Thursday, June 23, 2016 4:13 AM Local Time
Gleb Kovtunov Leads 13 Into Day 3; Jason Mercier Only 12 Players From Third Bracelet of 2016
Gleb Kovtunov, Chipleader Going into Day 3
Day 2 of Event #36: Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo Split Eight or Better started with 125 players. Only 60 were scheduled to receive payouts, which meant more than half of the players today were left empty-handed. With 10 more hours of play gone by, the field is down to 13 of the best limit mixed-game poker players in the world. Gleb Kovtunov is out in front of the pack with 673,000 chips.
Hoping to break his hold on the chiplead are Timothy Burt (647,000), Per Hildebrand (597,000), Fabrice Soulier (593,000), and last year's runner-up Hani Awad (521,000), looking for redemption and the bracelet that slipped from his grasp last summer.
Jason Mercier (96,000) is still in the mix, short-stacked but only a dozen players from his third bracelet of the summer.
Players who made Day 2 and but the cash included former WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider, Scotty Nguyen, Ylon Schwartz, Owais Ahmed, Jeff Madsen, Dzimitry Urbanovich, and Mike Watson.
The first player to cash was Eli Elezra, who took 60th place for $3,763, shortly after an exchange with his tablemate Norman Chad, where he promised that they'd both make the money in this event. He was incorrect, however, as Chad popped the bubble after a couple of hands that saw him survive all-in moves, including one in which he put a wedding ring next to his last three chips.
Elezra was followed in the money by the defending champion in this event, Konstantin Maslak (58th, $3,763), Ilya Krupin (53rd, $3,907), who was on the final table of this year's $1,500 H.O.R.S.E, James Obst (47th, $4,191) fresh off a heads-up battle with Jason Mercier for the $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. title, Maria Ho (42nd, $4,171), Chip Jett (41st, $4,171), Robert Mizrachi (34th, $4,573), Brandon Shack-Harris (29th, $5,147) and Day 1 chip leader Yen Wu (26th, $5,147).
Bracelet winner Aaron Steury (24th, $5,942) was the first player to be eliminated after the three-table redraw, followed by tournament director Matt Savage (23rd, $5,942), and bracelet winner Cyndy Violette (21st, $5,942). See the Results tab above for a more detailed list of finishers.
Action resumes Thursday at 2 p.m. with play continuing until a winner is determined. Levels are 60 minutes long (beginning on Level 21), with 15-minute breaks after every other level, and a dinner break after Level 26, at about 8:30 p.m.
WSOP.com is the source for updates on Day 3 of this tournament.