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More stars than the night sky are giving this Omaha event a bash, including: Lex Veldhuis, Ted Lawson, Davidi Kitai, Noah Boeken and recent bracelet winner James Dempsey. Also sneaking into the field is WSOPE bracelet winner Dario Aliotto of Italy.
And yes, this list includes Americans (**** Yeah!) as well:
Gavin Griffin, Scotty Nguyen (baby), Barny Boatman, Robert Williamson III, Scott "BigRiskky" Clements, JC Tran, Young Phan, Lee Watkinson, Floria Langmann, Jon "PearlJammer" Turner, Allen "albari" Bari, Keven "stammdogg" Stammen, Isaac Haxton, Josh Arieh, Kevin "Bel0wAb0ve" Saul, Amnon Filippi, Hevad Khan, Erik Cajelais, "Miami" John Cernuto and Erick Lindgren.
Seeing as though this event is considered a European speciality (although Americans still seem to win it!), I feel obliged to highlight some of those European names who have taken their seat. In fact, this event seems to have marked the arrival of many European-based players. Husband and wife due Tom and Pippa Flanders are here, as are Russian duo Kirill Gerasimov and Vitaly Lunkin. Florian Langmann, Dave Callaghan, Neil Channing, Ben Roberts and the Devilfish are also present, but perhaps one lesser known player to look out for is Sigi Stockinger, a highly respected cash game pro from Austria who has his fair share of tournament results to boot.
With Omaha being such a turbulent affair in which variance can run riot, this year, Harrah's have implemented a second chance stipulation, in which players are allocated three extra red tokens worth 1,000 each on top of the initial 1,500. Players can exchange these tokens for chips at any time as long as they're in a hand, although I expect many will wait until they've bust their initial starting stack before 'topping up'. It will be interesting to see what strategy various players adopt; many who believe they have an edge may well dispose of them immediately after the starting whistle.
Level: 1
Blinds: 25/25
Ante: 0
Good afternoon and welcome back to the 2010 World Series of Poker!
Today is Day 1 of Event #20: $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha. It is the second of nine events where the game is Omaha and the first of five where it is only Omaha Hi.
Jason “treysfull” Mercier took this event down last year after besting 809 runners. He defeated Steve “pikappraider” Burkholder heads up for $237,415 and of course the WSOP gold bracelet.
Mercier currently has 49,400 chips in Event #19: $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball Championship, so we shall see whether or not he will be here to defend his title.
Michael Chow took down the first Omaha event of this year’s series. It was Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, and Chow worked his way through a field of 818 runners beating Dan Heimiller heads up for $237,140 and he bracelet.
This tournament is a little different than others. Rather than starting with three times the buy-in, players will start with 1,500 in tournament chips and three add-ons worth 1,000 tournament chips a piece. Players can add-on at anytime during the first four levels, and after four levels they will be automatically added to the player's stack.
We anticipate a tough field full of great action, so keep it locked for all your exclusive live updates right here at PokerNews.com!
Event #20: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
Day 1 Started
