Chad HollowayWill George Danzer earn more POY points?
Welcome to the third gold bracelet event of the 2014 World Series of Poker Asia-Pacific — Event #3 $1,650 Pot-Limit Omaha. This is the second year this particular tournament has graced the schedule, with the inaugural event attracting 172 entries. Jim Collopy won that event for $69,662, and today poker hopefuls will attempt to follow in his footsteps.
Unlike Texas hold'em, which is played with two cards, pot-limit Omaha (PLO) is played with four cards. Aside from that, the big difference is that players MUST use two cards from their hand and three from the board to make their best five-card hand. PLO has a reputation of being an action-packed game as made hands versus draws is the order of the day.
Some of poker's biggest names will be in action today including 13-time bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth; World Poker Tour champ Jonathan Little; WSOP champs Ryan Riess and Jonathan Duhamel; and Big One for One Drop champ Antonio Esfandiari. Likewise, the three players atop the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year Leaderboard — George Danzer, Brandon Shack-Harris, and Daniel Negreanu — will look to add points to their totals.
Yesterday, Danzer — who was trailing Shack-Harris by less than 10 points at the time — worked his way to a 22nd-place finish in Event #1 $1,100 No-Limit Hold'em Accumulator and took over the top spot. Shack-Harris' min-cash in the same event resulted in him earning 8.5 points, whereas Danzer picked up 17 points — meaning the latter now leads the former 762.2 to 760.5. Clearly it's going to be a tight race.
Players will begin with 4,500 in tournament chips, and the plan for the night is to play eight one-hour levels with a 60-minute dinner break after four levels. Late registration will remain open for six levels. Those who survive the night will then return at 12:30 p.m. on Monday for Day 2 action. Who will make it through? Stay tuned as we bring you all the latest and greatest from the Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia.
