Event 18 - $10,000 World Championship Omaha Hi/Lo 8-or-better Day 1 | 2009 World Series of Poker

06-07-2009 17:29 UTC-12

Your Hour's Up

MarcC

Dinner break over, level five begins.

Level: 5

Blinds: 300/600

Ante: 0

06-07-2009 16:30 UTC-12

Ding!

[user66118]

The clock has ticked its way down through the end of level 4, and the players are taking a one-hour dinner break. Cards will be back in the air at 10:30pm on the nose.

06-07-2009 16:29 UTC-12

Bill Chen's neighbor is having a nice relaxing massage right now but I'm not so sure the masseuse is enjoying it so much. It's nothing to do with her customer, more to do with the view of Bill Chen she might have. Anyone walking by has a full view of his plumbers crack so imagine the depths she can see to!

06-07-2009 16:21 UTC-12

Luske Struggles; Out Early

[user66118]

The clock shows that we have 176 players remaining, meaning that we've lost three runners already. One of those poor lost souls is Marcel Luske. The Flying Dutchman didn't have much reason to sing today, never getting above his starting stack and now finding himself off to dinner a little earlier than he planned.

Tags: Marcel Luske

06-07-2009 16:16 UTC-12

Jesus A-maze-es

[user66118]

Chris Ferguson has been pretty quiet so far today, hardly getting involved in any pots. We're not sure if it's cause or effect, but he's furiously tapping away on his iPhone, playing some sort of maze game. Perhaps he'll have as much luck navigating through this maze of players as these three days press on. Ferguson is down just a little bit from his starting stack, sitting right around 26,000.

Tags: Chris Ferguson Jesus

06-07-2009 16:06 UTC-12

Six Six Six

[user66118]

Table 231 is noteworthy for a pretty specific reason. Layne Flack is holding down the one seat. In seat seven sits Jay Heimowitz. And in the nine seat is none other than Phil Ivey. Having these three players sitting at the same table is truly remarkable.

Have you figured out why yet? Maybe check the title of the post again.

We'll help you out. These three players each have six WSOP bracelets. That's right, they have a combined eighteen wins here at the WSOP. Heimowitz last won a bracelet in 2001 when he took down the Seniors event. Layne Flack earned his most recent bracelet last year, taking down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Rebuy event. He also has a bracelet in this game, winning an Omaha Hi/Lo title in 2003. And Phil Ivey practically still has the herringbone lines pressed into his wrist from his last bracelet, coming just days ago when he topped a pro-heavy field in the Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball event.

Talk about a tough table, huh?

06-07-2009 15:59 UTC-12

An American, a Russian and a Lebanese man enter a...

MarcC

poker hand. Alex Kravchenko raised from the cut off before Sammy Farha three bet from the button. John Hennigan called from the SB and so did Kravchenko. The flop came {Q-Clubs}

and it was Hennnigan who led out and found both players calling before the turn came {10-Hearts}

. Checking all round so we saw the {3-Diamonds}

river.

Hennigan bets again and only Farha calls and takes the pot with {9-Diamonds}

as Hennigan mucks. Farha on 25,000, Hennigan on 36,000 and Kravchenko on 41,000.

06-07-2009 15:48 UTC-12

Presidental Side Action

[user66118]

A new room-wide discussion has just broken out, and the side bets are piling up. It's hard to tell who initiated the debate, but Barry Greenstein, Mike Matusow, Chris Ferguson, Erick Lindgren, and Phil Ivey are among those involved in the action.

The topic: Will President Barack Obama come to the Main Event and play at least one hand? The odds were floating between 50,000:1 and 100,000:1 for a few minutes. We can tell you that one $1 bet was made at 100,000:1, as well as a $20 bet taken at 25,000:1. It's unclear who has the action, but a moment ago, three people flooded over to Chris Ferguson's table with hundred-dollar bills in their hands; he just chuckled and turned them away.

Phil Ivey's interest is waning though. "Man, why are we even talkin' about this? There's no way it's gonna happen."

Mr. Obama, your rebuttal?

06-07-2009 15:42 UTC-12

Poker Brat = 37k

MarcC

Phil Hellmuth is up to 37,000. We saw him chop one pot on the river, but in his next pot he kept pounding (as much as you can in limit) and managed to get most to fold preflop, one on the flop, and the last on the turn.