Day One of Event #25: $5,000 Omaha Eight-or-Better is Complete

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.