Eli Elezra Among Top Stacks After Day 1
He says he never bluffs, but whatever he does, Eli Elezra showed he can accumulate chips yet again as he bagged one of the bigger stacks at the close of Day 1 of Event #25: $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo at the 2018 World Series of Poker.
That's what Elezra told Adam Owen, anyway, when they played a big pot near the end of the night with Elezra showing open threes. Owen opted to fold on sixth street and Elezra showed him the three of clubs en route to finishing the night with 71,500, not even a small blind behind chipleader Trent Gundrum (72,000).
Elezra is off to a fantastic start at this WSOP. The three-time bracelet winner nearly nabbed his fourth when he finished runner-up to Paul Volpe in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship for $258,297. He's put himself in position for a third cash here and the possibility of another deep run.
Interestingly, Elezra's wife Hila also made it through with 7,300. Eli said it was the only tournament she'd likely be playing.
Day 1 of the event saw registration come to a close at the beginning of Level 9, and the turnout proved to be almost a mirror image of last year with just one more player showing up to make it 596 total. That means the first-place prize has barely budged and will be $173,528 along with a gold WSOP bracelet.
About 190 of those runners punched Day 2 tickets.
Some players who will have a decent shot at that prize due to bagging solid stacks included unofficial chip leader Max Hoffman (78,700), Nick Kost (49,600), Matt Savage (46,700), John Holley (38,900), Brian Hastings (37,400) and Frankie O'Dell (37,000).
On the other hand, Chris Vitch, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Benny Glaser, Chris Ferguson and Justin Bonomo were among those failing to get much going and hitting the exits early.
Remaining players return Tuesday at 2 p.m. local time for more split-pot action. Come back to PokerNews then for more coverage of the event.
. Bradley Sullivan called, a player in Seat 7 raised, David Bach cold-called and Clements made it three bets. Sullivan got out of the way and the other two stuck around. 
(folded on fourth street)
for an ace-high flush. However, Bach had a better ace-high flush with 
in the hole for ace-king high. The third player had made a low and he took half of the pot, so Clements came out as the player taking a big hit.
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for a pair and a flush draw, then mucked. 
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