Welcome to Day 1 of Event #64: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship
As No-Limit Hold'em becomes less and less popular at the highest stakes of cash games, the game of choice has become the poker variant whose $10,000 championship event will be played today: Pot-Limit Omaha. PLO is widely considered to be an "action" game, and since many players prefer it to NLHE, hundreds are doubtless eagerly awaiting the biggest PLO tournament of the summer, Event #64.
The structure for this year's PLO championship event is considerably changed from the one won by Daniel Alaei at last year's World Series of Poker. Last year, each player received 10,000 in tournament chips to begin, along with two lammers that they could exchange for another 10,000 at any point during the tournament up to a certain time where they had to be exchanged for chips. The "triple chance" format has been banished to dustbin this year, and a more traditional freezeout format in which each player gets 30,000 in chips has returned. Alaei took down $852,692 for his victory, defeating a field of 386 players.
Players will be in their seats by 4 p.m. local time if they hope to see the first cards come flying off the top of the deck, and they'll be scheduled to play through 10 levels, each lasting an hour. Don't go anywhere, as we'll be bringing you live updates throughout the evening about one of the most exciting events of the summer.