Event #20: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low 8-or-Better Day 1 | 2013 World Series of Poker

06-11-2013 01:22 UTC-7

John Larson Leads as 219 Advance to Day 2

Chad Holloway

Level 10 : 400/800, 0 ante

Today the 2013 World Series of Poker continued as 1,014 players packed the Brasilia Room for Day 1 of Event #20 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. That was 47 players more than the year prior—representing a nearly 5% increase in attendance—and meant there was a $1,368,900 prize pool on the line. That will be distributed to the top 117 players, with a healthy $277,274 reserved for the eventual winner. The man best positioned to capture it? That would be John Larson, who emerged as the chip leader of the advancing 219 players with 73,700.

While Larson had the most chips, plenty of other notables bagged up big stacks including Thomas Besnier (66,600), Eric Sclavos (53,600), Brian Hastings (47,900), Robert "Chip Burner" Turner (47,700), Dmitrii Valouev (42,400), James Bord (40,000) and Matthew Kelly (39,700).

Of course not everyone was so lucky. Among those to hit the rail on Day 1 were Maria Ho, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Ivey, Chad Brown, Cory Zeidman, Matt Glantz, Phil Hellmuth, 2007 champ Alex Kravchenko, 2011 champ Francesco "Cheech" Barbaro, and the defending champ Herbert Tapscott.

While many big names fell, quite a few are still in contention including Max Steinberg (36,300), Carlos Mortensen (31,500), David Chiu (29,000), Daniel Weinman (28,400), Barry Greenstein (27,900), Men "The Master" Nguyen (27,000), Mike "The Mouth" Matusow (23,700), Owais Ahmed (23,000), Mike Sexton (22,900), Tom Schneider (18,600) and Jennifer Harman (17,000), just to name a few.

Day 2 is set to kick off at 1:00 PST on Tuesday. Join us then as we bring you all the updates on the way to the money and onward to the final table. Until then, good night from the Rio.

Tags: John Larson

06-10-2013 22:17 UTC-7

Matusow Back For More Hi-Low

[user253927]

Level 8 : 300/500, 0 ante

Mike Matusow has made it deep into today's Omaha Hi-Low tournament, coming off of his extraordinary win this year in the Seven-Card Stud Hi-Low event. Matusow was short and made an amazing comeback in his last event, but today he is rapidly approaching twice the average chip stack.

We caught a hand with Matusow as he was chopping a 3,000 pot. He had and the board was . Mike is going for his fifth bracelet of his career and currently has 20,800 in chips.

Player	Chips	Progress
Mike Matusow	20,800	1,800

Tags: Mike Matusow

06-10-2013 20:51 UTC-7

Drive-Thru Dinner Break for Ivey

[user253927]

Level 7 : 200/400, 0 ante

Phil Ivey has made a quick exit in the Omaha Hi-Low. He was short, then he doubled up, and then he was gone.

Ivey was all-in, leaning away from the table and ready to pitch his cards into the muck. The board was , and the winning two hands were and .

Player	Chips	Progress
Phil Ivey	Busted

Tags: Phil Ivey

06-10-2013 16:13 UTC-7

Devonshire Looking for More Omaha 8 Success

Chad Holloway

Level 4 : 75/150, 0 ante

Back in 2007, Bryan Devonshire finished runner-up to Alexander Kravchenko in this very event. Both men are in today's field and looking to duplicate their success, but Devonshire isn't exactly off to a great start.

In a recent hand, the board read when Devonshire bet from the big blind and his opponent in early position called. When the completed the board on the river, Devonshire moved all in for his last 225 and his opponent called. Devonshire tabled the for a full house, which could only get half the pot as his opponent tabled a low with the .

Based on his Tweets, it appears Devonshire hasn't been running well here on Day 1:

Bryan Devonshire @devopoker

@devochips I wish I could say that I was playing bad and that's why I am losing because I could fix that. 1425 and shellshocked.June 10 2013

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Player	Chips	Progress
Bryan Devonshire	1,150	-3,350

06-10-2013 13:16 UTC-7

Where Are They Now?

Chad Holloway

Level 2 : 50/75, 0 ante

Don Zewin, Jason Lester & James Van Alstyne

There's no denying the World Series of Poker, which is in its 44th year, has a rich history. Unfortunately that history is often overlooked in favor of both the young up-and-coming players and those made popular after the poker boom of 2003.

To help balance things out, we're decided to offer a brief glimpse on some of the "veterans" in today's field, those who have made their own special contribution to the game we all love.

Don Zewin: Back in the 1989 WSOP $10,000 Main Event, Phil Hellmuth stopped the legendary Johnny Chan from capturing his third Main Event title in a row, thus launching his own record-setting career. It was one of the most iconic moments in poker history, but somewhere along the way, Don Zewin, who finished in third place, was forgotten.

Over the next two decades, Zewin continued to grind cash games in Las Vegas while adding to his tournament résumé. In that time, Zewin amassed $1,171,019 in career tournament earnings, which include 19 WSOP cashes totaling $532,047. One of those cashes happened last summer when Zewin made his name known to modern poker fans as he made a deep run in Event #18: $2,500 Razz where he once again squared off against Hellmuth. Unfortunately for Zewin, he was once again denied a bracelet by the "Poker Brat" when he finished runner-up for $113,024.

For more on Zewin, check out the Where Are They Now? interview he did with PokerNews last year.

Jason Lester: Jason Lester has been around the poker scene for nearly three decades. His first WSOP cash came back in 1990 when he finished fourth in Event #10 $5,000 Limit Seven Card Stud for $29,400. Since then he has amassed 25 cashes totaling $1,865,157. That also included a bracelet win in the 2006 WSOP Event #18 $5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em for $550,764.

While he won a bracelet, Lester may best be known by poker fans as the fourth-place finisher at the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event final table.

This marks the tenth anniversary of that legendary final table, and it’s good to see Lester hasn’t lost his passion for the game.

James Van Alstyne: James Van Alstyne is a H.O.R.S.E. master. Back in 2010, Van Alstyne took 14th in the $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event for $10,282, which was pretty impressive considering he was the defending champ. That’s right, Van Alstyne won that tournament back in 2009 for $247,033 and his first WSOP bracelet.

What’s even more amazing, less than a week before that win he finished runner-up to Zach Fellows in Event #21 $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. for $192,866. Half of Van Alstyne's $736,357 WSOP earnings have come in H.O.R.S.E., and while today's event isn't in that format, you can rest assured that Van Alstyne can contend in any non-hold'em variation.

Tags: Don Zewin James Van Alstyne Jason Lester

06-10-2013 12:11 UTC-7

New to Omaha? PokerNews Has You Covered

Chad Holloway

Level 1 : 25/50, 0 ante

Today's Event 20: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better is yet another tournament at the 2012 World Series of Poker that includes a game other than No-Limit Hold'em. The game we're talking about is Omaha Hi-Low.

For those of you who may be unfamiliar with the game, you can refer to the PokerNews Poker Rules: Omaha Poker page to check things out and get a feel for how the game is played. The page is complete with game rules, terms and also strategy links.

Omaha is similar to Hold'em in that it is a flop game, but instead of two hole cards, you receive four. The trick is that you must you two cards from your hole cards and only two cards, to make your best five-card hand at the end. This is the part that sometimes confuses people new to the game as they'll make the mistake of only using one card from their hand or trying to use three. This game is also a split-pot game with the high hand getting half of the pot and the low hand getting the other half of the pot. Just like Hold'em, there is a betting round preflop followed a betting round after each of the flop, turn and river.

For example, let's say there is a final board reading and Player 1 shows versus Player 2's . In this showdown, Player 1 would win the high half of the pot with trip queens and an ace kicker. Player 1 also has a qualifying low hand with his , but Player 2's makes a better qualifying low hand to win that half of the pot.

In the Omaha 8-or-better case where players share a high hand or low hand, they would divy up that half of the pot accordingly. This is why the term "quartered" often comes into play during games of Omaha 8-or-better. In the above example, if a third player in the hand held , he would split the half portion of the pot with Player 2, meaning they would each get one quarter of the overall pot.

06-10-2013 10:48 UTC-7

Welcome to Day 1 of Event #20 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better!

Chad Holloway

Today the 2013 World Series of Poker continues with Day 1 action from Event #20 $1,500 Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. Despite the low buy-in, this tournament has morphed into one of the most storied in recent WSOP history. That was mainly due to Alex Kravchenko's win in 2007, Thang Luu's back-to-back wins in 2008 and 2009 and Michael Chow's victory in 2010.

In more recent years, Francesco Barbaro topped a field of 925 player in 2011 to win the title, while then 71-year-old Herbert Tapscott of Birmingham, Alabama defeated young Gavin Griffin after an epic two-hour heads-up battle in last year's event. Tapscott earned $264,400 for his victory over the 967-player field.

This year we expect to see some of the biggest names in the game take their shot at a Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better title, and thanks to Twitter we can already confirm a few participants:

scott fischman @scottfischman88

playing event 20 $1500 omaha8 today at noon... gl all! #wsop13 http://t.co/OjkugmwcgxJune 10 2013

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Magnus Martin @MagnusMartin

Playing the $1,500 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo WSOP event today - starting at Midday.June 10 2013

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Jonathan Little @JonathanLittle

I will not be the winner of the plhe event. Tomorrow is a head phones required $1500 Omaha 8 or better event.June 09 2013

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We also wouldn't be surprised to see Joseph Mitchell in today's field. After all, he did win the 2013 Carnivale of Poker Event #103 $365 Limit Omaha 8 or Better last week for $11,934. Mitchell, who lives in Las Vegas, would no doubt like to grab a gold bracelet to go along with his Carnivale of Poker championship medallion.

Play is set to kick off at 12:00 PST, which is just over an hour from now. Be sure to keep it here throughout the day for all the updates from the Brasilia Room here at the Rio All-Suite Casino in Las Vegas!

Tags: Herbert Tapscott