Tanita Leads the Final 13 in $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship
After an additional 10 levels of play on Day 2, Just 13 players remain in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship inside the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Leading the pack is Robert Tanita , who ended the day with 2,990,000. In a distant second is Brazilian pro Joao Simao, who managed to bag up 1,840,000. Rounding out the top three is Tyler Brown, who ended with 1,705,000.
Tanita has nearly $500,000 in live-tournament earnings and got third place in a WSOP $1,500 PLO 8 or Better event back in 2022. Tanita currently sits in pole position to take down the bracelet this time around.
An additional 35 players joined the fray before late registration ended early on Day 2, bringing the total field up to 259 entries and generating a prize pool of $2,408,700. The eventual winner will take home $536,713 in addition to the WSOP gold bracelet.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robert Tanita | United States | 2,990,000 | 100 |
| 2 | Joao Simao | Brazil | 1,840,000 | 61 |
| 3 | Tyler Brown | United States | 1,705,000 | 57 |
| 4 | Luis Velador | Mexico | 1,700,000 | 57 |
| 5 | Sterling Lopez | United States | 1,695,000 | 57 |
| 6 | Yuri Dzivielevski | Brazil | 1,275,000 | 43 |
| 7 | Joshua Thibodaux | United States | 1,030,000 | 34 |
| 8 | Jonathan Cohen | Canada | 855,000 | 29 |
| 9 | Brad Ruben | United States | 565,000 | 19 |
| 10 | Magnus Edengren | Sweden | 545,000 | 18 |
Day 2 Action
Alex Foxen was among the new players who joined on Day 2 and immediately put his stack to work. He managed to crack the aces of Warren Sheaves in the early going and rode that momentum all the way up until the final three tables.
Also joining the fray on Day 2 were poker legends Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth. The latter was eliminated soon after entering, but Ivey was able to steadily increase his stack throughout the day, including in a hand where he busted Stephen Chidwick early on.
Many notables fell short of the money, including Bart Hanson, Mike Matusow, Shaun Deeb, Erik Seidel, Brian Rast, Adam Friedman, and Cary Katz just to name a few. Ben Lamb ended up being the unfortunate “bubble boy” after he and Ivey both flopped trip aces and got all in. Ivey held the superior kicker and ended up improving to a full house to eliminate Lamb just shy of the money.
Tanita went on tear late in the evening by eliminating Dylan Weisman and Jesse Lonis in quick succession to surge into the chip lead just before the three-table redraw. Tanita held the chip lead at that point and never released it.
The pace of eliminations hastened vastly with three tables remaining. Ivey fell victim to Tanita after Tanita flopped a set of kings against Ivey’s aces to send Ivey out in 23rd place. Luis Velador managed to score a double knockout against Renan Bruschi and Foxen to send them out in 17th and 16th place respectively. The final elimination of the night occurred when Brown busted Viktor Blom with aces to send him out in 14th place.
Play is set to resume on Sunday, June 9 at 1 p.m. local time and will play down to five remaining contestants. Players will begin on Level 21, which features 15,000/30,000 blinds with a 30,000 big blind ante. Fifteen-minute breaks will be held after every two levels and an extended 60-minute break will occur after Level 26.
Be sure to keep it with PokerNews as we continue to bring you all the action leading to the next Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better champion!