Event #55: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship
Day 1 Started
2010 World Series of Poker
Event #55: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2010 World Series of Poker
Buy-in
$10,000
Prize Pool
$3,252,400
Entries
346
Level
33
Blinds
100,000 / 200,000
Ante
0
$10k Pot-Limit Omaha Ready To Roll
![[user67765]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Welcome back to the Rio Hotel and Casino for PokerNews' continued coverage of the 2010 World Series of Poker. It is our pleasure to bring to you one of the more entertaining events of the WSOP schedule. We're up to Event #55 and it's the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship which will no doubt bring out all of the pros for one of their last opportunities at WSOP gold this summer.
Last year this event attracted 295 players with Matt Graham defeating Vitaly Lunkin for the title and $679,379 in prize money. Will we get close to that number today? We're only a few minutes away from finding out!
Stay locked into PokerNews.com for all of your exclusive live updates from the tournament floor.
Level: 1
Blinds: 50/75
Ante: 0
Shuffle Up and Deal!
The immortal words have been spoken and the cards are in the air!
Who's Here?
On our first patrol around the blue section of the Amazon Room we've spotted plenty of well known players including the likes of Andy Black, Vitaly Lunkin, Tom Dwan, Shaun Deeb, Michael Mizrachi, Marco Traniello, Annette Obrestad, Eric Froehlich, David Benyamine, David Chiu, Andy Bloch and defending champ Matt Graham.
Today's Format - Having a Safety Net
One of the more interesting twists to this event is that each player is allocated a start bank of 7,500 chips, in addition to three red add-on chips worth an additional 7,500 each.
These add-on chips can be optionally used at anytime during the first four levels. So a player may choose to cash them in immediately to start with a deep 30,000-chip start bank, or they can save them up and use them if they get stacked. This effectively gives players some breathing room in the early levels to allow them to gamble it up a little bit if they like, safe in the knowledge that they have their add-on chips to fall back on if disaster strikes.
This means that our chip counts page will be a little distorted during the early stages, as some players may have used any or all of their add-on chips. Once we hit the dinner break after four levels, all players will be forced to cash in their add-on chips and we'll be on an equal playing field with no more safety net!
Hyman Comes from Behind to Take a Very Early Lead
On a 
flop, Mark Eddleman moved all in for 5,575. Zach Hyman called all in for 200 less, and Ted Lawson tank folded.
Eddleman: 
Hyman: 
The turn brought the 
, reversing the players fortunes and giving Hyman aces full of sixes. The 
river didn't switch things back, and Hyman took the pot, moving him up to 21,000 plus his three remaining rebuy chips. Eddleman cashed one in, so he's got 7,500 with two more rebuys.
PokerStars Well Represented
There are plenty of PokerStars patches in our field this afternoon, representing a wide range of continents and nations.
Dutch player Noah Boeken has been spotted in the field along with German George Danzer to give some voice for Europe.
South American will be supporting Humberto Brenes and Jose Nacho Barbero, while the USA will be looking towards Chad Brown, Jason Mercier and newly signed Team PokerStars Pro, and PLO goddess, Vanessa Selbst.
Danzer Wins the First Round
We arrived after the flop, which read 
. George Danzer and Fabrice Soulier had gotten all of their first round of chips in the middle in record time after it was dealt.
Danzer: 
Soulier: 
The 
turn was a brick, but the 
river gave Soulier a useless three pair and Danzer a much more helpful ten-high straight. He doubled up while Soulier had to cash in his first rebuy chip.
Sick Draw, Dude
This is one of the toughest fields of the year. It's a $10k, so most of the field is recognizable to start with. Plus it's the end of the summer, so most pros who are planning to show up for the Main are here by now and getting a piece of today's action. And on top of that, it's PLO, so there's a good chance if you don't a few faces at your table, they're prominent European players. Here are some of the toughest tables:
Table 283 - Benny Spindler, Vanessa Selbst, John Kabbaj, Cole South, Brett Richey, Jonas Entin, and Harry Pozefsky
Table 289 - Rui Cao, Brock Parker, David "Gaucho2121" Paredes, Daniel "AmichaiKK" Makowsky, and Jeff "YellowSub" Williams (who is already working out the terms of his crossbook with Tom Dwan)
Table 280 - David "Bakes" Baker, Eric Froehlich, Ashton Griffin, and Bruno Fitoussi
Table 302 - Barney Boatman, David Benyamine, Chris Bell, Sorrel Mizzi, Richard Ashby, and Shaun F. Deeb