Michael Banducci Bags the Lead on Day 1 of Event #75: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
Day 1 of Event #75: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas attracted a total of 247 runners, short of last year's record mark of 284. However, with late registration open until the start of Day 2, there is still every chance that the record will be broken.
After ten 60-minute levels of play, 116 players were able to navigate their way through the day. Of those, Michael Banducci bagged the biggest stack after accumulating 387,500. Other big stacks include two-time bracelet winner Taylor Paur (361,500), Dutch pro Rob Hollink (353,000) andthird place finisher at the 2016 WSOP Main Event Cliff Josephy (296,000), who told PokerNews that this is his first bag of the summer.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Banducci | United States | 387,500 | 155 |
| 2 | Michael Wang | United States | 364,500 | 146 |
| 3 | Taylor Paur | United States | 361,500 | 145 |
| 4 | Rob Hollink | Netherlands | 353,000 | 141 |
| 5 | Cliff Josephy | United States | 296,000 | 118 |
| 6 | Dylan Weisman | United States | 276,000 | 110 |
| 7 | Sterling Lopez | United States | 261,000 | 104 |
| 8 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | Poland | 253,000 | 101 |
| 9 | Vladimir Belekhov | Russia | 249,500 | 100 |
| 10 | Quentin Krueger | Canada | 240,000 | 96 |
Given the $10,000 buy-in, it was not surprising that the tournament attracted a plethora of notable players. Among those to make it through the day's play are Poland's all time money leader Dzmitry Urbanovich (253,000), 2023 Poker Players Championship fourth place finisher James Obst (185,000) and Poker Hall of Famer Daniel Negreanu (93,000).
Many other familiar faces took their seat at some point during the day but were unable to survive until the end of the night. Those unfortunate individuals include defending champion Eli Elezra, nine time bracelet winner Erik Seidel and one of the best Limit Hold'em players of all time, Jen Harman. As this event is a freezeout, they will all have to wait until next year to take another shot.
Day 2 resumes at 1:00 p.m. on July 3rd in the Paris Purple section with play starting in Level 11 with blinds of 1,000/2,500 with a 2,500 ante at which point late registration will be closed. Play will then continue for a further ten 60-minute levels and at some point during the day, the money bubble will burst.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews as its live reporting team continues to provide updates from Event #75: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship.