Ben Lamb au Top à 25 left, Joao Vieira, Shaun Deeb & David Benyamine en poursuite
One of the high-stakes highlights of the 2021 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas is one step closer to crowning a champion. Out of a field of 212 entries in Event #53: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller, only 25 players remain in contention for the biggest slice of the $5,008,500 prize pool. They have all locked up a payday of $44,807 locked up so far and the winner can look forward to the coveted gold bracelet and top prize of $1,251,860.
Best-positioned for the seven-figure payday and what would be his second gold bracelet is Ben Lamb, who soared to the biggest stack on Day 2. Lamb was one of nearly three dozen late entrants during the first two levels and bagged up a massive stack of 3,885,000. That's well ahead of second-placed Nathan Zimnik (2,535,000) and David Benyamine (2,340,000). One of the former champions of this specific tournament is also still in the mix, as Shaun Deeb advanced with just shy of two million in chips.
Top 10 Counts Day 2 Event #53: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller
| Position | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ben Lamb | United States | 3,885,000 | 130 |
| 2 | Nathan Zimnik | United States | 2,535,000 | 85 |
| 3 | David Benyamine | France | 2,340,000 | 78 |
| 4 | LaDarren Banks | United States | 2,000,000 | 67 |
| 5 | Shaun Deeb | United States | 1,975,000 | 66 |
| 6 | Joao Vieira | Portugal | 1,805,000 | 60 |
| 7 | Farhad Jamasi | United States | 1,480,000 | 49 |
| 8 | Veselin Karakitukov | Bulgaria | 1,445,000 | 48 |
| 9 | Bryce Yockey | United States | 1,420,000 | 47 |
| 10 | Charles Sinn | United States | 1,335,000 | 45 |
Among the notable contenders outside of the top five are Joao Vieira, Bryce Yockey, Jeremy Ausmus, Tommy Le, Simon Lofberg,
Jerry Wong, and Ka Kwan Lau. Ausmus and Le were on the final table of Event #45: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship, in which Le claimed his second career gold bracelet only a few days ago. The Californian was down to just under two blinds prior to the money bubble but made it through with 1,035,000 in pursuit of an unprecedented back-to-back victory in WSOP PLO High Roller tournaments.
Previous WSOP $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High-Roller Champions
| Year | Player | Country | First Prize | Players | Prize Pool |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | tba | tba | $1,251,860 | 212 | $5,008,500 |
| 2019 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | $1,618,417 | 278 | $6,602,500 |
| 2018 | Shaun Deeb | United States | $1,402,683 | 230 | $5,462,500 |
| 2017 | James Calderaro | United States | $1,289,074 | 204 | $4,868,750 |
| 2016 | Jens Kyllonen | Finland | $1,127,035 | 184 | $4,370,000 |
| 2015 | Anthony Zinno | United States | $1,122,196 | 175 | $4,156,250 |
Defending champion Stephen Chidwick was eliminated a few spots outside of the money when he fell victim to the hot run of Ben Lamb during the final stages of the night. Other notables such as Dash Dudley, Dylan Weisman, John Racener, Josh Arieh, Yuval Bronshtein, Dario Sammartino, Sam Soverel and Jake Schwartz all missed out on another WSOP cash for their poker resume.
Lamb was also responsible for bursting the money bubble when he turned a flush against Ian Bradley's two pair. For the remainder of the day, Lamb remained the undisputed chip leader. Seven players earned cash prizes and among them were four WSOP bracelet winners in Ben Yu, Joseph Cheong, Scott Seiver, and Chance Kornuth.
All remaining 25 players will return to their seats in the Amazon Room at 2pm local time on Friday, October 29. The penultimate tournament day is scheduled to reduce the field to the final five players and the action recommences in level 21 at blinds of 15,000/30,000 with a big blind ante of 30,000.
Stay tuned to find out who will make it all the way to the live-streamed final as the PokerNews team will be on the floor to provide all key hands from start-to-finish.