Soheb Porbandarwala Wins First WSOP Bracelet of Career for $57,000

The fourth event of this year’s 2022 World Series of Poker Online Series took place last night and the winner was a popular name across ‘Poker Twitter’ Soheb ‘TommyConway6’ Porbandarwala won the $1,000-entry Pot Limit Omaha (PLO) Six-Max event.

With a total of 273-entries, the prizepool of $245,700 prizepool saw a top prize of $57,125 won by Porbandarwala in exciting fashion.

A Busy Field for a PLO Event

“Porbandarwala has a fierce reputation online and finally got the bracelet his play and personality have deserved.”

If PLO is known for its variance and exciting re-drawing possibilities as a player, one thing the mixed game format is not recognized for is always its reliability for drawing big numbers. In an age where No Limit Hold’em is not only king, but the voting members of the king’s court too, PLO often enjoys life in the shade. For PLO to garner such a big field and step into the spotlight in the fashion that it did last night is enough success already.

A big-name winner always helps and Porbandarwala is certainly that. With over $1 million in live earnings in tournaments alone, Porbandarwala has a fierce reputation online too, and finally got the bracelet his play and personality have deserved over the years. His biggest win remains the $239,820 he took for winning the WPT Online Poker Open Main Event back in 2020, but this will be another well-recognized feather in his cap, only needing an EPT Online win for a digital ‘Triple Crown’ achievement.

Porbandarwala was up against some greats in the tournament, with players such as Jeff Madsen, Justin Saliba and Women’s Poker Hall of Fame member Kathy Liebert all crashing out short of the money places. Others were more fortunate, with Eric Ethans (20^th for $3,488), Alex Rocha (13^th for $3,660), and controversial figure and overnight chip leader Martin  Zamani needing no frog poison to run all the way to ninth place for a reward of $4,152.

All-American Final Table Starts with Drama

Being PLO, the final table started six-handed, as is often the way with mixed game formats (and World Poker Tour events without exception). The first player to lose their seat was Matthew Stone, as the all-American final table spat him out for $10,687 in sixth place. Stone lasted a matter of seconds as the action started with a premium-on-premium clash. All-in with pocket kings, he lost out to the pocket queens of Andre Nyffeler, who turned a straight draw which came on the river.

Michael Holtz was the next man to depart at the all-male final table, as he cashed for $14,840 in fifth place. Holtz was short-stacked when he made his final move, shoving against not one but two players, who called and checked him down to his doom. It was the eventual winner Porbandarwala who ended the hand with the best hand, his pocket nines good enough to reduce the field to four.

Stanley Lee may share his name with the late creator of Spiderman, but he couldn’t escape the web of Porbandarwala. All-in with two-pair, Lee must have felt like he was due a double-up, but Porbandarwala made a flush and if there’s one thing spiders don’t like, it’s water. Lee went down the drain but cashed for $21,105 after a strong performance.

Heads-Up Thrills Poker Fans

Down to just three players, Porbandarwala had a more than convincing lead and improved it still further with the elimination of Tristan Wade in third place for $29,484. Wade committed his chips with pocket jacks, but Porbandarwala made a flopped straight and there was to be no fairytale for Wade, who couldn’t improve his hand and missed out on the final duel.

Heads-up, Porbandarwala started with a massive 4:1 chip lead, but things didn’t initially go to according to plan. Andre Nyffeler enjoyed not one but two double-ups in quick succession and dragged himself level with the leader as his comeback gathered pace.

Sadly for Nyffeler, his renaissance in the tournament was to be denied a magical ending. The eventual runner-up looked in a good position to double into a lead with his top set of kings against Porbandarwala’s set of queens but the latter made a straight to give Porbandarwala his first-ever WSOP bracelet and the top prize of $57,125. Nyffeler could only console himself with the second-place prize of $40,909 as Porbandarwala celebrated online.

The World Series of Poker themselves were happy, with Norman Chad and Lon McEachern, the legendary commentary team behind each year’s WSOP Main Event, running through things on the official WSOP Twitch stream.