2022 World Series of Poker

The money bubble has burst on Day 2 of the largest $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship in the history of the World Series of Poker to date. Out of a field of 683 entrants, only 39 players remain in contention for the biggest slice of the $6,368,975 prize pool. The new record attendance in Event #69: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship was further cemented thanks to 42 new entries prior to the start, some of which made a profit on their investment already.

Upon completion of ten 60-minute levels in the latest marquee event of the 2022 WSOP in its new home at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas, the money bubble has burst and several dozen contenders headed to the payout desk. When the dust had settled, Michael Duek emerged as the chip leader with a massive stack of 4,460,000. His nearest followers Shiva Dudani (3,280,000) and Tom Hu (2,315,000) trail by a significant margin.

The overnight top ten feature eight players from the US including two WSOP bracelet winners in Robert Nehorayan (2,105,000), and Jeff Madsen (1,795,000) while Russia's Iakov Onuchin (1,950,000) and Canada's Lev Zerkal (1,115,000) were able to break into the American domination thus far.

Top Ten Stacks After Day 2

Another seven WSOP gold bracelet winners will aim to increase their tally in the next two days. This also includes the UK's Patrick Leonard, who joined the elusive circle a few days ago in Event #55: $1,000 Tag Team alongside Espen Jorstad. The Brit will be among the shortest stacks for the Day 3 restart on Monday, July 4, 2022 at 2pm with 340,000 in chips.

William McMahan was the last player to leave the tournament empty-handed without anything to show for. He was eliminated by Fabian Brandes after his stack was reduced to fumes and the German rivered a flush. For Brandes, who has a victory and runner-up finish in PLO bracelet events at the 2022 WSOP at Bally’s and Paris Las Vegas to his name, the tournament ended soon after with a min-cash.

Among the Day Two casualties in the money were plenty of notables and lovers of the four-card variant. Perhaps the most well-known PLO specialist among them was the two-time winner of this very event Tommy Le, who also has another third place in the $10,000 PLO Championship to his name as well.

Le's title defence was cut short in 76th place for $17,551 when Ronald Keijzer turned quads to deny the chance at a repeat victory. However, his brother and fellow WSOP bracelet winner Allan Le will be among the 39 hopefuls for Day Three and has 600,000 chips at his disposal to potentially continue the family tradition.

Other familiar faces heading to the payout desk in the late stages of the night were Isaac Baron, Luis Calvo, Bruno Fitoussi, Tom McCormick, Jared Jaffee, Vivian Saliba, Stephen Chidwick, Ben Yu, and Rick Alvarado.

During the frantic final levels, John Kabbaj suffered a horrendous beat when he was two-outered by Aden Salazar and walked over to the payout desk in disbelief. Salazar was also responsible for the double elimination of Dario Sammartino and Michael Cox.

The largest pot of the tournament so far unfolded in a large tussle between Shiva Dudani and Kazuhiko Yotsushika in the penultimate level of the night. With trips fives on the board, high-stakes PLO cash game player Yotsushika bet the pot with very few chips behind only to call it off against a full-house.

All 39 hopefuls will return to their seats in the Paris Ballroom at 2:00 p.m. local time on Monday, July 4, 2022. The blinds in level 21 will be 10,000-25,000 with a big blind ante of 25,000. Up to ten levels of 60 minutes each are scheduled for the penultimate tournament day, which is set to whittle the field down to the last five contenders.

Stay tuned right here on PokerNews to find out who emerges as the champion in Event #69: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship, as the live reporting team will be on the floor to provide exclusive updates from start to finish.

Oshri Lahmani was the last player to bust on Day 2 as he missed out on the pay jump. The final two hands of the night concluded with 39 remaining and the full chip counts as well as a recap of today's action are to follow.

Patrick Leonard suffered a bigger blow to his stack when he doubled John Beauprez post-flop. The of Leonard were no good on a board of as Beauprez flopped the nuts with the .

Shortly after, Patrik Jaros raised the pot to 70,000 and Leonard flat-called. Travis Doran jammed for 185,000 on the button and Jaros reshoved as Leonard reluctantly folded.

Travis Doran:
Patrik Jaros:

The board gave Doran aces full and he more than doubled in the very late stages of Day 2.

Michael Duek raised and Jeff Madsen then three-bet to 165,000 for Aden Salazar and Duek to call. On the flop, Madsen bet and instantly won the pot.

One table over, the open raise to 70,000 was already pulled into the pot and Jered Bettencourt then repotted to 195,000. Sean Troha on the button four-bet the pot to 675,000 and the initial raiser folded. Bettencourt sigh-called all-in for 530,000 as the following cards were revealed.

Jered Bettencourt:
Sean Troha:

The board ran out and Bettencourt flopped the flush to survive.

Back to Madsen's table, he battled with Salazar in a big pot once more and jammed the turn for 970,000. Salazar's tank went on for a while and they called the clock on him. Thirty seconds without decision followed and his cards were dead.

"Do you want to see it?" Madsen asked and exposed the . "I had king-queen-ten-six with flush draw," Salazar chimed in.

David Coleman had the majority of his 240,000 chip stack in the middle with just 40,000 left behind and facing a bet for the rest from Travis Doran on a flop of .

The clock was called, and not realizing his warning would be just five seconds, he quickly spiked the last of his chips in the middle as the floorman counted down to put himself at risk.

David Coleman:
Travis Doran:

Coleman had run into Doran's top set, but as the dealer quickly snapped down the and to complete the board, Coleman had gone runner-runner to make an improbable straight and snatch the pot to boost his stack that was once a single T-5,000 chip to nearly 500,000 chips.

With 600,000 in the pot on a turn board of , John Kabbaj checked in the big blind to Aden Salazar who bet the pot.

The bet had Kabbaj slightly covered and after a couple of minutes of consideration he chose to put his last 600,000 or so chips into the massive pot.

John Kabbaj:
Aden Salazar:

Kabbaj's pair of aces were the best hand, plus he had a flush draw and a gutshot straight draw to back him up, but then one of the very few cards in the deck that could save Salazar came on the river in the , giving Salazar trip queens to steal the pot and send Kabbaj to the payout desk in shock.