Nitesh Rawtani raised to 60,000 in the cutoff and Dylan Weisman defended his big blind. Both players then checked on the A♣6♠K♥ flop before Weisman fired 120,000 on the K♠ turn.
Rawtani made the call, and did so too when Weisman bet 405,000 on the 4♠ river. Weisman showed 7♦6♣5♥4♣2♥ for the second nut low, but Rawtani had both ends of the pot with his A♠8♥4♥3♦2♣ for the nut low and two pair (aces-up).
Life Outside Poker is a new podcast for PokerNews hosted by Connor Richards that seeks to pull back the curtain on poker players and allow viewers and listeners to get to know them on a personal level.
In the seventh episode, Connor speaks with World Series of Poker (WSOP) commentator Norman Chad, one of the most recognizable voices in poker who has provided color commentary on poker's biggest stage for over 20 years.
Chad talks about getting his start as a sports writer in college, his decades-long syndicated sports humor column for the Washington Post and being asked to commentate on the 2003 WSOP Main Event that sparked the Poker Boom.
Chad also discusses the state of poker broadcasting today, the need for more color commentary in the booth, and the need for more interesting characters on the felt.
P.J. Cha made it 65,000 to go in the hijack before Dylan Weisman raised the pot to 240,000 in the cutoff. The action folded back to Cha, who threw in a call.
The flop fell K♣Q♦9♠ and Cha checked to Weisman. The latter then fired a pot-sized bet of 555,000 chips, the majority of Cha's stack.
Cha quickly let his hand go as he forfeited the pot to his opponent.
Today, the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas will be the scene for the third day of Event #37: $10,000 Big O Championship. This event is new on the schedule at the 2024 World Series of Poker and turned out to be a big success. A massive crowd of 332 people decided to buy in, creating a prize pool of $3,087,600.
However, only 19 players will return for Day 3 of the event, and among them is Dylan Weisman, who captured his second bracelet in Event #18: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha exactly one week ago.
Weisman is widely considered one of the most successful modern pot-limit Omaha tournament players but has been broadening his horizons recently by entering more mixed game and hi-lo events. His skill set seems to have transferred over well, as Weisman gathered 1,700,000 chips throughout the two days of play in the Big O Championship, landing him in third place on the leaderboard and granting him 57 big blinds to play with.
That is not to say that Weisman will have an easy path in front of him, as mixed-game legend and four-time bracelet winner Calvin Anderson bagged the chip lead on Day 2. Anderson was among the latest entries in the field, buying in near the end of the registration period early on Day 2, but spun his 60,000 starting chips to a stack of 2,385,000 before the day had ended.
Calvin Anderson
Also finding themselves in the top ten at the start of Day 3 are Poland’s Tomasz Gluszko (1,515,000), Colombian playmaker Farid Jattin (1,035,000), and bracelet winners David Benyamine (1,350,000) and Ryan Hughes (925,000).
Start of Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Calvin Anderson
United States
2,385,000
80
2
John Fauver
United States
2,125,000
71
3
Dylan Weisman
United States
1,700,000
57
4
Michael Rocco
United States
1,640,000
55
5
Tomasz Gluszko
Poland
1,515,000
51
6
David Benyamine
France
1,350,000
45
7
George Parublev
United States
1,050,000
35
8
Farid Jattin
Colombia
1,035,000
35
9
Ryan Hughes
United States
925,000
31
10
P.J. Cha
United States
925,000
31
Further down the counts one can find the likes of decorated players such as Anson Tsang (905,000), Danny Wong (890,000), and Adam Friedman (415,000), while Shiva Dudani (395,000) and Joe Ritzie (325,000) are on the bottom of the leaderboard with stacks worth less than 15 big blinds.
All 19 players have secured themselves a payday of at least $25,340, but they will be fighting tooth and nail to try and capture the top prize of $681,998 that accompanies the eventual Big O Champion’s bracelet.
Remaining Payouts
Place
Prize
1
$681,998
2
$454,668
3
$311,737
4
$217,783
5
$155,065
6
$112,573
7
$83,359
8
$62,985
9
$48,582
10-11
$38,269
12-15
$30,800
16-19
$25,340
The tournament will resume at 1 p.m. local time in the Horseshoe Event Center. The blinds will restart at Level 21, blinds 15,000/30,000 with a 30,000 ante. All levels will have a duration of 60 minutes, with a 15-minute break after every two of them. A dinner break is scheduled after Level 26, around 7:30 p.m. local time. The plan is to play down to the final five players, who will then bag up and return for the fourth and final day on Sunday.
Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the five-card action, and don’t forget to check out our WSOP hub for coverage of all the live bracelet events.
