2018 World Series of Poker

While the WSOP Main Event has taken the center stage this week, the 2018 WSOP schedule offers a bunch of events going alongside the marquee tournament. One of them is the Event #69: PLO 6-Max that saw plenty of famous players take to the felt, mainly after finishing their campaigns in the Main.

A total of 901 entries have helped push the prize pool over $2.4 million with the champion getting a $475,033 winner's cheque. There will be 136 players walking away with prizes and the field has dwindled to 202 players through the first ten levels of play, so the bubble should be reached early on Day 2.

Jarred Solomon bagged more than anybody with an impressive 286,000 in chips, good for over 200 big blinds when the play resumes. Solomon hails from Johannesburg and he's on a mission to follow the footsteps of his fellow countrymen Hugh Todd and Norman Keyser to become the third player to bring the bracelet to South Africa.

There's never an easy path leading to the ultimate poker trophy but this one might be an exceptionally tough considering the stacked field. Even more troubling could be the fact that some of the sickos are already in possession of large stacks. And when the likes of Max Silver get going, it's hard to stop them.

Silver played straight from the first level and he started crushing right away, increasing his piles to 75,000 within the first three hours. He was above the 200,000-mark just minutes before the play was halted but eventually had to settle for 187,000. It's still far above the average stack but Silver finished second on his table with Romain Lewis bagging 215,700.

While Silver is notoriously known for his PLO prowess, Dominik Nitsche is yet to make his name in the four-card game. Nitsche is one of the most accomplished no-limit players in Europe with four bracelets under his belt. After collecting a small cash in the PLO Giant, Nitsche is now chasing his first major success in Omaha. Bagging 220,200 at the end of Day 1 is surely a way to go.

The list of survivors include tons of familiar faces such as Scott Bohlman, Daniel Negreanu, Anthony Zinno, Randy Ohel, Erik Seidel, Chance Kornuth and Connor Drinan, to name a few. They'll all come back Monday, July 9 at 2pm local time to continue their pursuit. Come back to PokerNews then to follow the continuous live updates.

Each table will play three more hands before players bag chips for the night.

The complete board of was already out and there were about 24,500 chips in the middle when we got to the table. Scott Bohlman was under the gun and had already committed 20,000 on the river. Brian Rast had shoved from the cutoff for what looked like 82,100 and Bohlman went deep into the tank. After several minutes, he called with a covering stack.

"Queen-nine," announced Rast as he turned over for nines full of queens.

Bohlman tabled for the same boat and the dealer began to split the pot.

"What just happened?!" exclaimed Ryan Goindoo, who was seated to Bohlman's immediate right.

"This guy has been waiting to get off this table," said Bohlman in reference to Goindoo.

"Not anymore! Lock the doors!" Goindoo pointed across the felt to Rast. "I used to think you were so good!"

The table roared with laughter.

Under the gun, Romain Lewis made it 3,000, earning a call from Max Silver. The big blind came along and they went to the flop.

Silver didn't wait for anyone and led out 6,500, getting rid of the big blind. Lewis, however, stuck around and the two monster stacks continued to the turn.

Silver tossed in 15,000 and Lewis immediately threw his cards away, avoiding any further clash between the two players who are only minutes away from bagging top five stacks.

With 5,500 chips in the middle and the board reading , Jody Fayant checked from the big blind and Daniel Negreanu bet 3,500 from the hijack. Fayant called.

The river brought the and both players checked. Fayant announced "ace-nine" and tabled .

"It's good," said Negreanu as he turned over and realized almost immediately that his hand was the winner since he had nines and sixes to Fayant's nines and deuces.

"I'm sorry, my brain is doing too many things. But at least I tabled it," Negreanu said.

"I guess I should have bet the river," replied Fayant with a laugh.