In a pot of 310,000 chips, Francisco Benitez's stack of 475,000 was pushed in the middle from the small blind on a board of K♦3♥8♣5♥, and he was looked up by Jonathan Bowers in the hijack.
Benitez showed K♥K♣7♥7♣ for top set and a flush draw, and he won the pot when the 9♥ river upgraded him to a flush, doubling him up to a seven-figure stack.
Shaun Deeb had raised in the cutoff and called the three-bet of Caleb Furth on the button. The flop was spread 9♥J♦J♣ and Deeb check-called Furth's all-in of about 40,000 chips.
Caleb Furth: A♠A♣9♠3♦
Shaun Deeb: Q♣J♠10♦7♣
Deeb had flopped trips as he left Furth's aces drawing slim. The 4♣8♥ runout could not help Furth further, resulting in his elimination.
Furth's seat was quickly taken by Jason Somerville, who had chipped up a bit since the start of play.
On a three-way turn of 9♠3♣8♠8♦, the pot has nearly 475,000 in it when Dylan Weisman led-jammed for 91,000.
Shai Elbaz quickly got out of the way, but Hokyiu Lee went into the tank. After close to a minute, he shook his head and tossed in his cards to award the substantial pot to Weisman.
"It was a very good turn," Weisman admitted as he stacked his new chips.
Tolga Demirel made a pot-sized bet of 125,000 from the small blind on a turn of K♥2♠10♥8♦. Andrew Watson then jammed all in for 141,000 in the big blind and Giuseppe Pantaleo also shipped in his stack of 435,000 under the gun.
Eventually, Demirel put himself at risk for 334,000 chips, and all 12 cards hit the table.
Andrew Watson: J♥9♥9♣7♠
Tolga Demirel: K♦J♠10♣8♥
Giuseppe Pantaleo: A♠K♠10♠8♣
The 6♦ river gave Watson the nut straight to triple up, while Pantaleo and Demirel chopped the side pot with their kings and tens.
After some previous betting action on the 8♦3♥6♣ flop, Hokyiu Lee under the gun had made a bet of 93,000 with a pot of 31,000 chips in the middle. Chino Rheem then jammed all in for 311,000, sending Lee into the tank.
"What do you have?" Rheem asked.
"A six," Lee answered.
Rheem laughed and said, "Well, alright," before going back into silence.
Eventually, Lee stuck in a call with the covering stack and the cards were tabled after the players were instructed to do so.
Chino Rheem: A♠A♣9♥8♥
Hokyiu Lee: A♦Q♥10♥6♠
Rheem was ahead with his aces, but the Q♠ turn gave Lee two pair to take the lead. The K♠ river changed nothing and Rheem said his goodbyes as the final player eliminated without a cash.
The final pot-limit Omaha tournament of the 2024 World Series of Poker, Event #97: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha, saw 844 entries being made on Day 1, creating a prize pool of $2,253,480. Today, at 1 p.m. local time, 134 of them will return to the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas for the second day of the tournament.
With 127 paid spots, the event will recommence on the soft bubble. One of the players who might be looking forward to exerting some pressure on the bubble is six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb. Deeb turned his starting stack of 40,000 to a pile of 761,000 chips on Day 1, good for fourth place on the leaderboard and 190 big blinds when play resumes.
Leading the pack, however, is Scott Ball with 1,015,000 chips, being the only player to bring a seven-figure stack to Day 2. Ball already has two no-limit hold'em bracelets and is looking for his first final table in a WSOP pot-limit Omaha event.
Scott Ball
Also in the super-stacked top ten are 25K Fantasy picks Alex Livingston and Jesse Lonis, who will start Day 2 with 756,000 and 732,000 chips respectively, and Dutch Omaha expert Ronald Keijzer (677,000), who won this event in 2018 to capture his first bracelet.
Start of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chips
Big Blinds
1
Scott Ball
United States
1,015,000
254
2
Stanislav Barshak
United States
779,000
195
3
Hokyiu Lee
Hong Kong
774,000
194
4
Shaun Deeb
United States
761,000
190
5
Alex Livingston
Canada
756,000
189
6
Jesse Lonis
United States
732,000
183
7
Ryan Hughes
United States
691,000
173
8
Ronald Keijzer
Netherlands
677,000
169
9
Elior Sion
United Kingdom
612,000
153
10
Mihail Andonov
Sweden
604,000
151
Other above-average stacks at the start of Day 2 include Chino Rheem (500,000), Renji Mao (485,000), Rob Hollink (482,000), Ian Matakis (405,000), and Alex Foxen (351,000). Player of the Year contender Jeremy Ausmus is also in contention and will be hunting for his record-breaking eighth final table of the series, starting with a stack of 158,000 chips.
Meanwhile, the likes of Dmitry Yurasov (89,000), Noah Boeken (72,000), Joseph Cheong (58,000), and Ray Fishman (51,000) ended up with less than 25 big blinds in their bags as they will try to avoid to become one of the seven players leaving the field without a return on their investment.
Once the field gets to the money, every player will be guaranteed a payday of $6,021. Everyone at the final table of six will see their bankroll padded with at least $45,892, while the eventual winner will walk away with a score of $390,621.
The tournament will resume at 1 p.m. local time in Level 13: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 big blind ante. The event is scheduled to play ten levels of 60 minutes each, with a 15-minute break after every two of them and a 60-minute dinner break after Level 16, around 7:30 p.m.
Stay tuned as PokerNews will provide live updates straight from the tournament floor throughout all ten levels, from the bubbling start of the day all the way until the late-night finish.
