Twenty-three players have emerged from a field of 418 to contend for the crown in Event #64: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship. German Marko Neumann leads them with 1,442,000, and American star Isaac Baron sits in second with 1,267,000.
Plenty of other notable names remain in the hunt for the $923,379 first-place prize, which comes with both a coveted World Series of Poker gold bracelet and the title of PLO world champion. Former Main Event runner-up David Williams (698,000), Tom Marchese (677,000), British star Sam Trickett (468,000), JC Tran (431,000), Matt Stout (425,000), Canada's Matt Marafioti (371,000), and Russia's Alex Kravcenko (247,000) make up a diverse and dangerous cast of players.
Cards are scheduled to be in the air at 2 p.m. local time, and we should see the tournament play down to a champion. The structure will begin at Level 21 (8,000/16,000), with hour levels as always, meaning most of the top contenders have very solid stacks. We know it's hard to peel your eyes away from the Main Event, but if any tournament is worthy of attention, it's definitely this one.
World Series of Poker Player of the Year leader Brandon Shack-Harris joins the PokerNews Podcast to talk about his summer thus far, tell stories, discuss music, and share some very brilliant accents. There are also cameos by friend of the podcast Matt Glantz and ESPN's own Andrew Feldman.
A short-stacked Sean Winter committed about 62,000 of his stack preflop against Alex Kravchenko and after the flop fell , Winter put in his remaining 26,000. Kravchenko called.
Winter:
Kravchenko:
Kravchenko led with his kings and maintained the lead through thte turn and river to eliminate Winter.
Jarred Graham opened for a raise under the gun and called a three-bet from Tom Marchese on the button, seeing a flop of . Graham potted for nearly all of his stack and called Marchese's shove.
Marchese:
Graham:
Graham had flopped tens up, while Marchese had an overpair with the nut flush draw. The turn was no help to Marchese, but the river filled his flush draw, eliminating the Aussie.
David Williams raised to 50,000 in the hijack, Ruslan Dykshteyn three-bet the pot on the button and Williams called to see a flop. Williams checked to Dykshteyn who bet 225,000.
"Let's gamble," said Williams, as he check-raised all in for 459,000.
"Call, top set," said Dykshteyn, as he tabled .
Williams trailed with and while the turn gave him a straight draw, he found no help from the river.
David Malka was tanking against a pot bet of 130,000 from Matt Marafioti on a flop. After awhile of pondering, Malka shoved all in and was called.
Malka:
Marafioti:
"Good game," Marafioti said as the hit the board, not realizing Malka was still drawing live to a queen. The didn't help, though, and Marafioti collected Malka's stack.
"Almost jinxed myself," Marafioti said with relief.
Isaac Baron opened to 45,000 in the hijack, Miltiadis Kyriakides called in the cutoff and Thomas Kearney reraised the pot to 190,000 from the small blind. Baron folded, Kyriakides reraised and Kearney called all in for about 250,000.
Kyriakides:
Kearney:
The flop fell to give Kearney the lead with a pair of aces. The turn was no help to Kyriakides, but the river gave him a set to eliminate Kearney in 16th place.