Event 8: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better
Day 1 Started
2012 World Series of Poker
Event 8: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2012 World Series of Poker
Buy-in
$1,500
Entries
967
Level
31
Blinds
50,000 / 100,000
Ante
0
Welcome to Event 8: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better
Welcome to Day 1 coverage of Event 8, the $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. As the only event starting today, we expect a sizable field filled with plenty of notables to take part in the first Omaha event of the series.
Last year's tournament drew a field of 925 and outlasting them all was Francesco Barbaro. He defeated a final table that included Matt Waxman, Humberto Brenes, and Vladimir Shchemelev to win his first bracelet. Other past winners of this event include Michael Chow (2010), Thang Luu (2009 and 2008), and Alex Kravchenko (2007).
Play is set to kick off at noon local time, about one hour from now, so be sure to keep it here throughout the day for updates on all of the exciting action as it takes place.
Level: 1
Limits: 50/100
Ante: 0
Play Ball!
![[user66118]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
Jack Effel has just run through the announcements for the players, and we're ready to kick this thing off. The board shows just over 650 players registered, and the Brasilia Room is nearly full.
The cards have gone in the air.
A Few Faces
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
The seats continue to fill in here, and we're ticking up over 700 players registered.
Our first walk through half the room turned up a decent list of notable faces. The first one we saw was Chris Bjorin, fresh off a runner-up finish in Event #4 last night. Late last night. Play finished up close to 4:00am, but Bjorin is back here this afternoon looking bright-eyed and ready to play some Omaha.
Also in the house, some other bracelet winners and notables. Frank Kassela, David Bach, John Monnette, Tom Schneider, Owais Ahmed, Amnon Filippi, "Miami" John Cernuto, Justin Bonomo, Ari Engel, David Paredes, and Dan O'Brien have all shown themselves in the Brasilia Room.
A Few Big Dogs of Omaha: Clements, Force and Stern
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
With the tournament field increasing by the minute as more and more players buy in, we've been spotting more and more notable faces in the field. Three of the players we've seen particularly stick out to us for various reasons. Those three are Scott Clements, Max Stern and Leif Force.
Scott Clements from his win at the 2007 WSOP
Clements is the first of these three that we'll talk about as he holds numerous WSOP accolades in the game of Omaha including two World Series of Poker gold bracelets. In 2006, Clements won the $3,000 Omaha Hi-Low for $301,175. In 2007, he won the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. He also has a second, a third, a seventh and a ninth in other Omaha events.
If you take a look at the WSOP All-Time Omaha Hi-Low money list, Clements has $747,828 in earnings and is second to only Sammy Farha. He's 112th on the WSOP All-Time Omaha money list with $194,206 in earnings.
Leif Force from his bracelet victory last night
Force is right back in action after winning Event 3: $3,000 Heads-Up No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha last night. He defeated Jason Koon heads up to win his first-ever WSOP gold bracelet for $207,708.
Along with his standout win last night, Force has several WSOP cashes to his name. In total, his record boasts seven of them, including a stellar 11th-place finish in the 2006 Main Event for a whopping $1,154,527. From those WSOP finishes and including his win last night, Force has a total of $312,644 in WSOP earnings in tournament that contain some variant of Omaha.
Max Stern from the 2011 WSOP
Stern has a gold bracelet of his own and it's in the game we're playing today, Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. Back in 1995, Stern won the $1,500 Omaha 8-or-Better event for $140,400. He has two other bracelets coming from Seven Card Stud Split and No-Limit Hold'em, which shows he's versed in many different games.
Field Growing
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
The tournament board now reads that there are 784 entrants in the field with just about 10 minutes left in the first level.
New to Omaha? PokerNews Has You Covered
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
Today's Event 8: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better is yet another tournament at the 2012 World Series of Poker that includes a game other than No-Limit Hold'em. The game we're talking about is Omaha Hi-Low.
For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the game, you can refer to the PokerNews Poker Rules: Omaha Poker page to check things out and get a feel for how the game is played. The page is complete with game rules, terms and also strategy links.
Omaha is similar to Hold'em in that it is a flop game, but instead of two hole cards, you receive four. The trick is that you must you two cards from your hole cards and only two cards, to make your best five-card hand at the end. This is the part that sometimes confuses people new to the game as they'll make the mistake of only using one card from their hand or trying to use three. This game is also a split-pot game with the high hand getting half of the pot and the low hand getting the other half of the pot. Just like Hold'em, there is a betting round preflop followed a betting round after each of the flop, turn and river.
Baldwin with an Early Wheel
Level 1
: 50/100, 0 ante
Three players including World Series of Poker bracelet winner Eric Baldwin put in two bets preflop before the 
flop came down. Baldwin led with a bet and the next player called. The third player raised and both Baldwin and the other player made the call.
The turn was the 
and everyone checked to see the 
land on the turn. Baldwin bet out and was called by both of his opponents.
Baldwin showed the 
for a wheel that was good enough to scoop the high and the low to win the entire pot.
Baldwin earned his WSOP gold bracelet in 2009 when he won a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em for $521,991. He has two other WSOP final tables and also an 11th-place finish in the 2010 $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Championship for $34,814.
Level: 2
Limits: 75/150
Ante: 0