Phil Ivey Leads The Final 27
Day 2 of Event 24, the $5,000 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better, was a tense one. We began with 184 players left from the starting field of 256. By day's end, only the 27 players who made the money survived. Bubble play lasted for about an hour before James Dempsey departed in 28th place, guaranteeing a $10,348 pay day for the final 27. However, the chip leader couldn't care less about a min cash. Leading the way is none other than Phil Ivey.
Fresh off of two final tables in the last few days, Ivey is back at it again. He spent the beginning and middle portion of the day in the middle of the counts, but contunually increased his stack as player by player busted. When it came to bagging the chips, Ivey had a whopping stack of 446,500. Second in chips is young gun Dan Kelly with 297,000 and Mike Matusow is right behind him with 290,000.
Many big names took part in Day 2, but fell short of the money. Mizrachi brothers Michael and Rob, Allen Bari, John Racener, Phil Hellmuth, and Jason Mercier were among those who busted early on. They were followed out the door by David Bach, Justin Smith, Carlos Mortensen, Todd Brunson, and Mike Sexton in the middle stages of the day.
As play whittled down toward the money we lost Jean-Robert Bellande, Yuval Bronshtein, and Shannon Shorr. Raymond Davis and James Dempsey were both desperately short stacked with 28 players left. Davis found himself all in twice, but managed to chop the first time and scoop the second time to put the pressure on Dempsey.
Unfortunately for the bracelet winner, Dempsey had almost no chance of winning when he committed his chips. The board read 
and Bart Hanson held the 
in his hand. Dempsey found no miracle running low and exited in 28th place.
Here is the Day 3 table and seat draw:
| Table | Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 447 | 1 | Phil Ivey | 446,500 |
| 447 | 2 | Raymond Davis | 18,000 |
| 447 | 3 | Mike Matusow | 290,000 |
| 447 | 4 | Gregory Jamison | 129,500 |
| 447 | 5 | Joe Cassidy | 166,500 |
| 447 | 6 | Ryan Lenaghan | 79,500 |
| 447 | 7 | Elie Doft | 69,500 |
| 447 | 8 | Scotty Nguyen | 212,500 |
| 447 | 9 | Michael "Boonie" Kleist | 35,500 |
| 453 | 1 | Brian Hastings | 251,000 |
| 453 | 2 | John Guth | 11,500 |
| 453 | 3 | Jeremy Harkin | 71,000 |
| 453 | 4 | Mike Wattel | 143,500 |
| 453 | 5 | Alex Dovzhenko | 60,000 |
| 453 | 6 | Stephen Chidwick | 109,000 |
| 453 | 7 | Matt Lefkowitz | 24,500 |
| 453 | 8 | Viacheslav Zhukov | 141,500 |
| 453 | 9 | Robert Stevanovski | 68,000 |
| 459 | 1 | James Hoeppner | 137,500 |
| 459 | 2 | Matthew Wood | 78,000 |
| 459 | 3 | Brendan Taylor | 270,500 |
| 459 | 4 | Meng La | 276,500 |
| 459 | 5 | Dan Kelly | 297,000 |
| 459 | 6 | Andreas Krause | 133,000 |
| 459 | 7 | Ismael Bojang | 51,500 |
| 459 | 8 | Bart Hanson | 231,500 |
| 459 | 9 | Frank Russomanno | 38,000 |
Play resumes Wednesday at 2:00pm local time and is scheduled to last until only one remains. Be sure to join us then!