Event #32: Omaha High-Low Split Championship
Location: Rio, Las Vegas
Buy-in: $5,000
Number of Entries: 224
Total Prize Money: $1,052,800

This was the biggest Omaha High-Low tournament in history. For the first time ever, an Omaha High-Low event generated a prize pool in excess of one million dollars. After 215 players were eliminated on the first two days, the nine finalists returned to the final table on Day Three. Daniel Horowitz arrived as the chip leader. Two of the finalists were former gold bracelet winners - Allen Cunningham (a 4-time winner) and David Chiu (a 3-time winner, coming in). Players were eliminated in the following order:

9th Place: Daniel Shak, $21,055
Daniel Shak is accustomed to gambling. The oil futures trader from Pennsylvania sat down in a less volatile game of speculation (poker playing) and his investment paid off handsomely.
8th Place: Bueno Patrick, $31,585
Bueno Patrick, a 39-year-old businessman from Paris, France has made final table appearances at major tournaments in Europe. This was his first WSOP final. Unfortunately, the Frenchman was short-stacked and was the second player to exit.
7th Place: Allen Cunningham, $42,110
Allen Cunningham was making his third final table appearance at this year's WSOP (the most of any player to date). He had hoped to become this year's second two-time winner (Mark Seif is the only dual winner so far), but Cunningham caught a bad run of cards early and went out in 7th place.
6th Place: Hiroshi Shimamura, $52,640
Hiroshi Shimamura, a.k.a. "BlueJay" went out when his A-2-4-9 was crushed by Haim Kakoun's A-A-8-9.
5th Place: Stephen Ladowsky, $63,170
Stephen Ladowsky, a businessman from Toronto, was playing in his second poker tournament ever. His final hand was A-3-8-10 against Russ Salzer's 2-4-4-7 (suited clubs). The board showed A-6-J-10-2, with three clubs. The flush sent Ladowsky out in 5th.
4th Place: Danny Horowitz, $84,225
Danny Horowitz was the early chip leader but went card-dead as the limits increased. He was getting low on chips and went out with a hand that was not shown. Haim Kakoun made kings-full, and Horowitz took a walk.
3rd Place: Haim Kakoun, $105,280
Haim Kakoun was born in Casablanca, Morocco. He now lives in France. The import-export business owner, who plays mostly in Europe, went out when his two pair (Ks-Qs) was cut down to size by two higher pair (As-8s) and a made-low. David Chiu and Russ Salzer split the pot.

Runner up: Russ "the Muscle" Salzer, $191,610
When heads-up play began, the chips counts were very close. Chiu led about 600,000 to Salzer's 520,000. Limits were set at 15,000-30,000. It took about 40 minutes for Chiu to defeat his last opponent. On the final hand, Chiu had his opponent dominated with A-3-5-K versus Salzer's A-5-6-Q. With a better high and a better low draw (and two diamonds), Chiu watched as the flop came Q=J=9 (one diamond). Chiu called Salzer's bet and then watched as a second diamond fell on board (4d). Salzer bet again and Chiu called. When the 7d fell on the river, Salzer was busted in second place.

The runner up was Russ "the Muscle" Salzer, from New York City. The Muscleman has made it to many final tables in the past, here at the WSOP and at major tournaments around the country.

1st Place: David Chiu, $347,410
David Chiu, age 44, was born in China. He first worked as a dealer years ago when small stakes poker games were legalized in Colorado. Chiu gradually played his way up in limits and won as much peer-respect as money along the way. He won his first WSOP gold bracelet in 1996. He also won the Tournament of Champions in 1999. In recent years, and especially with his win here, Chiu has taken his place amongst the biggest and best players in the world.

View final results.

Tournament reporting by Nolan Dalla / worldseriesofpoker.com