Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship
Day 1 Started
2010 World Series of Poker
Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better Championship
Day: 1
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2010 World Series of Poker
Buy-in
$10,000
Entries
212
Level
31
Blinds
90,000 / 180,000
Ante
0
Splits and Scoops -- It's Not Ice Cream, It's Omaha Hi/Lo
![[user75032]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Welcome to the front of the Blue section of the Amazron Room for Event 25, the $10,000 Omaha Hi/Lo World Championship. Apart from being a world championship event, this event is arguably one of the top five events of the entire WSOP, along with the Main Event, the Player's Championship, the $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, the $10,000 NL 2-7 championship and the $10,000 Limit Hold'em championship.
Last year there were 179 entries in this event. If the trend that we're seeing in the bigger buy-in, non-NLHE tournaments continues, we may see as many as 200 players in the field today. Almost certainly defending champion Daniel Alaei will be back to defend his title, as will 2008 champion David Benyamine.
The price point of this event, along with the fact that the game is non-NLHE, will create a field dominated by pros and specialists. We won't see many random players without much experience in this field. It's going to take inordinate skill, excellent timing, and a pinch of good luck to make the final table on Monday.
PokerNews will be there every step of the way, as we are for all of the events of the 2010 World Series. Join us at 5pm local time, in about 30 minutes!
Level: 1
Blinds: 100/200
Ante: 0
Shuffle Up and Deal!
The cards are in the air.
Notables
This field expects to be bursting full of big names and notables faces from the poker world. We've already spotted plenty of them and here's a nice list of who we've seen so far. Registration will stay open for a little while and this list will grow, but here's a look.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
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30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
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|
30,000 | |
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|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 | |
|
|
30,000 |
The Mouth is Here
Most of the time you don't even need to look up to realize Mike "The Mouth" Matusow is in the room. Matusow was just overheard making his way over to his table and when he got there he yelled out about seeing his table draw.
"Look at this table I've got! Look at these f***ing people!" Matusow then gave a quick look around the table again and saw Jason Mercier seated in the nine hole. "I've got the f***ing spook of spooks at my table!" He then checked his seat draw card and made his way to the empty eight seat, right next to Mercier. "Oh man, and I'm right next to him!" he yelled out.
Mercier gave an exuberant "Ha!" as Matusow took the seat next to him.
Team PokerStars in the House
A few of the big names in the field are wearing a special badge on their sleeves representing Team PokerStars. Jason Mercier, Chad Brown and Barry Greenstein are here for Team Pro USA, Johannes Steindl is here for Team Pro Austria, Daniel Negreanu is here for Team Pro Canada and Alex Kravchenko is here for Team Pro Russia.
Trips Win Early for Ware
Four players saw a flop of 
for two bets each. There was a bet from one player and only Ron Ware made the call. The turn brought the 
and the player bet again. Ware called which brought the to the 
on the river. The player bet again and Ware called once more.
Ware held the 
for trip sevens with an ace kicker. His opponent held the 
for trip sevens and a ten kicker. Ware's hand was best and he scooped the early pot.
Prop Bets and Table Talk
As you might expect at the start of this tournament, players are making lots of bets with each other and talking about anything but the very small limit poker being played. Lots of last-longer bets are being made; Abe Mosseri and Mike Matusow entered one, and it looked like Tom Dwan andHasan Habib were negotiating another.
Speaking of Matusow, he's been loudly telling Justin Smith and Barry Greenstein, seated at a nearby table, what his opinion is of the $1,500 Stud final table participants. Matusow was overheard to say he would pick any three people in the world at random to stake against any of Sorel Mizzi, Richard Ashby and Dan Heimiller in stud.
The field is still filling with late arrivals. There are three empty tables that have dealers sitting at them; we expect them all to be occupied by players before the end of late registration.
Koral with an Early Scoop from Ivey
Four players saw the flop of 
and first up was Tom Koral. He checked and then the next two players checked as well. Phil Ivey was last to act on the button and bet. Koral raised and the other two folded. Ivey made the call.
The turn brought the 
and Ivey called a bet from Koral. The river was then placed out the 
. Koral bet again and Ivey called.
Koral showed the 
for the nut low and a pair of kings with an ace kicker for the high. Ivey checked his hole cards again and stared down at them for a few moments and then mucked. Koral earned an early scoop.