Event #25: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship

James Dempsey raised from early position and then Abe Mosseri reraised from the small blind. Oleg Shamardin called from the big blind and Dempsey also called.

The flop came down     and Mosseri bet out. Shamardin called and then Dempsey folded. The turn card added the   to the board and Mosseri bet out again. Shamardin called.

The river completed the board with the   and Mosseri bet out again. Shamardin called and watched Mosseri tabled the     . Shamardin held a better low with the      and the two chopped up the pot. Mosseri has 750,000 in chips and Shamardin 300,000.

The short stacks are getting it in, and not all of them are getting it back out. Mike Watson bet the turn of a         board, then called all in after Abe Mosseri raised. Mosseri turned over a small flush and a low,        . Watson had unimproved aces and a worse low,        . The river   sent him of to the cage to collect his winnings.

Mike Sexton, Oleg Shamardin and Sergey Altbregin were all involved in a tense pot on the feature table. With the board showing        , Sexton bet and was called by Shamardin before Altbregin raised. Sexton three-bet, putting a big decision to Shamardin. He eventually folded, with Altbregin calling.

The river came  . Sexton bet and, after a moment of thought, Altbregin tossed in call. Sexton showed        , two pair fours and deuces and the nut low. Altbregin triumphantly turned over        , two pair tens and sixes and the nut low. Sexton was dumbstruck.

"That was a good card for me and the worst one," he said.

"There were worse ones," chimed in John D'Agostino.

"I'd have bet a million dollars when he just called I was getting at least half," said Sexton. "How can you get a good river card and it's the worst one you can see?"

Altbregin collected his three-quarters of the pot and said nothing.

Jean-Robert Bellande raised from the hijack seat and David Baker called from the cutoff seat. Mike Sexton called from the big blind as well and the three players saw the flop come down    . Sexton bet out and Bellande called. baker folded.

The turn card brought the   and both players checked. The river card completed the board with the   and Sexton bet out. Bellande tanked and then made the call.

Sexton tabled the      for two pair and a live ace. Bellande showed just the    and then mucked his other two cards. He dropped to 240,000 while Sexton increased to 470,000.

The cards are in the air for Event No. 25. There's 23 players remaining and we'll be playing to a winner later tonight, or probably in the early hours of the morning. Get the coffee ready.

We're not going to lie: today is going to be a very long, very trying, very exhausting day for the players that go deepest in this event. Play is scheduled to start at 3pm local time with 23 players left in the field. We could easily be looking at 12 (or more!) levels of play to play down to a champion. When breaks are factored in and you consider that this is a split-pot game, it will probably be after 5am by the time we're done.

But we're confident that none of the 23 returning players will think too much about the length of the day if they're still standing at the end. Michael Chow is the player who starts atop the counts today. You might remember Chow from Event 4, $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo, an event he won after defeating Dan Heimiller after a 3-hour heads-up match. Can Chow pull off an impressive double-win here today?

He'll have to get past a formidable field of 22 other competitors. See if you can find a soft spot by looking at the names in our Chip Counts page. We sure can't. It's going to be a slug-fest all the way to the bitter end. If you don't believe me, consider that yesterday was Eugene Katchalov was down to 1,000 in chips and posting the small blind during the 4,000-8,000 level. Today he starts with considerably more than 1,000 chips.

Cards are in the air at 3pm local time. Red Bull and greenies for the long night ahead start hitting our systems... now.