Speir, Sands, Gonzalez Lead Going Into Day 2
Everyone and their mother came out to play Event No. 51, the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low Split-8 or Better yesterday. We had a whopping 946 players put up the $1,500 buy-in to take their shot at part of the $1,227,100 prize pool, and of course, the gold bracelet. Each and everyone of them was looking to follow in the footsteps of Steve Jelenik, who last year bested a field of 847 to win $245,871.Needless to say, this year's field is bigger, better, and likely the biggest Pot-Limit Omaha-8 tournament of all time.
This year, the winner will be taking home $268,235, and the man best positioned to make a run at the top prize is William Speir, who appears to be the Day 1 chip leader (115,300) with 134 players remaining.
Unfortunately not everyone was as lucky as Speir. Some of the players eliminated on Day 1 included Phil Laak, Tom "durrrr" Dwan, Daniel Negreanu, Eric Baldwin, Marcel Luske, Mike Matusow, Greg Raymer, Jonathan Duhamel, and Phil Hellmuth.
While many of poker's biggest names failed to survive, we do have some big names joining us on Day 2. Alexandre Gomes, Kathy Liebert, Alex Wice, Alexander Kostritsyn, Erick Lindgren, Erik Seidel, and Joe Hachem will all return today to the Amazon Room and continue their quest for a bracelet. Joining them will be big stacks David "Doc" Sands (94,000), Fabrizio Gonzalez (90,300), Tom Chambers (82,800), and Robert Campbell (74,100).
Day 2 is set to resume at 2:30 p.m. PST here in the purple section of the Amazon Room, so be sure to join the PokerNews Live Reporting Team as we continue to bring you up to the minute coverage and play ten more levels towards setting a final table.