We've heard that call at least a half-dozen times here in the first few minutes as the short stacks make their final stands.
The latest to fall was the shortest stack coming into Day 2, Sergey Altbregin. He had just 600 lonely chips, and they all went into a pot before the board ran out , and Luke Schwartz and Andy Bloch were involved in side action. Bloch bet the river and Schwartz called, and Bloch's was good enough to win the full pot and the knockout.
Justin Bonomo's last few chips were just chopped by Eric Kurtzman and Luke Schwartz. The board read when we reached the table. Kurtzman opened for the high, Schwartz for the low, and Bonomo mucked his hand before exiting.
Ben Lamb has also made an early exit on an adjacent table. We missed the hand, but we spotted him leaving the Amazon Room.
Welcome back for Day 2 of Event #11, the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship. Yesterday's 202 starters were reduced to 164 over the course of the opening eight levels, and we've been moved over to the cozier Amazon Room for the restart. It's still odd to call the Amazon Room "cozy". But we're tucked away over here in the Blue section, and players have just begun to trickle in.
Fabrizio Gonzalez snuck up on us at the end of the night, passing Eric Buchman for the top spot on the chip counts when the clock struck zero. Also near the top are Guillaume Rivet, Richard "Chufty" Ashby, Marco "CrazyMarco" Johnson, and Freddy Deeb.
Let's talk about short stacks, because they're littered with notables, too. Phil Tom has just 1,900 chips to begin the day, less than one big blind. Justin Bonomo survived Day 1 with just 5,500 chips, and Erik Seidel's 6,600 chips will likely be a mountain before long. Matt Savage is doing just a bit higher with 8,500, but he's been tweeting about plans to double up or go home early.
We're about twenty minutes away from our 3:00 P.M. start time, so don't wander off.