WSOP Day 24: Yu Leads Biggest Omaha Tournament of Year, Negreanu Falls

June 22, 2018

Frank Op de Woerd

After a long, dramatic Day 2, Ben Yu has the chip lead with 35 left in Event #42: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller after Daniel Negreanu suffered an unlucky beat to go out of the event yesterday. Matt Woodward returns as the chip leader with 19 left today in Event #41: $1,500 Limit Hold’em. Meanwhile three new events get going today, including the first-ever online pot-limit Omaha event.

Event #41: $1,500 Limit Hold'em

Just 19 players remain in what's the first of just three limit hold'em events of the summer.

Matt Woodward, who finished runner-up to Pieter de Korver in the 2009 EPT Grand Final Monaco for over $1.7 million, currently leads with 22 big bets.

Woodward's competition on the final day includes players like Kevin Song (18 big bets), Matt Grapenthien (12 big bets), and David Gee (10 big bets).

The tournament is well into the money as it attracted a field of 596 entries. Players are each guaranteed $4,711 at this point, with all vying for the first-place prize of $173,568 and the bracelet.

Action gets back underway at 12 noon, so check back then for all the live poker updates you can ask for, right from the tournament floor.

Event #42: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller

In the spotlight event of the day, the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, a 14-hour day was played yesterday that included a hand-for-hand period that took just shy of three hours and 50 total hands.

The event attracted a record-breaking 230 entries to make for a $5,462,500 prize pool, and after that grueling Day 2 two-time bracelet winner Ben Yu leads with 3,695,000 in chips.

Yu has a significant lead over his next closest opponent, Jason Koon, who will bring 2,540,000 in chips as he sits in second place.

Daniel Negreanu, who started the day third in chips, did not make it through. He suffered a cruel beat to go out well before the money.

Just 35 players remain, all guaranteed $37,500. That will not be enough for a positive return of investment for some, as one re-entry per player was permitted. The list of remaining players reads like a who's who of famous poker players with Shaun Deeb (2,120,000), Scotty Nguyen (2,010,000), Jason Mercier (1,905,000), Robert Mizrachi (1,005,000), and Erik Seidel (725,000) just a small selection of the batch of familiar faces remaining.

Defending champ James Calderaro is also still in the mix; he brings a bag with 705,000 in chips in it to the table today.

Day 3 of the event gets underway at 2 p.m. local time with blinds of 15,000 and 30,000. While this third day is scheduled to be the closing day, it's not out of the question for this event to go a day longer, like it did last year. Check the live updates to see how things develop as they try to play down to a winner.

Event #43: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em

A massive field of 1,071 entrants ponied up the buy-in of $2,500 for this no-limit hold'em event. After Day 1, just 297 players remain with 188 players making the money. A min-cash is worth $3,743 while the top-prize of the $2,808,000 prize pool is set at $507,274.

When the action gets back underway at 12 noon, it's Ashwin Sarin in the lead with a stack of 166,200. Considering everyone started with 12,500 in chips, he has more than 13 times the starting stack already.

Others who spun their stacks up more than tenfold yesterday include Steve Foutty (155,800), Josh Bergman (145,000), Markus Gonsalves (143,700), and bracelet winner and high roller David Peters (140,500).

High Roller David Peters among those through to Day 2

Some of the other many notables to make it through to Day 2 with big stacks are Chris Hunichen (131,500), Marton Czuczor (128,300), Valentin Vornicu (124,900), Ismael Bojang (122,000), Aditya Agarwal (119,700), and Chino Rheem (105,000).

The tournament resumes at 12 noon with 600/1,200 blinds and a 200 ante to start. PokerNews will, of course, have all the live reporting updates you can ask for.

Event #44: $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship

The final installment of 2-7 at the 2018 World Series of Poker kicked off on Thursday afternoon with Day 1 of the $10K 2-7 Triple Draw Championship. The prestigious event attracted a total of exactly 100 entries with just 41 moving on to Day 2.

Sitting atop the counts after the first ten levels of play was Michael Noori who built his starting stack of 50,000 up to 335,000. Professional soccer player Max Kruse from Germany, who has been a staple in the 2-7 events the last few years, ended last night second-best after bagging 282,000.

Christopher Kruk (247,500), Luke Schwartz (200,000), Lawrence Berg (171,000), and Andrey Zhigalov (170,500) round out the top of the leaderboard in a field that's dominated by big names.

Vanessa Selbst made her return to the WSOP in this event and bagged a 120,000-chip stack. During one of the breaks, PokerNews caught up with her to see what made her come out for this event:

The tournament resumes at 2 p.m. and PokerNews will once more bring you all the live updates.

Event #45: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em (30 minute levels)

Things kick off at 11 a.m. local time with a new event on the schedule; the $1,000 no-limit hold'em turbo.

This event is scheduled as a two-day affair with 30-minute blind levels and a starting stack of 5,000. Late registration is open for the first eight levels, and the tournament will enforce a big-blind ante.

One can expect some big names in this event, despite the relatively low buy-in of $1,000. Players are, after all, always looking for action and the prospect of being able to capture a bracelet in just two days must be enticing. Check PokerNews all day for live updates from the start of this fast-paced event.

Event #46: $2,500 Mixed: Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better; Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better

The afternoon event that gets underway on this 24th day of the 2018 World Series of Poker will be a mix of Omaha hi/lo and stud hi/lo. At a price point of $2,500, the hi-lo aficionados of the world will come to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino to work out who's the best.

In 2017, Smith Sirisakorn took down the event for $215,902, beating a field of 405 entries to score his, to date, only live tournament cash.

Players will receive 12,500 in chips and play 10 hour-long levels on Day 1. Of course, PokerNews will bring you all the updates from this three-day event starting at 3 p.m.

Event #47: $565 WSOP.com ONLINE Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed

Online bracelets events are no new features on the schedule, but an online Omaha bracelet is!

This online event gets underway at 3:30 p.m. with play on the WSOP.com Nevada and WSOP.com New Jersey software all the way through.

Important to notice here is that one cannot play Omaha on the mobile client. Players must use the desktop client to be able to compete. So bring your laptop if you want to play at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, because the mobile app for Android and iOS won't work for Omaha.

Another stipulation that deserves attention, though this is the case for all re-entry events on WSOP.com, is that players who bust out and choose to re-enter have 30 seconds to do so. You have to make sure you have enough money in your account to re-enter right away, or you'll be left out.

Players start with 15,000 in chips and blinds at 50/100. Blind levels are 20 minutes long with late registration open for 3 hours and 45 minutes. Stay with PokerNews for start-to-finish coverage of this one as well.

Event #6: $365 GIANT No-Limit Hold'em

It's Friday, and that means it's time for another flight of the $365 GIANT. This time, Day 1d is on the schedule, the penultimate starting day with just one more (Day 1e on June 29) on the schedule after this.

Day	Entries	Survivors	Chip Leader	Country	Chip Count
1a	1,289	80	Justin Sternberg	United States	1,215,000
1b	969	53	Jon Turner	United States	2,265,000
1c	1,148	55	Mathieu Philbert	France	1,940,000

Jon Turner currently leads the field of 188 players from the total field of 3,406 entries so far. That information isn't too relevant for the players today, as they start with a clean sheet.

They get 25,000 starting chips and play 21 levels of 20 minutes each. Play starts at 7 p.m. local time with late registration open for nine levels, which means registration closes around 10:20 p.m.

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