button in SafariPhil Hellmuth Pops Bubble on Day 2 of $10K Omaha Hi-Lo Championship, Bags as 15 Remain
Limits: 30,000-60,000
An action-packed Day 2 of Event #9: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship concluded with just 15 players remaining at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Headlining them is all-time bracelet leader Phil Hellmuth, who finds himself tantanglizingly close to a record-extending 18th piece of WSOP hardware in one of the first events of the 2026 World Series of Poker, this one coming with a potential $450,176 payday.
Hellmuth was one of the 42 people who entered during the first level of the day, the final chance at late registration. The total field was brought to 204 entries, and the prize pool was confirmed at $1,897,200 not much later. He spun the starting stack of 60,000 up to 665,000 after just over 12 hours of poker, bursting the bubble by disposing of recent $1,500 Stud runner-up Brian Yoon en route to a sixth spot on the end-of-night leaderboard.
Hellmuth's stack will be worth just over eight big bets at the start of Day 3, but he will have a big gap to cross with chipleader Scott Clements, who went on a late-night surge to end with 1,980,000 in his bag. Clements won the first of his three bracelets 20 years ago in a $3,000 Omaha Hi-Lo event, and is looking to prove he is still among the best of the best in the four-card, split-pot game.
Clements is closely followed by pot-limit Omaha wizard Dylan Weisman with 1,940,000, who is aiming to add a hi-lo victory to his two PLO bracelets. Hellmuth's fellow Hall of Famer Todd Brunson rounds out the top three with 1,280,000, hunting his first bracelet since 2005, while Nam Le and seven-time bracelet winner Josh Arieh also bagged a seven-figure stack.
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Bets |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Clements | United States | 1,980,000 | 25 |
| 2 | Dylan Weisman | United States | 1,940,000 | 24 |
| 3 | Todd Brunson | United States | 1,280,000 | 16 |
| 4 | Nam Le | United States | 1,180,000 | 15 |
| 5 | Josh Arieh | United States | 1,120,000 | 14 |
| 6 | Phil Hellmuth | United States | 665,000 | 8 |
| 7 | John Esposito | United States | 650,000 | 8 |
| 8 | James Chen | United States | 580,000 | 7 |
| 9 | James Obst | Australia | 530,000 | 7 |
| 10 | David Lin | United States | 490,000 | 6 |
Defending champion Ryan Bambrick still has a shot at going back-to-back, but his bag of 410,000 lands him among the short stacks, together with five-times bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi (330,000) and $25K Fantasy pick Philip Long (255,000).
Not all could be so lucky as the 15 survivors, as legendary names such as Phil Ivey, Brian Rast, John Hennigan, Jennifer Harman, and Chris Moneymaker busted well before the 31 paid spots were reached.
After Yoon had left the tournament area, Chino Rheem was the first player to pick up the minimum cash of $20,298, and he was quickly followed to the payout desk by the likes of Joao Vieira, Gus Hansen, Philip Sternheimer, and Christopher Vitch.
Ashish Gupta and Yueqi Zhu picked up valuable points for their $25K Fantasy teams by making the pay jump to $21,313, the same amount the 15 players have secured by making it to Day 3. They are only one elimination away from an increase to $25,900, but the eye-catching six-figure prizes won't be handed out until the final five players have been reached.
Remaning Payouts
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $450,176 | 7 | $54,214 |
| 2 | $299,228 | 8-9 | $41,334 |
| 3 | $203,242 | 10-11 | $32,305 |
| 4 | $141,126 | 12-14 | $25,900 |
| 5 | $100,231 | 15 | $21,313 |
| 6 | $72,849 |
The $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship will continue on June 1 at 1 p.m. local time. The blinds will restart at 20,000/40,000 with limits of 40,000/80,000. The duration of the levels will be increased to 90 minutes each, and the plan for Day 3 is to play down to a winner.
PokerNews will be back on the floor tomorrow for the final day of the tournament, providing consistent live updates on the way to the crowning of the 2026 Omaha Hi-Lo champion.