Bowers Leads Final 48 After Day 2; Astedt and Pärssinen Among Big Stacks
Thanks to the extended late registration in Event #66: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, the Main Event of the four-card aficionados has set a new milestone. With a total of 811 entries, last year's attendance of 731 entries was obliterated to generate a massive prize pool of $7,542,300.
Some of the cash prizes have already been awarded, as the field was whittled down to just 48 survivors in the latest gold bracelet event of the 2024 World Series of Poker at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Leading the way by some margin is the UK's Jonathan Bowers with 3,300,000, but he faces plenty of big names with plenty of chips at their disposal. Niklas "Lena900" Astedt (2,300,000) and Eelis "EEE27" Pärssinen (1,965,000) can for example be found in the overnight top ten. Both online wizards have already showcased their talents in the live poker arena, with Pärssinen, in particular, having notched up more than $5.6 million in cashes and a bracelet in a Mixed No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha three years ago.
France's Elie Nakache sits in second place with 2,795,000 ahead of Uri Reichenstein (2,630,000) and Nino Pansier carried over his large stack from Day 1 to advance with 2,020,000.
End of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonathan Bowers | United Kingdom | 3,300,000 | 110 |
| 2 | Elie Nakache | France | 2,795,000 | 93 |
| 3 | Uri Reichenstein | Israel | 2,630,000 | 88 |
| 4 | Niklas Astedt | Sweden | 2,300,000 | 77 |
| 5 | Nino Pansier | Netherlands | 2,020,000 | 67 |
| 6 | Eelis Parssinen | Finland | 1,965,000 | 66 |
| 7 | James Carroll | United States | 1,890,000 | 63 |
| 8 | Sonny Franco | France | 1,885,000 | 63 |
| 9 | Joshua Adkins | United States | 1,555,000 | 52 |
| 10 | Amit Ben Yacov | Israel | 1,500,000 | 50 |
Several other PLO specialists are still in contention as well such as Vasil Medarov (1,485,000), Kabeelan Rajamurthy (1,380,000), Richard Gryko (845,000), Ferenc Deak (680,000), Krzysztof Magott (335,000) and Tim Grau (300,000). They will be joined on Day 3 by big names including Noah Boeken, Michael Mizrachi, Stephen Chidwick and Jerry Wong.
David Benyamine (785,000), Chidwick (755,000), and Frank Crivello (625,000) were just some of the 85 Day 2 entrants who not only reached the money but retained their chances at the coveted WSOP gold bracelet.
Notables in the money included Day 1 chip leader James Chen, Jim Collopy, Allan Le, Xixiang Luo, John Hennigan, 2022 $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller winner Tong Li, Danny Tang, and Joni Jouhkimainen.
Five-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser reached the top 100 spots but had to settle for a min-cash of $20,099. Last year's $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller champion Ka Kwan Lau also reached the money and bowed out in 104th place for the same amount.
The money bubble burst before the remaining field headed into the dinner break when Canada's [b]Marcello Del Grosso[/b] could not survive a three-way showdown with Kristopher Burchfield and Adam Lamphere.
Many other four-card aficionados didn't even make it that far. Last year's runner-up Arthur Morris, for example, bowed out early on and took to social media to describe his demise.
Juha Helppi, Koray Aldemir, Alex Foxen, Phil Ivey, David "Doc" Sands, Dan Smith, Joao Vieira and Maria Ho and Ryan Riess were just some high-profile casualties that came up short of the cash prizes as well.
The remaining 48 players have earned $27,471 for their efforts so far, but after the next elimination, their pay will jump to $31,242.
Day 3 is set to recommence at 1 p.m. local time in the Silver section of the Horseshoe Event Center, and the penultimate tournament day is scheduled to play at least ten levels of 60 minutes each or down to the final five.
Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to find out who will be crowned as the winner in the biggest $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship in the history of the WSOP.