Day 1 of Event #25: $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better is in the books. Hal Klein leads the way with 77,100 in chips. He is followed by Luis Velador (59,100) and Pat Pezzin (58,400). The starting field of 241 has been winnowed down to 152, all of whom are looking to the first-place prize of $277,519 and a World Series of Poker gold bracelet.
A star-studded field turned out to play this event. Phil Ivey (23,800 in chips), Erik Seidel (12,200), Andy Bloch (30,100), Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier (25,400), Tom Schneider (23,400), and 13-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth (16,700) all survived the day will return for day 2 on Friday. Calen McNeil, the WSOP’s most recent Omaha Eight-or-Better bracelet winner, also entered this event, and finished the day with 14,400.
They were joined at the start of the day by several other big names. Jason Mercier, Brian Rast, Nick Schulman, David Bach, “Johnny World” Hennigan, and current player of the year leader Daniel Negreanu all started the tournament but busted out on day one.
Play resumes at 2 p.m. Friday in the Rio. PokerNews.com will be here all day to bring you live updates as Event #25 continues. For now, we'll leave you with Lynn Gilmartin who has all the highlights from around the Rio.
The PokerNews crew is back to talk about all of the happenings at the World Series of Poker, the news of Mark Scheinberg's settlement with the DOJ, the premier of Bet Raise Fold, and Matthew Parvis tells a story of a charity poker tournament he played with Irv Gotti and Ja Rule of Murder Inc.
Welcome to our coverage of Event #25: $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better.
Last year, Joe Cassidy bested a star-studded final table and a field of 256 players to capture a $294,777 first-place prize. The 2013 World Series of Poker is in the midst of a very heavy Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better portion as this event is sandwiched between Event #20: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better, Event #29: $5,000 H.O.R.S.E., and Event #31: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low 8-or-Better.
We expect a top-notch field to take part in what is the largest pure Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better event of the summer, so be sure to keep it here throughout the day as the quest to award another bracelet begins. Play is scheduled to begin at 5pm local time, about two hours from now, and eight one-hour levels will be played.
Until then, check out updates on the other events going on and also catch up on the other happenings at the Rio as Lynn Gilmartin gives you a rundown in our June 13th preview.
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