Six Remain in $10K Omaha Hi-Lo; Eli Elezra Leads as Players Prepare for Climatic Showdown
Only six players remain in Event #9: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Eight or Better Championship and Eli Elezra continued his massive heater to bag up the chip lead once again after the third day of play. Elezra came in as the leader and he didn't let off the gas, winning pot after pot as the day chugged along.
There were 22 to begin the day but they started falling quick. First to go was Lars Gronning who got short and wasn't able to recover. He was followed by Daniel Alaei, Scott Bohlman, and Nikolai Yakovenko, who all collected $14,912 for their efforts in the event, bringing the field down to two tables.
Chris Bjorin found himself short stacked as the final two tables converged and he was the next out. He busted to Robert Mizrachi who turned a flush against Bjorin's inferior flush and the river counterfeited the Swede's low as well to send him to the rail.
Following Bjorin out was Felipe Ramos who lost a monster pot to Paul Volpe when the latter rivered the nut straight and Ramos mucked. His tournament ended when Elezra and Mike Matusow both made the nut straight and he wound up with just two pair.
After Ramos fell he was followed by Mike Gorodinsky, Dylan Linde, and Talon White all who hit the rail in quick succession. Steve Chanthabouasy dropped after that. Chanthabouasy came into the final two tables with a sizable stack but lost pots to many different players at the table, spreading his chips around. It was Russia's Viacheslav Zhukov who did the honors, flopping trips against Chanthabouasy overpair to send him to the rail.
Mike Matusow was the next to go. In Matusow fashion, he clawed through most of the day with a short stack, but got extremely short after misreading his hand in a big pot against Gorodinsky. He was unable to recover and eventually lost the rest of his chips to Zhukov as well when the Russian player flopped quads.
Jesse Martin (10th for $25,619) found himself short before the convergence of the final table and only lasted one hand before being quickly eliminated. Per Hildebrand (9th for $31,977) was next to go, followed by Dan Zack (8th for $40,715).
The last to fall was Robert Mizrachi (7th for $52,866). Mizrachi played a monster three-way pot on the final hand of the night with the nut flush draw and the second nut low, but bricked everything and his chips were split between Volpe and Elezra.
Mizrachi's elimination brought the field down to six and halted play for the night as this event will be live streamed on Wednesday. Players will return to Level 21 with limits of 40,000/80,000 with just three minutes left on the clock. Action kicks off at 2 p.m. and the plan is to play down to a winner. Zhukov, Volpe, and Elezra are all looking to add yet another bracelet to their collection so it's sure to be an exciting finale. PokerNews will have coverage of all the action so be sure to check back in.
| Seat | Player | Country | Stack |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dustin Dirksen | United States | 140,000 |
| 2 | Viacheslav Zhukov | Russia | 970,000 |
| 3 | Adam Coats | United States | 1,820,000 |
| 4 | Paul Volpe | United States | 1,600,000 |
| 5 | Kyle Miaso | United States | 1,275,000 |
| 6 | Eli Elezra | United States | 2,700,000 |