With the average chip stack over 100,000 and the blinds 600/1,200, there's no need for most players to gamble it up at this point. Aside from a couple of high drama hands, the last level of the night has been characterized by a series of mostly harmless, minor skirmishes as players appear mostly disinclined to play big pots. Quite a contrast from how Day 1 began.
Erick Lindgren limped from under the gun, Richard Ashby also limped, Josh Arieh raised to 6,600, and Michael Binger called. Lindgren called, and Ashby got out of the way.
The flop came . Lindgren checked, Arieh bet 16,000, and then Binger raised with his last 62,900. Lindgren said, "Let's put it all in," and reraised. Arieh folded.
Lindgren:
Binger:
Binger had two pair and the straight draw, while Lindgren had his aces and a flush draw.
The turn was the , giving Binger his straight. But the river was the , and Binger's day ended just a few minutes before the end of Day 1.
After the hand, David Chiu picked up Lindgren's and chuckled. "I didn't think I was going to be using those two," said Lindgren.
One last big hand before play concluded, involving Daniel Negreanu. Said Negreanu during the hand, "I just want to get chips or go home," explaining if things didn't work out that would free him up to play the $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold'em event tomorrow.
On a flop of , Negreanu bet 6,000 from the big blind, David Williams raised to 21,000, and Negreanu called. The turn came the . Negreanu checked, Williams bet 40,500, and Negreanu called with his remaining chips.
Negreanu:
Williams:
The river was the . Negreanu's straight doubled him up, so it looks like he'll be back here in Event No. 28 tomorrow.
Staff rushed us out before we could count up the chips, but come back a little later for updated, official chip counts for all of the remaining players.
Of the 152 players who entered today's $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha with Rebuys event, only 54 will be returning tomorrow for Day 2.
The day began with three manic hours of loose play as players rebought time and time again, building the overall prize pool to over $3 million.
A lot of the excitement of the first couple of hours revolved around that eye-popping Table No. 15, which at one time saw Erick Lindgren, Phil Hellmuth, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, and Robert Williamson III all sitting around it. A stacked table in more than one sense -- over 30 WSOP bracelets between 'em, and with all of those rebuys a ton of chips in play.
Once the rebuy period ended, play became relatively less wild, although we still saw several huge pots, some multi-way, as is characteristic of Omaha.
Come back tomorrow at 3pm Vegas time to see who from this loaded field survives to Monday's final table.
Play came to a close shortly after 3am in the opening session of Event 28, $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha w/ Rebuys. The 152-player field has already been trimmed to 54, with the overnight top ten as follows:
Emmanuel Sebag 466,200
David Benyamine 343,700
Erick Lindgren 262,800
Adam Hourani 236,400
John Juanda 213,300
Eli Elezra 205,800
Phil Hellmuth 201,800
Brian Rast 178,200
Daniel Negreanu 176,400
Thomas Wahlroos 171,200
Action resumes in this one at 3pm PDT on Sunday. Check in for the latest live reports, direct from the Amazon Room.