Today marked the start of the $3,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha Hi-low 8-or Better tournament at the 2013 Word Series of Poker and what a day of poker it was. Pot Limit Omaha creates some crazy action, but through in the split-pot format and the action goes off the chart!
Matt Woodward is the tournament's overnight chip lead, having bagged up an impressive 98,700 chips when play ended for the night. Woodward is something if a Limit Hold'em expert if his past tournament results are anything to go by, but he has some fantastic results in other formats too, including a runner-up finish in the 2009 EPT Grand Final and a 217th place finish in the 2012 WSOP Main Event. Now Woodward has given himself the best chance of reaching the money places and beyond in this tournament.
Hot on Woodward's heels are Zhen Cai (95,300), Michael Sanders (79,500) and Paul Tedeschi (70,800), the latter peaking at almost 90,000 chips before losing some ground as the day ground to a halt. Most of Tedeschi's stack used to belong to Owais Ahmed, but the two created a huge pot that resulted in Ahmed's exit. Ahmed will not be too upset, though because he won a seat to the One Drop tournament in the WSOP.com draw worth a cool $111,111.
Other notables to progress to Wednesday's Day 2 include Gavin Smith (60,500), Ireland's John O'Shea (50,500), Leif Force (43,300), Stephen Chidwick (29,900), Eric Baldwin (28,900), Antoine Saout (27,300), Joe Hachem (25,600), Mike Matusow (22,000) and Jeff Madsen (17,200). Full chip counts will appear on the event's dedicated chip count page, where you will also find an extensive list of big names who busted during Day 1.
Play resumes at 2pm local time on Wednesday and will see another 10 levels played here at the Rio. Make sure you join us then so you do not miss any of the action as Event #46 plays down to the money and beyond.
Earlier today, Owais Ahmed won a seat to the $111,111 buy-in One Drop tournament and we all wondered how he was going to play because he had a decent sized stack in this tournament. Notice how we said "had?" That's because he has now busted out.
Ahmed and Paul Tedeschi got into a raising war on a flop that resulted in Ahmed being all in and at risk of elimination.
Ahmed:
Tedeschi:
Ahmed's hand stayed best when the landed on the turn, but then lost the entire pot (and his place in this event) when the appeared on the river. Tedeschi scooped the huge pot with his six-high straight, which also doubled as a 6-5-4-3-2 low.
Now he's already back at it, taking another shot here in Event #46: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low 8-or-Better. Bakes took home $156,674 for his second place finish in Event #43, but could make even more if he manages to cash in this event.
Mike Matusow has doubled to 11,350 after scooping both the high and low of a hand that went down moments ago.
Matusow was all-in and at risk of elimination on a flop, where he held to the fo his opponent. The turn improved Matusow's opponent to a set of aces, but also Matusow to the wheel straight. Matusow needed to avoid the board pair or an ace in order to win both parts of the pot, and he did just that as the river was the .
"It's such a crazy game, " said Matusow as he stacked his new chips.
It was just announced here in the Amazon room that Owais Ahmed was the lucky winner of a free seat to Event #47: $111,111 One Drop High Rollers No-Limit Hold'em. Ahmed was able to claim the seat by signing up for an account of WSOP.com. Out of many who signed up Ahmed claimed the biggest seat in the drawing.
Ahmed is no stranger to high stakes play. Just two years ago he made the final table of the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship where he finished fourth for $482,058. Ahmed is also a bracelet winner as he claimed a bracelet two years ago in a $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi/Lo locking up $255,959. This year, Ahmed has a second place finish to Tom Schneider in $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. (Event #15) where he locked up $159,950.
After Ahmed was announced the winner of the seat, Mike Matusow stood up from his chair and began shouting across the room, "JUST DUMP YOUR CHIPS OFF OWAIS!"
We'll be following Ahmed's progress tomorrow in the One Drop High Rollers tomorrow so make sure you stay tuned in to PokerNews.com for all the updates.
Welcome to PokerNews' coverage of Event #46 of the 2013 World Series of Poker, the $3,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha Hi-low 8-or-Better tournament.
If you thought that Pot Limit Omaha was an intense, action-driven game then wait until you see how this amazing game plays out in a split-pot format; it is going to be a spectacle to behold.
As is the case in Omaha tournament at the WSOP, the players will start with 9,000, but 6,000 of those will be in the form of lammers, each lammer being worth 3,000 chips each. Players can cash these in at any time they wish, with some players preferring to cash them in at the start, others like to hold onto them for as long as they can.
Last week, our very own Pamela Maldonado spoke to a number of top professional poker player and asked for their thoughts on the lammers concept. Some really like the idea, while others are not so keep on them. You can read that article here.
Last year's event saw 526 players turn out in force including the likes of Matt Vengrin, Dario Alioto, Erick Lindgren, Bryan Devonshire, Antoine Saout, Scotty Nguyen and David "ODB" Baker. The eventual champion was Russia's Viacheslav Zhukov who defeated Roch Cousineau heads-up to claim his first WSOP bracelet and the $330,227 first place prize.
Play in this year's event commences at 5pm local time and will continue until eight 60-minute levels are completed. There will be a 15-minute break after Level 2 and 6 with a 30-minute dinner break after Level 4. This means the players should be bagging and tagging by around 2am.
Keep your browsers locked to PokerNews so you do not miss any of the action from what should be a spectacular event. Until then, why not check out Lynn Gilmartin's June 25 update video?
flop that resulted in Ahmed being all in and at risk of elimination.
landed on the turn, but then lost the entire pot (and his place in this event) when the 
appeared on the river. Tedeschi scooped the huge pot with his six-high straight, which also doubled as a 6-5-4-3-2 low.
flop, where he held 
fo his opponent. The 
turn improved Matusow's opponent to a set of aces, but also Matusow to the wheel straight. Matusow needed to avoid the board pair or an ace in order to win both parts of the pot, and he did just that as the river was the 
