ESPN's voice of poker Norman Chad and 2013 WSOP $5,000 Stud-8 winner, Mike Matusow, have been sitting right next to one another and it appears to be a table looking for action.
Matusow brought it in with the moments ago, but was forced to call two bets after Ryan Miller raised, David Chiu called and Chad bumped it up. Miller and Chiu also called, but when Chad kept betting on fourth, Chui and Matusow stepped out of the way.
Chad kept the lead and bet the whole way through the hand until Miller raised him on the end. He called and the pot was chopped.
The board reads just 52 entries but we expect that to at least double over the next few levels. Below are a select number of recognizable names that showed up on time:
In 2013, the largest buy-in seven-card stud hi-low tournament at the World Series of poker was $5,000. The winner was Mike "The Mouth" Matusow, who earned $266,503 and his fourth gold bracelet.
This variant of seven-card stud is in several cash game rotations, but the buy-in at the WSOP has fluctuated over the years. In 2009 there was a $10,000 buy-in, but it was slashed in half, as mentioned above. Three years before 2009, it was as low as $1,000.
Here's a look at some of the past champions:
Past WSOP Seven-Card-Stud Hi-Low 8-or-Better Champtions
Year
Buy-in
Player
Prize
Entrants
Prize Pool
2006
$1,000
Pat Poels
$172,091
788
$717, 080
2007
$3,000
Eli Elezra
$198,984
236
$651,360
2008
$5,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg
$328,756
261
$1,226,700
2009
$10,000
Jeff Lisandro
$431,656
164
$1,541,600
2010
$10,000
Frank Kasella
$447,446
170
$1,598,000
2011
$10,000
Eric Rodawig
$442,183
168
$1,579,200
2012
$5,000
Adam Friedman
$269,037
212
$996,400
We expect a star-studded field to fill up the Amazon Room, even with a marquee $5,000 buy-in no-limit event restarting today. There are four more $10,000 buy-in championship events to take place after Event #38: pot-limit Omaha, seven-card stud hi, limit hold'em, and heads-up no-limit hold'em.
The cards will be in the air at 4 p.m. PT, and we look forward to providing you all of the updates straight from the tournament floor!