PLO Stars Return With Big Stacks for Day 2 of $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship
Today, at 1 p.m. local time, 245 enjoyers of four-card poker will reconvene at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas for Day 2 of Event #66: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship. They have made it through a field of 726 people on Day 1, almost eclipsing last year’s numbers with two levels of late registration to go on Day 2.
As with any $10,000 buy-in Championship event at the World Series of Poker, many of the best players in the world participated in the prestigious freezeout tournament. Starting Day 2 with monster stacks are British PLO expert Richard Gryko (398,000), long-time online nosebleed PLO crusher Eelis Parssinen (384,000), his fellow countryman Juha Helppi (384,000), defending champion Lou Garza (287,000) and his heads up opponent Arthur Morris (335,000), and high rollers Danny Tang (315,000) and Kahle Burns (290,500).
However, none of them could top James Chen. Chen focuses almost solely on Omaha tournaments, winning his first bracelet this year in the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo event. He spun his 60,000 starting chips up to 675,500 of them on Day 1 and will begin Day 2 as chipleader with 225 big blinds.
Jim Collopy also has an Omaha bracelet under his belt and is the only other player who starts today with more than ten starting stacks as he amassed 636,500 chips. Meanwhile, Josh Arieh bagged 410,000 chips in the hunt for his fourth Omaha bracelet and seventh overall, while Michael Mizrachi trails him closely with 405,000 chips as he is looking for his first bracelet in this discipline, but his sixth overall.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | James Chen | United States | 675,500 | 225 |
| 2 | Jim Collopy | United States | 636,500 | 212 |
| 3 | Shawn Stroke | United States | 546,500 | 182 |
| 4 | Nino Pansier | Netherlands | 514,500 | 172 |
| 5 | Daniel Barriocanal | Spain | 505,500 | 169 |
| 6 | Fahredin Mustafov | Bulgaria | 455,000 | 152 |
| 7 | Cuba Levenberry | United States | 421,000 | 140 |
| 8 | Josh Arieh | United States | 410,000 | 137 |
| 9 | Michael Mizrachi | United States | 405,000 | 135 |
| 10 | Kazuhiko Yotsushika | Japan | 400,500 | 134 |
David Williams (257,500), Noah Boeken (226,000), Alex Foxen (202,000), Chance Kornuth (192,500), and Yuri Dzivielevski (191,000) also start with an above-average stack, while the likes of Erick Lindgren (59,000), Jeff Madsen (58,000), and Niklas Astedt (25,700) have less than a starting stack in their bags and are searching for some double-ups.
The tournament will resume in Level 11, blinds 1,500/3,000 with a 3,000 big blind ante. All levels will remain 60 minutes long, with a 15-minute break after every two and a 60-minute dinner break after Level 16. Anyone who wishes to jump in can still do so until Level 13 starts, which is around 3:15 p.m. local time.
The tournament is scheduled to play ten levels on Day 2, after which the remaining players will bag and tag for Day 3, which will take place June 28.
Stay tuned to PokerNews as an action-packed Day 2 of the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship will be reported live to you straight from the tournament floor.