Mike Leah raised in middle position, a player on the button called, Ryan Laplante called from the small blind and Jose Razo peeled from the big. Leah continued with the small bet on the flop and all other players came along.
On the turn, it was Razo who led out and once again everyone called, bringing four players to the river. The river was the and Razo bet again. Leah was the only caller as the button and Laplante quickly folded their hands.
Joshua Beckley escaped from elimination and essentially doubled through, chopping with a low against Jason Phamolivo on a board of after he tabled . Phamolivo won the high pot with while the third player in the hand mucked.
Beckley then got into a hand with Corey Hochman and called bets on the flop and the turn. The came on the river and Hochman fired again. Beckley tank-folded and was shown the .
One hand later, Hochman raised and his table neighbor three-bet, Hochman called. On the flop, Hochman checked and called a bet before check-raising the turn, which resulted in a call. The river completed the board and Hochman's final bet was reluctantly called to see him turn over for the nut straight.
Beckley's remaining two preflop bets vanished the next hand as he left the tournament area in the final level of the night.
The clock has been paused with ten minutes remaining. Four more hands will be played until chips are bagged and tagged for the night. The announcement caused some excitement in the room, as several players were actively betting on the number of remaining hands announced.
Towards the end of the level, Kate Hoang has emerged as one of the bigger stacks, however, the chip lead seems to be up close and could go either way.
Hoang got into a three-way pot out of the small blind and checked the turn, as did the big blind. David Self bet on the button and picked up two callers. On the river, the action checked once more to Self and his bet was called by Hoang and the big blind. Self showed for a set of tens and Hoang mucked, the big blind took the low portion of the pot with the .
In the penultimate hand of the night, Pamela McPeak added to her big stack after taking on Roland Israelashvili. On the river of a board , Israelashvili called a bet by McPeak with for the nut flush, but McPeak had for a full house. McPeak was over 70,000 at that point before surrendering a pot to John jenkins in the last hand of the night.
The first day of Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better at the 2018 World Series of Poker is done. An assortment of end-of-day chip counts and an extensive recap will follow.
On the second day of the 2018 World Series of Poker, the limit Omaha Hi-Lo aficionados came out in full force to contest for the bracelet in Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better. A total of 911 players paid the requisite $1,500 to play, six more than the event drew last year. Together, they created a total prize pool of $1,229,850, and the winner on Saturday, June 2 will receive the biggest chunk worth $239,771, as well as the gold WSOP bracelet.
After ten levels of 60 minutes and plenty of chopped pots, 295 of the entrants made it through to the second day. It was Dao Bac who claimed the Day 1 chip lead with 74,700. Nick Guagenti, who had a deep run in last year's Main Event, also had a strong showing with 65,600, as well as Pamela McPeak, who bagged 64,900.
Top Chip Counts After Day 1
Place
Name
County
Chip Count
Big Bets
1
Dao Bac
United States
74,700
75
2
Nick Guagenti
United States
65,600
66
3
Pamela McPeak
United States
64,900
65
4
John Monnette
United States
62,000
62
5
Tommy Chen
United States
61,400
61
6
Frank Muir
United States
61,300
61
7
Kate Hoang
United States
58,400
58
8
John Jenkins
United States
58,200
58
9
Michael Zepek
United States
53,200
53
10
Brian Haack
United States
53,100
53
Among those that made it through to the second day were many former WSOP bracelet winners, including six-time winner Layne Flack (41,500), four-time winner Jeff Madsen (31,900) and three-time bracelet winner Benny Glaser (27,200). Glaser won this very event back in 2016 and will be trying to achieve an improbable second victory in three years. Allen Kessler (39,600), John Racener (31,300) and Mike Leah (22,500) also advanced to Day 2.
Mike Matusow made it to Day 2 with 14,800. "The Mouth" showed why he earned his moniker by bombarding his opponents with a non-stop barrage of words throughout the day. Matusow made it through in good company, as fellow bracelet winners Madsen, Chris Tryba and Leif Force also advanced from a stacked table that brought a combined 16 bracelets together at one point.
Six of those belonged to Chris Ferguson, who busted out shortly before the end of the night at the hands of Matusow himself. Holding a hand with ace-four of clubs, Matusow flopped the nut flush to end Ferguson's bid for a seventh piece of jewellery in the ultimate level of the night.
Plenty of notables showed up for this event and many of them fell by the wayside on the first day. James Woods was among the first to fall, and the actor was joined on the rail by Ari Engel, Sorel Mizzi, Brian Hastings, James Obst, Mike Ross, Felipe Ramos, Kathy Liebert, Kristen Bicknell, Jeff Lisandro and Todd Brunson.
On Friday, June 1 at 2 p.m. local time, the remaining players will return in level 11, with limits of 500/1,000. Another ten levels of 60 minutes are scheduled as play continues in the Amazon Room of the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino. PokerNews will be on the floor to cover this event start-to-finish as the 2018 World Series of Poker rolls on.