level 23. I’ve finally managed to get the prizes updated in the backend — see the Payouts tab for a full look at the prizes to 16th place.

The players are on a break following Level 21 and it looks like Scott Bodnarek is still leading with a bit more than 1.3 million, but Jerry Li, who has both a ring and a bracelet in four-card poker, is playing about 1.1 and they appear to be the only players with a million or more.

Scott Bodnarek is the chip leader at the moment with 17 players left. He’s playing more than 1.4 million and looks to be the only one in the million range. I don’t have complete names for the remaining players yet, but among the players still alive tonight are Gerry Edwards, Ryan Cairns, Juss Viet, Ed Zurawell, and PLO ring and bracelet winner Jerry Li.

The PLO Bounty Event is in the money with 65 places paid tonight. They got 432 entries and the field just hit 65 remaining with no hand-for-hand play tonight. The prizes won’t be in the backend for a little while yet, but the summary of payouts is below.

The side action on Friday night is four-card bounty fun with the $400 PLO Bounty. The action kicks off at 6 PM and entries are open for about 3.5 hours until the start of Level 10. Players start with 20k in chips for 20 minute levels throughout so it’s a bit of a turbo.

That said, I still expect a fairly long day with action going until at least 3 AM. I won’t be watching the early action very closely in this one, but I’ll be around at the end for endgame coverage.