Shaun Deeb Brings Big Stack to Bubble as 134 Return for Day 2 of Event #97: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha
The final pot-limit Omaha tournament of the 2024 World Series of Poker, Event #97: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha, saw 844 entries being made on Day 1, creating a prize pool of $2,253,480. Today, at 1 p.m. local time, 134 of them will return to the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas for the second day of the tournament.
With 127 paid spots, the event will recommence on the soft bubble. One of the players who might be looking forward to exerting some pressure on the bubble is six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb. Deeb turned his starting stack of 40,000 to a pile of 761,000 chips on Day 1, good for fourth place on the leaderboard and 190 big blinds when play resumes.
Leading the pack, however, is Scott Ball with 1,015,000 chips, being the only player to bring a seven-figure stack to Day 2. Ball already has two no-limit hold'em bracelets and is looking for his first final table in a WSOP pot-limit Omaha event.
Also in the super-stacked top ten are 25K Fantasy picks Alex Livingston and Jesse Lonis, who will start Day 2 with 756,000 and 732,000 chips respectively, and Dutch Omaha expert Ronald Keijzer (677,000), who won this event in 2018 to capture his first bracelet.
Start of Day 2 Top Ten Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chips | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Scott Ball | United States | 1,015,000 | 254 |
| 2 | Stanislav Barshak | United States | 779,000 | 195 |
| 3 | Hokyiu Lee | Hong Kong | 774,000 | 194 |
| 4 | Shaun Deeb | United States | 761,000 | 190 |
| 5 | Alex Livingston | Canada | 756,000 | 189 |
| 6 | Jesse Lonis | United States | 732,000 | 183 |
| 7 | Ryan Hughes | United States | 691,000 | 173 |
| 8 | Ronald Keijzer | Netherlands | 677,000 | 169 |
| 9 | Elior Sion | United Kingdom | 612,000 | 153 |
| 10 | Mihail Andonov | Sweden | 604,000 | 151 |
Other above-average stacks at the start of Day 2 include Chino Rheem (500,000), Renji Mao (485,000), Rob Hollink (482,000), Ian Matakis (405,000), and Alex Foxen (351,000). Player of the Year contender Jeremy Ausmus is also in contention and will be hunting for his record-breaking eighth final table of the series, starting with a stack of 158,000 chips.
Meanwhile, the likes of Dmitry Yurasov (89,000), Noah Boeken (72,000), Joseph Cheong (58,000), and Ray Fishman (51,000) ended up with less than 25 big blinds in their bags as they will try to avoid to become one of the seven players leaving the field without a return on their investment.
Once the field gets to the money, every player will be guaranteed a payday of $6,021. Everyone at the final table of six will see their bankroll padded with at least $45,892, while the eventual winner will walk away with a score of $390,621.
Event #97: $3,000 6-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha Payout Structure
| Place | Prize | Place | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $390,621 | 24-29 | $13,439 |
| 2 | $260,403 | 30-35 | $11,227 |
| 3 | $117,114 | 36-41 | $9,598 |
| 4 | $122,746 | 42-47 | $8,401 |
| 5 | $86,709 | 48-53 | $7,534 |
| 6 | $62,457 | 54-59 | $6,927 |
| 7 | $45,892 | 60-71 | $6,532 |
| 8-9 | $34,411 | 72-83 | $6,322 |
| 10-11 | $26,341 | 84-95 | $6,172 |
| 12-17 | $20,595 | 96-127 | $6,021 |
| 18-23 | $16,454 |
The tournament will resume at 1 p.m. local time in Level 13: 2,000/4,000 with a 4,000 big blind ante. The event is scheduled to play ten levels of 60 minutes each, with a 15-minute break after every two of them and a 60-minute dinner break after Level 16, around 7:30 p.m.
Stay tuned as PokerNews will provide live updates straight from the tournament floor throughout all ten levels, from the bubbling start of the day all the way until the late-night finish.