John Evans Among the Day 1 $1,500 Omaha Mix Chip Leaders
It’s a wrap on Day 1 of Event #63: $1,500 Omaha Mix. A total of 717 entries registered to compete in the three-game Omaha hi-lo mix, and going into Day 2 the field is chasing John Evans (130,400) Anatolii Zirin (117,800), and Bart Hanson (107,800), among others, at the top of the chip leader board. All three of these players are coming off of top-four finishes and six-figure paydays earlier in the 2019 WSOP, and are in contention to add to their totals for the summer.
The remaining 228 players return Friday for Day 2, which restarts at 2 p.m. The field will play a full day of 10 one-hour levels, as the tournament narrows down toward the WSOP bracelet and the $199,838 first prize.
Yueqi Zhu, last year’s defending champion in this event, overcame a slow start to the day to bag at the end of the night, and he’s still in contention to defend his title.
Other notables making it through to Day 2 included six-time WSOP bracelet winner Jeff Lisandro, who spent much of the latter part of the day seated directly to Zhu’s left.
Barry Greenstein got off to a hot start Thursday and rode that momentum through the end of the day, and he’ll come back Friday along with other bracelet winners like Eli Elezra, Max Pescatori, Scott Clements, Loren Klein, Barbara Enright and 2013 WSOP Main Event winner Ryan Riess.
Clements and Donev spent much of the day seated at the same table, with no lack of action and plenty of big pots. Greenstein spent the early part of the day as a tablemate to Norman Chad, who built up a three-times starting stack pile at one point, but busted out in the middle of the day.
This event is scheduled for four days of play, with a full day Friday, and the plan to play down to six players Saturday. Those six players will come back for a final table Sunday and play to a winner.
The tournament will pay 108 places, with at least the min cash of $2,249 going to all players that survive into the money. Join the PokerNews live reporting team Friday and throughout the rest of Event #63: $1,500 Omaha Mix.