Friday night at the Rio. Ship it to James Calderaro! The Venice, Florida native won his first bracelet by outlasting a tough-tough-tough final table in Event #67 $25,000 PLO 8-Handed High Roller. Calderaro won nearly $1.3M for three days of PLO action.
Sometimes, it takes a little bit of gamble and a ton of heart to win a poker tournament. James Calderaro did not come into the final table of the $25K PLO High Roller as a favorite. He found himself at a stacked final table that included several of the top high balla high rollers in the world. Plus, a pair of dangerous Russians and the lovely, but deadly E-Tay. But no sweat, right? James Calderaro outlasted and defeated all of them. The WPT winner now added a piece of bring to his illustrious career.
Event #67 $25,000 PLO 8-Handed High Roller - Final Results

25K? No promblemo! Ship it to James Calderaro! The Florida native previously shipped a WPT event. And now he won his first-ever bracelet in the PLO High Roller. James Calderaro outlasted a tough final table that included: E-Tay, Dario Sammartino, Dan Smith, Ben Tollerene, and Bryce Tockey.
Alas, Tollerene busted first at the final table in eighth place. Dan Smith holla'd out in seventh place. And the Italian said his goodbyes in fifth place. Yockey's bracelet quest fell short in fifth place.
And then it happened. Esther Taylor-Brady bowed out in third place, which set up a heads-up battle between a Russian and James Calderaro. And it was Calderaro who prevailed.
Martin Kozlov bubbled the final table in ninth place in this 8-handed event.
Notables who went deep in this event that only paid out 31 players included... Martin Kozlov, Aaron Katz, Iraj Parvizi, Tommy Le, Eddie Ochana, Ashton Griffin, Tom Hu, Max Silver, Jason Gray, Brant Hale, Ryan Hughes (who is leading for POY).
2017 WSOP - Event #67 $25,000 PLO 8-Handed High Roller
Entrants: 205
Prize Pool: $4,868,750
Payouts: 31
Final Table Results:
1. James Calderaro (USA) $1,289,074
2. Alexey Rybin (Russia) $796,706
3. Esther Taylor-Brady (USA) $543,713
4. Artem Babakhanyan (Russia) $379,128
5. Bryce Yockey (USA) $270,242
6. Dario Sammartino (Italy) $197,007
7. Dan Smith (USA) $146,961
8. Ben Tollerene (USA) $112,239