Welcome back to Day 2 of Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better. Yesterday players played through the first 10 levels and leading the final 254 was WSOP Circuit ring winner Rex Clinkscales. He hasn’t locked up his first bracelet yet, but he will look to carry his day 1 lead into a strong finish here in Event #4.
Hot on his heels are several who have already locked up their first WSOP gold bracelets, including Hani Awad, John Monnette, Mike Wattel and Tuan Le. Rounding out the top five stacks coming into the day is Clinkscales (96,200), James Chen (92,400), Tuan Le (79,000), Chad Phillips (68,000) and Aaron Steury (64,100).
Players will play through a second set of 10 levels today. With 254 players to start the day, they are just over 100 eliminations away from bursting the money bubble. The 905 entrants created a prize pool of $1,357,500 and a first-place prize of $238,620. A minimum cash in today’s event will take home $2,253.
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Play is set to begin at 2 p.m. PDT and PokerNews will be here with live updates for all the action so be sure to check in.
Scott Courtois opened from the hijack seat. Action folded to Paul Tedeschi. He raised from the small blind. Benny Glaser folded his big and, with action back on Courtois, he called.
The flop came and Tedeschi bet. Courtois called. The turn was the and Tedechi bet again. Courtois raised. Tedeschi raised again and Courtois put in the rest of his chips to call.
Tedeschi turned up for three pairs. Courtois only showed the . When the hit the river, Courtois fanned out the rest of his hand, showing for a rivered straight and nut low. He took down the whole pot and doubled up through Tedeschi.
After some recent controversy over a ruling at their table, Benny Glaser and Paul Tedeschi engaged in some friendly prop betting with Benjamin Tang.
The trio was arguing if a player moves all in for less than the bet, whether or not they can only call the bet, or if they are able to complete. Tang wanted to bet that if a player moves all in for less than the bet, if the bet is less than half of the bet, that players can only call the all in. Glaser and Tedeschi both took the side that a player should be allowed to complete to the full bet amount.
"I'm willing to bet $100 that you can only call," Tang said.
"I'll take that bet," Glaser said.
"OK, but I want the ruling to be from a different floor, to confirm," Tang said.
"Wait, can I bet too?" Paul Tedeschi chimed in. "I want to bet too."
The three settled on terms of a $200 bet. The floor on duty confirmed that Tedeschi and Glaser were on the winning side of the bet, but Tang wanted to wait for further ruling.
Ben Ludlow opened from middle position. Action folded around to James Woods in the small blind and he raised. Action folded back to Ludlow and he called the bet.
The flop came and Woods led out with a bet. Ludlow called.
The turn was the and again Woods led out. Ludlow called again.
On the river, Woods led for a third time. Ludlow went into the tank and thought for a few seconds before calling. Woods turned up for a straight and the nut low and that was enough to elicit a muck from Ludlow.
"Either way, that pot couldn't have gone to a nicer guy," Woods said, consoling Ludlow after the hand. "I'll tell you why I did that later."
Scott Fitzhugh raised from under the gun. Action folded around to Benny Glaser in the big blind who called. The flop came and Glaser checked to Fitzhugh. Fitzhugh bet. Glaser raised. Fitzhugh reraised. Glaser raised once more, enough to put Fitzhugh all in. Fitzhugh called and the two turned up their hands.
Glaser:
Fitzhugh:
"Wow, you have all my outs too," Glaser said.
The turn and the river were the and and that gave Fitzhugh the scoop. Glaser was left with an extremely short stack after the hand and was eliminated from the tournament shortly after.
Valentin Vornicu raised from the hijack. James Chen then reraised from the small blind. Christopher Logue called from the big blind before Vornicu four-bet. Chen then capped it with a fifth bet. Logue and Vornicu called.
The flop came and Chen bet. Both his opponents called.
The turn brought the and Chen fired again. Logue called. Vornicu raised and then Chen came over the top. Logue called and Vornicu followed.
The completed the board and Chen checked. Logue bet. Vornicu and Chen called.
"Trip kings," announced Chen, as he tabled his for the high hand.
Logue then rolled over his for an ace-three low.
Vornicu let out a sigh before tabling his for two pairs and a worse low before watching his two opponents chop the almost 170,000 pot.
Benjamin Zamani opened with a raise from the cutoff. Next to act was James Woods and he contemplated for a bit before tossing in his last 5,000 chip to call all in. The small blind called the raise as well and the three took to a flop.
On the flop, the small blind checked to Zamani who bet. The small blind promptly folded and Woods and Zamani showed their hands.
Zamani:
Woods:
The board completed with and the , giving Zamani a full house, but a low for Woods to stay alive. With that, he increased his stack by a small amount just before the dinner break.
Rex Clinkscales had a rough level. For most of the day he cruised along just about where he started, but he found himself short stacked and all in after a preflop confrontation with Ken Aldridge.
Clinkscales:
Aldridge:
"Looks like I'm gonna need some diamonds," Aldridge said after seeing the hands.
But he didn't need diamonds. The board ran out to give him the nut straight and the only qualifying low. He scooped both pots and Clinkscales was eliminated from the tournament.