With a late surge on Day 2, Christopher Logue pulled ahead of the competition in Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, ending the day with a stack of 498,000 in his quest for his first WSOP gold bracelet. Of the 254 players who started the day, only 29 move on to Day 3.
Nipping at Logue's heels are James Chen, Jared Hemingway, Jon Seaman, Kevin Gerhart and Kate Hoang who all have over 300,000 in chips. Still in the hunt for an additional bracelet to add to their collections are Marco Johnson (224,000), Jim Collopy (433,000) and Benjamin Zamini (340,000).
There were 136 players who made it to the money today. The bubble broke just before the second break of the day with the unexpected elimination of Abdel Hamid which led to the remainder of the field (and some nursing half a big blind) to collect $2,253 for their efforts. Players who didn’t make it that far included John Monnette, David Bach, Victor Ramdin, Jeff Lisandro, Men Nguyen, Mike Wattel and Jon Turner.
Among those who did cash without moving on to Day 3 was last year’s winner Benny Glaser (120th - $2,315), Brandon Shack-Harris (92nd - $2,425), James Woods (71st - $3,116), Bruno Fitoussi (47th - $4,027) and Tuan Le (42nd - $4,027).
Players will return and need to eliminate two more before the final 27 get redrawn to the final three tables where they will play out the duration of the event.
Play resumes Saturday at 2 p.m., with the final four tables of players competing to determine the winner of the WSOP gold bracelet and first-place money of $238,620.
Paul Tedeschi's tournament run has just come to an end at the hands of Jared Hemingway.
With a board reading Tedeschi was all in holding . On the other end, Hemingway held for a straight, and that was enough to eliminate Tedeschi.
"Man, that guy had nine lives," Aron Dermer said, who was also sitting at the table. Despite those nine live, Tedeschi was sent to the payout desk to collect for his 35th place finish.
On a flop of Paul Tedeschi moved all in against Humberto Brenes and Jon Seaman. Both called and the three headed to a turn.
On the turn, Seaman bet and Brenes called.
The river was the and Seaman checked to Brenes who moved all in. Seaman called.
Brenes:
Seaman:
Tedeschi:
The river gave Tedeschi the winning high hand with trip sixes. While Brenes quartered Seaman in the side pot, the two chopped up the low half in the main pot.
A preflop war left Andreas Klatt all in and at risk while Benjamin Zamani and Geroge Dicambio were left heads up going to a flop.
The flop came and Zamani bet. Dicambio called.
The turn was the and Dicambio led at the pot. Zamani called.
The river was the and Dicambio checked. Zamani bet and Dicambio called. Zamani turned up for a straight and a low. Dicambio showed and thinking he had made a better hand, started taking back half the pot. But he was incorrect, Zamani's hand was good enough to scoop their side of the pot. Dicambio was forced to count out the difference and hand it over to Zamani.
"Holy s***," Dicambio said, realizing his mistake.
Meanwhile, Klatt turned up and it was not good for any side of the pot and he was eliminated from the tournament.
Rex Clinkscales had a rough level. For most of the day he cruised along just about where he started, but he found himself short stacked and all in after a preflop confrontation with Ken Aldridge.
Clinkscales:
Aldridge:
"Looks like I'm gonna need some diamonds," Aldridge said after seeing the hands.
But he didn't need diamonds. The board ran out to give him the nut straight and the only qualifying low. He scooped both pots and Clinkscales was eliminated from the tournament.
Benjamin Zamani opened with a raise from the cutoff. Next to act was James Woods and he contemplated for a bit before tossing in his last 5,000 chip to call all in. The small blind called the raise as well and the three took to a flop.
On the flop, the small blind checked to Zamani who bet. The small blind promptly folded and Woods and Zamani showed their hands.
Zamani:
Woods:
The board completed with and the , giving Zamani a full house, but a low for Woods to stay alive. With that, he increased his stack by a small amount just before the dinner break.
Valentin Vornicu raised from the hijack. James Chen then reraised from the small blind. Christopher Logue called from the big blind before Vornicu four-bet. Chen then capped it with a fifth bet. Logue and Vornicu called.
The flop came and Chen bet. Both his opponents called.
The turn brought the and Chen fired again. Logue called. Vornicu raised and then Chen came over the top. Logue called and Vornicu followed.
The completed the board and Chen checked. Logue bet. Vornicu and Chen called.
"Trip kings," announced Chen, as he tabled his for the high hand.
Logue then rolled over his for an ace-three low.
Vornicu let out a sigh before tabling his for two pairs and a worse low before watching his two opponents chop the almost 170,000 pot.