Norwegian High Roller Takes Down Huge Albanian Pot-Limit Omaha Event

The pot-limit Omaha action was hot in the Albanian capital of Tirana this week. The 2025 PLO Grand Slam hosted by Diamond Poker Series is running from Jan. 23-31 at Arena Casino Tirana, with €5 million in guaranteed prize money including two events with seven figures in promised payouts. The first was a €1 million guaranteed €5,000 buy-in which was won by Tom Vogelsang. The second event was the centerpiece of the festival: the €2,000,000 guaranteed €10,000 championship.

A total of 191 entries turned out for the latter tournament, which meant the event fell just short of making its guarantee. After tournament staff fees were subtracted, $1,957,456 in prize money was paid out across the top 23 finishers.

Norway’s Tom-Aksel Bedell came on the top in the end. Bedell took home $455,520 for the win, a new top score for the high-stakes tournament regular. Bedell now has more than $4 million in recorded earnings to his name. Bedell reportedly earned his seat in this tournament via a giveaway in the €5,000 ‘Opener’ for the player who fired the most bullets.

Bedell also secured 840 Card Player Player of the Year points, which were enough to move him within striking distance of the top 30 in the 2025 POY race presented by Global Poker.

This was the second running of this series, with the first having been held in The venue is establishing itself as a new foothold for the poker scene in Albania, after hosting its first widely publicized festival in late 2023. The previous PLO Grand Slam sported €3 million in total guarantees.

Plenty of notables ran deep in this event, including bracelet winners Joni Jouhkimainen (22nd), Max Kruse (20th), Elie Nakache (18th), Dario Alioto (15th), and Ismael Bojang (14th).

Daniel Tordjman knocked out two-time bracelet winner Oleksii Kovalchuk (5th – $134,680) to take a sizable chip lead into short-handed play. He then bused €5,000 event winner Tom Vogelsang (4th – $167,960) to hold over 72 percent of the total chips in play heading into three-handed action.

The shorter stacks battled back, though, and eventually Bedell won a big pot against Tordjman with kings full of sevens to overtake the lead. Tordjman slid down the leaderboard from there, and was eventually all-in with 9765 facing the QQ94 of Bedell. The board came down 8878Q to give Bedell queens full for the win. Tordjman walked away with $205,400 for his third-place showing.

2024 World Series of Poker Paradise $100,000 pot-limit Omaha event winner Lautaro Guerra entered heads-up play at a big chip disadvantage. The Spanish poker pro managed a few early double ups to keep his hopes alive, but was soon all-in with QJ95 facing the AQQ3 of Bedell. The A8457 brought the event to an end. Guerra cashed for $307,840 as the runner-up, growing his career haul to nearly $5.3 million in the process.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table: