Phil Hellmuth limped in from the button and Guofeng Wang made it 12,000 to go in the small blind. Hellmuth made the call, and called off his final 16,000 chips on the J♣J♦6♠ flop.
Phil Hellmuth: Q♠10♥9♥8♦
Guofeng Wang: K♥K♣10♣4♦
The Q♥ turn gave Hellmuth outs, but Wang's kings held on the 4♥ river as he eliminated the 17-time bracelet winner.
Arriving on a flop of 4♣9♠4♥, Nick Schulman went all in for 20,000 chips. Christopher DelGrande and Shiva Dudani then also got all of their chips in, with Dudani's stack of 124,000 being at risk.
Nick Schulman: A♠8♠6♥4♠
Shiva Dudani: J♥J♣9♥9♦
Christopher DelGrande: A♣10♣4♦3♥
Schulman and DelGrande had both flopped trips, but were drawing near-dead against Dudani's full house. The turn blanked out before the 9♣ river gave Dudani quads to rake in the pot in style, sending Schulman out.
Jake Liebeskind raised to 10,000 on the button. Allan Le in the big blind three-bet the pot and then called when Liebeskind pushed all-in for a short stack of 40,500.
Jake Liebeskind: 9♦9♣6♣6♠
Allan Le: A♥A♣7♥4♣
The clubs were no good for Liebeskind and he found no help on a board of J♠10♣2♣2♦A♠.
On a flop of 9♣6♦4♠, Amnon Filippi checked and so did Conrad De Armas from under the gun. Joni Jouhkimainen then bet 15,000 and Filippi called. De Armas raised the pot and Jouhkimainen pushed all-in. Filippi folded whereas De Armas called with the covering stack.
Joni Jouhkimainen: K♠10♣9♠9♦
Conrad De Armas: A♦Q♠10♠10♥
The 8♣ turn and Q♣ river changed nothing and Jouhkimainen doubled for 171,500.
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.
James Chen
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.
