Heroux Leads Final 10 Players; Duhamel Still In the Hunt
Out of the 2,419 entries that took to the felt in Event #19: $565 Pot-Limit Omaha, just 100 returned for Day 2 action, and only 10 bagged chips at the conclusion of play. They'll return for Day 3 action Sunday, 10 June, at 2pm local time at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and will play until a champion is crowned. The eventual winner will score a $181,790 payday in addition to the coveted gold bracelet.
Canadian Maxime Heroux is presently leading the way with 2,430,000. Heroux already had a strong stack when the field redrew at 27 players and continued to build and was responsible for three late-stage eliminations.
Heroux is joined by a couple of big names: 2010 Main Event Champion Jonathan Duhamel (1,570,000) and fan favorite Craig Varnell (1,950,000). Varnell was one of the big stacks to start the day, and although he suffered a setback or two, his stack steadily trended upward throughout the ten levels of Day 2 play.
Duhamel took a more modest stack out of the bag and won several key pots once the field had narrowed substantially; like Heroux, he also stacked three players after the redraw. Here's a look at the unofficial final table:
| Room | Table | Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon | 423 | 1 | Maxime Heroux | Canada | 2,430,000 | 41 |
| Amazon | 423 | 2 | Seth Zimmerman | United States | 920,000 | 15 |
| Amazon | 423 | 3 | Christopher Trang | United States | 1,280,000 | 21 |
| Amazon | 423 | 4 | Craig Varnell | United States | 1,950,000 | 33 |
| Amazon | 423 | 5 | Ilian Li | United States | 1,080,000 | 18 |
| Amazon | 423 | 6 | Conway Frankenheimer | United States | 820,000 | 14 |
| Amazon | 423 | 7 | Omar Mehmood | United States | 655,000 | 11 |
| Amazon | 423 | 8 | Jonathan Duhamel | Canada | 1,570,000 | 26 |
| Amazon | 423 | 9 | Shaome Yang | United States | 735,000 | 12 |
| Amazon | 423 | 10 | Jason Lipiner | United States | 645,000 | 11 |
It didn't take long for chips to start flying around once Day 2 action had begun. Several notable names hit the rail early, including bracelet winner James Obst (99th - $2,019), JC Tran (95th - $2,019), three-time bracelet winner Dutch Boyd (79th - $2,397), and Jesse Yaginuma (68th - $2,675).
Ryan Laplante, who won this event in its 2016, made a valiant effort at securing the title once more, but ultimately departed in 20th place. He took home $5,830 for his efforts in this year's iteration.
Check back here for coverage of the final day of this event and throughout the 2018 World Series of Poker presented by the PokerNews Live Reporting Team
Heroux's hand was still best, so he took the pot to end Fuller's run in this event.
against Varnell's 
. 
giving Reed an open-ended straight draw against Varnell's set of aces, but the runout of 
bricked out eliminating Reed, who departed with the first five-figure cash.
Heroux fired 300,000. Zhou tanked for a minute before putting in the call. On the 
for kings and a turned flush draw against Zhou's two pair of 
making Heroux his flush and ending Zhou's tournament run as Heroux scooped the largest pot of the tournament, becoming the first player to pass the two million mark.
flop. Action checked around.
fell on the turn and action checked to John Gordon in middle position. He bet 150,000, Christopher Trang announced a pot-sized raise from the button, the blinds folded, and Gordon called to put himself at risk.
on the river made his hand and he took the pot to end Gordon's run in this event.
as the two saw a board of 
laid out. Shepsky found life in the 
turn needing to hold one more card to earn a double, but the river fell a 
and Zindulis is the latest to hit the payout cage in 17th.
flop and Zimmerman had the larger of the two stacks.
