Elezra Flexing Stud Muscles Again in $10K Hi-Lo Championship
A long Day 2 in Event #67: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship ended with an unsurprising name atop the chip counts: Eli Elezra.
Elezra has been one of the most successful players in stud variants at the WSOP in recent years. He already won the $1,500 Stud earlier this series for $93,766, his second time winning that particular bracelet after also taking it down in 2015.
Elezra, a four-time bracelet winner, bagged 1,362,000 with 16 left. He had a good stack going to the final three tables, then built it even more after going on a heater late on, highlighted by making a full house against Denis Strebkov with mere minutes left in the night. He then busted former chip leader Daniel Ospina to force a two-table redraw and end the night, as the players opted to throw their chips in bags and fade the final three minutes on the clock at 15,000/30,000.
One player with plenty of confidence and chips to chase Elezra with is Mike Matusow. "The Mouth" has been frustrated by some deep runs that fell short earlier in this WSOP, but he has positioned himself well here with 1,005,000, good for second place on the leaderboard.
Others making it through included Andrey Zhigalov, Ryan Hughes and Anthony Zinno. The latter faced off with Elezra heads up in the aforementioned $1,500 Stud event, failing on that day to add to his bracelet tally, but correcting that just a few days ago in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better event.
While the majority of the players who went bust on Day 2 walked away empty-handed, some did manage to get paid for their efforts. There were 23 places paid and Jerry Wong, Jack Duong and Mark Gregorich were among those cashing.
The tournament continues at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, soon to go to 20,000/40,000 limits. Come back to PokerNews to keep following the Stud Hi-Lo Championship as it reaches the final table.