Ari Engel Riding High as Day 1 Event #60: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Draws to a Close
He's already won one WSOP bracelet this series and Ari Engel looks to be in the mood for another as the Canadian was on incredible form in Event #60: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, finishing with 216,200 chips as Day 1 drew to a close here at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. The tournament attracted 1,117 hopefuls, which is almost 200 more than took part last year and Ari Engel (216,200) ended the day in fourth place on the leaderboard behind overnight chip leader Ray Medlin (240,100) and more than four times the average stack in play.
It’s been a fantastic series for Engel so far. He secured his first bracelet, netting $427,399 in the process, for his victory in Event #48: $2,500 No Limit Hold'em less than a week ago. Prior to that, he finished runner up in Event #38 $800 Pot Limit Omaha 8 or Better at the beginning of the month, too. Engel's deep runs and bracelet win have already put in contention for the WSOP Player of the Year title and he's off to the perfect start in this event to add yet more points.
Engel wasn’t the only big name to grace the Amazon Room today. Mike Sexton (82,800), Daniel Negreanu (77,200), Joseph Cheong (73,900), Mike Matusow (73,500), Barry Greenstein (61,200), Erik Seidel (45,400) Barny Boatman (36,600), Joe Hachem, (34,000), Joao Vieira (29,700), Kristen Bicknell (29,400) and Chris Ferguson (7,100), were just some of the well-known faces to get involved and survive the fun and games to bag up at the end of the night.
It wasn’t good news for all the notables, with Maurice Hawkins, Maria Ho, Justin Liberto, Allen Kessler and Scott Bohlman just a few of the notables who were unable find a bag at the end of play. Late registration is closed now, too, putting an end to the single re-entry that was available and taking the tournament into the knock-out stages.
In total, a $1,507,950 prizepool was generated and a very attractive $279,920 first place prize is on offer to whoever is the last man or woman standing. There will be 168 players who will make it to the money and the prize for making it past the bubble is a min-cash worth $2,249. Tomorrow they will return to continue battling it out, and PokerNews will return for Day 2 also, with live coverage from every day of every remaining event at the 50th annual World Series of Poker.