Shahar Levi Leads, Lehr and Seidel Both Have Big Stacks After Day 1 of Event #40: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha
After 12 hours of fun at the felt, the play has stopped for Day 1 of Event #40: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. Many players took their chance and many hit the rail but exactly 200 of the 1,216 total players still remain and they'll return for Day 2 on Tuesday, 18th June looking to make the money.
Among the biggest stacks leading the way to Day 2 is eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel with a hefty stack of 368,000. Others notables who will be returning tomorrow include Mike Matusow (152,500), Barny Boatman (143,000), Matt Glantz (380,000), Ben Ludlow (194,000), Ankush Mandavia (51,500), Mohsin Charania (44,500) and Matt Stout who will return with a short stack of 25,000.
Shahar Levi caught fire during the last level of the night, running that late run to the chip lead with 519,000. He's followed in the chipcounts by Indian player Sajal Gupta with 512,500 and former WSOP Heads-Up Championship bracelet winner Keith Lehr with 464,000. The Austrian player Dimitri Holdeew is also heading into Day 2 looking dangerous with 414,000, while Matt Glantz bagged up 380,000 chips.
Many notables took a seat in the tournament but not fortunate enough to make Day 2 included Alex Foxen, Chance Kornuth, Calvin Anderson, David Benyamine, Upeshka De Silva, Joao Vieira, Manig Loeser and Elie Payan, who won the event in 2011.
The 200 players who move on to Day 2 are 17 eliminations away from the money as the final 183 players will be guaranteed at least $2,248 for their efforts. The prize pool total amounted to $1,374,300 with $298,507 for first as well as the coveted gold bracelet.
The players will restart Tuesday at 12 p.m with 60-minute levels, starting at Level 16, which has blinds of 2,500/5,000. They will play down to six players with a 15-minute break every two levels, plus a 60-minute dinner break after Level 21, at approximately 6:30 p.m.
The PokerNewslive reporting team will be here to bring you all the coverage throughout the event.
when a player was all in for a remaining stack around 40,000 against Erik Seidel who had made the call. 
and 
, giving a straight to Seidel who eliminated his opponent and added more chips to his hefty stack.
. 
and De Silva pushed all in, snap-called by his opponent to create the following showdown:
, giving the winning hand to De Silva's opponent with the kings and eliminating the recent winner of the $600 No-Limit Hold'em Knockout Bounty online Event.
and Ylitalo took it down while he sent Gerhart to the rail.
and the player in the big blind checked to Varnell and he continued with a bet of 1,000. His opponent raised to 3,000 and Varnell called. 
and Varnell was facing a bet of 4,000 when he announced pot and Varnell had 20,900 in front of him. All the chips went in the turn and Varnell needed to hit. 
and Varnell hit the nuts on the river to stay in the game. ''I do run pretty good in PLO'' said Varnell to his opponent as he picked up the pot.
