Home / Poker News May 2009 / Thang Luu leads $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo event (event #3) after Day 1
Thang Luu leads $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo event (event #3) after Day 1
Posted by: James Carter. - Sun, 2009-05-31 12:25
Event #3 of the 2009 WSOP, the first one that is not a “special” or an anniversary one, attracted a record field of 918 players, a full 10% more than last year. The $1,500 buy-in Omaha Hi/Lo event saw several of the big names belly up to the tables of the Brasilia and Amazon rooms of the Rio, among them Chris Ferguson, Freddy Deeb, Ivan Demidov, Eli Elezra, Marcel Luske, John Juanda, Hoyt Corkins and Jennifer Harman. Many of these players had been freshly eliminated from the $40,000 anniversary event. Mike Matusow, who managed to survive to Day 2 of the $40,000 event, spent the day shuttling back and forth between the tables, proving that multi tabling was in fact possible in a live game too. Unfortunately for him, he got eliminated from both events before the dinner break.
The $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo event saw Thang Luu climb to the top spot of the provisional leader-board by the end of Day 1.
Event #3 of the 2009 WSOP featured a total prize-pool of $1,253,070, a first prize of $263,135 and 90 paying positions. The field also included LA Lakers owner Jerry Buss and tournament director Matt Savage.
This event was the scene of one of the most unusual WSOP incidents ever. A player was dealt 5 cards instead of 4 and failed to notice it. He got all his money in on the hand in question and when the error was discovered, his hand got invalidated. This way, he was eliminated without ever getting the chance to fend for himself.
Men Nguyen was one of the early eliminations of Day 1. He got all his money in on a flop of Kd, 8c, 5c, with Qh,Jc,7d,3c. His opponent held Kh,Kc,7c,4c for the better flush draw. Nguyen eventually made a set but was outdrawn by his opponent who made a full house and scooped the pot to send him home.
507 players survived to the dinner break, and two hours after that the field had whittled down to 311. The end of the day saw 197 players get up from the tables with the privilege to sit back down on Day 2.
Barry Greenstein and Daniel Negreanu were not among these guys, but Phil Hellmuth, Annie Duke and Todd Brunson certainly were.
