Action picked up on the turn in a hand between Bradley Anderson in middle position and Gene Grieshaber in the hijack.
On a board of 3♥J♦5♥5♦, Anderson led out with a bet of 60,000 and Grieshaber raised to 174,000. Anderson made the call and the river landed the 2♣.
Anderson checked again and Grieshaber fired out a bet of 300,000, prompting Anderson to go into the tank. After taking a moment to think out loud, Anderson eventually gave up his hand.
Grieshaber showed the bluff, tabling A♠8♦8♥7♠ for two pair, eights and fives.
"I got the one bluff of the day out of the way, I can't do that anymore," said Grieshaber as he dragged in the pot.
In less than 10 minutes of play, Ryan Riess eliminated two players. James Athanas went all in with the possibility of becoming his third victim.
James Athanas: K♦K♥Q♠4♠
Ryan Riess: A♦A♥K♠9♠
The flop 5♣8♣4♣5♥10♠ didn't provide the help Athanas needed, as Riess' pocket aces topped his pocket kings. Riess nearly doubled his stack in less than 20 minutes.
There were 300,000 chips in the pot on a board of A♥7♠Q♥6♥, Florian Ribouchon from the cutoff bet 130,000 when the turn card was dealt. Jianqiang Yu called in the small blind and Julian Velador who was in early position made the fold.
Action did not slow down when the 9♣ hit the river and Ribouchon announced all in for 365,000, Yu snap-folded.
Welcome to Day 2 of Event #42: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, with 102 players remaining from 1,932 entries. At stake is a first-place prize of $237,852, from a prize pool of $1,769,712, and, of course, a WSOP bracelet.
Two-time bracelet winner John Riordan walked away from the first day of play as the chip leader, with 1,293,000 in his bag.
Among the contenders on the chase is China’s Zhen Chen, who is second in chips and Canada's Mike Leah, who led for much of Day 1, before slipping to seventh overall.
Chen has four cashes on his ledger this series, all in no-limit hold’em events. Of his 50 WSOP cashes, including a host of online events, none have come in PLO, and according to The Hendon Mob, all of his nearly $1.3 million in career earnings is from hold’em.
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
John Riordan
United States
1,293,000
129
2
Zhen Chen
China
1,176,000
118
3
Benny Chen
Canada
1,161,000
116
4
Robert Cowen
United Kingdom
1,155,000
116
5
Martin Nielsen
United Kingdom
1,060,000
106
6
Gene Grieshaber
United States
948,000
95
7
Mike Leah
Canada
859,000
86
8
Ernest Essad
United States
848,000
85
9
Dylan Weisman
United States
845,000
85
10
Georgios Tsoupras
Greece
832,000
83
Benny Chen, who bested 6,343 entries – at the time the largest single-day starting field in WSOP history – to win a bracelet in a $1,500 hold’em event in 2013, rounds out the top three. Zhen Chen and Benny Chen will begin today's play at the same table.
Others in the top ten who have WSOP jewelry are Robert Cohen and Dylan Weisman, who won this event in 2021. Ryan Riess, the 2013 Main Event Champion, is lurking with just under a half a million chips.
Dylan Weisman
The restart is at noon local time in the Horseshoe Silver Section, with hour-long levels, and play scheduled to continue until only five players remain.
Stay tuned to PokerNews, the official media partner of the 2025 World Series of Poker, for live updates from this and all bracelet events at the Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas.
