Event 25 - $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo 8-or-better Day 1 | 2009 World Series of Poker

06-11-2009 12:53 UTC-12

Katja Catches on the Turn

[user46298]

German pro player Katja Thater (who took down the 2007 $1,500 Razz bracelet) seems at home with Omaha Hi-Lo too. She just chopped an Omaha pot showing {Q-Spades}

on the river with the board standing {9-Spades}

. Her opponent took the low, but asked to see her whole four-card hand, as is required at showdown... It was flipped so fast I missed it, but her opponent seemed satisfied with that glimpse and half the pot.

Interestingly, before taking up poker full time, Thater used to compete in dressage tournaments, and still participates in her spare time.

Tags: Katja Thater

06-11-2009 12:41 UTC-12

Shannon-ymous?

[user46298]

Allen Kessler (who's sat at the table nearest the PokerNews computer) asked me if Shannon Elizabeth was playing today. It being early, and the room not yet swept, I answered that I wasn't sure but would get back to him. "You must know who Shannon Elizabeth is?" he asked, incredulous, having picked up the wrong end of the stick with both hands.

I know there are few in the room who do not know the movie starlet/poker player, and I also know that she's not had the best early half-level. Just now in Omaha/8 she called a utg raise to 150, seeing a flop of {3-Spades}

. The utg player bet, she called. Exactly the same thing happened on the {9-Hearts}

turn, but the {5-Clubs}

river was checked.

Elizabeth's opponent showed {4-Clubs}

and she mucked her hand.

Tags: Allen Kessler Shannon Elizabeth

06-11-2009 12:36 UTC-12

More Cards than Players

[user46298]

Each table is currently playing six-handed. I heard a dealer annoucement to keep the Four and Eight seats' chips in the well, as these are presumably left for late entrants (having spaces spread evenly over the room also eliminates the problem of friends registering together and then being given neighbouring seats). I also overheard two guys pass this table sighing and saying, "Yeah, I just busted too. So I guess it's Stud and Omaha then."

"Yeah, let's get to the cage. It's only level one."

06-11-2009 12:31 UTC-12

Who Plays This Game Anyway?

[user46298]

290 players are prepared to stump up the $2,500 buy-in to this event, actually, and that number is steadily rising like the temperature in Las Vegas this week.

Among them are Jeff Lisandro and Vinny Vinh (sharing a table), Eli Elezra, Scott Clements, Miami John Cernuto, Dutch Boyd, Steve Wong, Brock Parker, Jerry Buss and Carlos Mortensen.

These familiar names join last year's perma-casher Nikolay Evdakov, and former Razz bracelet winner Katja Thater. All manner of experienced and simply poker-immersed players seem to want to give the mixed games a go this year, and we fully expect the number of entrants to top 300 any second now.

Level: 1

Blinds: 0/0

Ante: 0

06-11-2009 12:01 UTC-12

Event 25: Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Low About to Commence

[user46298]

A section of the Brazilia room which would be considered of reasonable size, had today not hosted one of the WSOP's $1,500 No Limit events which dwarfs all poker tournaments before it, has been set aside for the Omaha/Stud $2,500 event. Two games, two halves to the pots, two minutes before scheduled start time...

Live coverage for all three days coming up right here on Pokernews.