Schwartz & Blumenthal Headline Event #22: $1,500 PLO Final Table
It took just over 18 levels of play for 1,021 players to reduce themselves down to the final nine in the 2013 World Series of Poker's Event #22: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha. To put that in perspective, most tournaments play ten levels each on the first two days and still don't make a final table. That's a testament to the fast-pace nature and big-pot reputation of PLO, perhaps poker's most popular game behind Texas hold'em.
On Thursday, one man stood out from the rest in Noah Schwartz, who pulled out to a monster chip lead with 28 player left. It began when he won a monster pot against Christopher Brammer, and then eliminated the Brit, along with Tue Phan, a short time later. That gave Schwartz over 20% of the chips in play, and he maintained a significant chip lead all the way to the final table.
He'll begin today with 1.162 million, which is over 300,000 more than his next closest competitor. Needless to say, Schwartz is today's favorite to take down the gold bracelet and accompanying $279,175 first-place prize, especially if he can play and run as well as he did on Day 2.
While he may hold the chip lead, Schwartz won't have an easy time capturing his first bracelet. That's because the final table is composed of some pretty stiff competition like Eddie Blumenthal, who is at his fifth WSOP final table including a seventh-place finish in Event #15 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. one week ago, and Josh Pollock, who went deep in Event #6 $1,500 "Millionaire Maker" No-Limit Hold'em when he finished in 113th place for $7,278. Blumenthal and Pollock begin the final table third and fourth in chips respectively.
The final table will play out at 13:00 PST, which is a couple hours from now. Of course we'll have timely updates from Event #22 $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha then, but before then we'll also post final table bios on the remaining nine players, so stay tuned for those.
While you wait, be sure to check out Lynn Gilmartin's June 14 update: