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Another 2024 World Series of Poker tournament kicked off today in Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, with Day 1 of Event #15: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better (8-Handed) starting its proceedings.
After nine levels of late registration, the final entry tally reached 1,277, an increase on last year's total of 1,125. The prize pool was confirmed at $1,704,795 and was announced to be shared among the top 192 finishers. The min-cash was a buy-in doubling $3,007, while $265,361 has been set aside for the winner, along with the WSOP bracelet.
The bubble burst on Level 16, after Hollywood actor James Woods got in his chip drawing thin. He could not scoop, chop or take a quarter of the pot and was the last player to leave empty-handed. Woods maintained a healthy stack throughout the day, but the latter stages of Day 1 were unkind to him.
End of Day 1 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Daniel Lowery | United States | 775,000 |
| 2 | Narek Avetisyan | United States | 724,000 |
| 3 | Jonathan Hanner | United States | 564,000 |
| 4 | William Stanford | United States | 548,000 |
| 5 | Sean Troha | United States | 519,000 |
| 6 | Yuval Bronshtein | Israel | 505,000 |
| 7 | Rafael Nogueira | Brazil | 503,000 |
| 8 | Christian Harder | United States | 470,000 |
| 9 | Joao Simao | Brazil | 467,000 |
| 10 | Jonathan Lewis | United States | 453,000 |
The Highs
Daniel Lowery, a 15-time WSOP Circuit ring winner, performed best on Day 1, bagging the overall chip lead. His stack of 25,000 grew to 775,000, good for 129 big blinds when Day 2 gets underway. While Lowery has been crushing the circuit, his record at the WSOP is not quite as accomplished. His best finish was sixth place in last year's Super Turbo Bounty, but he has all the ingredients needed to cook up a run to the gold bracelet.
Narek Avetisyan was the only other player to bag more than 700,000, ending the night with 724,000.
Plenty of notable names also jumped over the first hurdle, with the likes of Maria Ho (393,000), Adam Friedman (435,000), and Yuval Bronshtein (505,000) all bagging healthily.
While John Holley and Greg Wood bagged below-average stacks, they managed to squeak into the money while on fumes. Holley managed to get a chop against Travis Pearson's aces before Wood's aces avoided disaster against Pearson, who appeared determined to be the bubble maker.
The Lows
Allen Kessler had a day to forget, firing two bullets that yielded no return. On his first bullet, Kessler had nut-nut on the flop, only to get scooped after the turn and river hit the felt.
Shortly after late registration, he was all-in and at risk once again. Despite ending up with a full house in the three-way encounter, Eric Cloutier's kings-full of jacks bested Chainsaw's jacks-full.
Poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel made a brief cameo but could not spin it up after using the nine levels of late registration.
2004 WSOP Main Event champion Greg Raymer had his kings cracked and was one of the first eliminations of the day.
Day 2 Plan
Day 2 gets underway at noon local time, with the remaining 192 players in the money. They'll return to the Silver section of the Thunderdome, where play resumes on Level 16 (3,000/6,000/6,000) with 35 minutes left on the clock.
As always, stay tuned with PokerNews to keep up with all the action from the 2024 WSOP.
