WSOP Event #35: Trader Finishes Day 1 in Top 12
With two very good starts, our team members Nazgul and Trader had high expectations for this high-roller PLO tournament. Whereas Nazgul had to suffer an early bustout, Trader finished Day 1 with a stack in the top 12.
The $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha Event has the reputation of being a high-roller event. Not only because of the buy-in, but also because of the gambling type poker that you have to play and which puts the focus on post-flop play. It thus requires a lot of skill and players who are not as experienced are very reluctant to sitting down with the pros for so much money.
All in all, we had a rather small field of starters: with a total of only 363 participants, the skill density was rather high with online pros like Isaac Baron, Sorel Mizzi, Justin 'BoostedJ' Smith, Phil Galfond or Jeff Williams and big names from both Europe - including 'Devilfish', Bruno Fitoussi, Antony Lellouche - and the US - with Nam Le, Chris Ferguson, Parkinson.
Two of our Team PokerStrategy.com members could be spotted in the field, too: 
Nazgul and trader. They were seated close to each other, but luckily, they didn't have to face off against each other on the same table.
Nazgul was seated at a star-filled table: Jeff Williams, Andy Black (to his immediate right) and Sorel Mizzi were all sitting down with him. The gameplay obviously turned very aggressive, but Nazgul was able to easily adjust: "I caught a good start", he tells us in the first break after two hours of play. "I've used up my two rebuy chips already, but I was able to increase my stack to 28k. There are no fish on my table, it's different to the other PLO tournaments in the WSOP. You can't make mistakes here, there are only high-rollers and sharks!".
Meanwhile, trader was doing fine, too, with a chip stack of 25k during the first break. He was seated with one of Russia's best players, Kiril Gerasimov - a real PLO specialist.
A few hands later, he pushed the majority of his chips in on the river as he called Jeff Williams with top two-pair, but the EPT Monte Carlo winner revealed rivered trips. Nazgul had less than 1,000 chips left after that unlucky hand and busted some time later. "I cannot do anything about this big hand", he tells us. "And Williams just got so lucky on the river, I just didn't have the chance I needed to double up...".
Even though trader wasn't amongst the more active players on his table, he managed to bust some opponents. In a notable hand against Robert Williamson III, he was holding 
against 
, and he needed some help after getting it in on the 
flop. When a king hit the turn things looked even bleaker however, in the end, he was saved by an ace on the river and busted Williamson.
Tomorrow, only 64 players will be returning for day two of this event. The bubble will burst when the 37th player is eliminated, leaving 36 players in the money. Jesper Hougaard leads the pack with more than 200,000 chips after winning one enormous pot. trader is sitting comfortably in 12th place with a stack of 131,600.
| World Series Of Poker Event #35 Standings |
||
| Rank | Name | Chips |
| 1st | Jesper Hougaard | 208,500 |
| 2nd | Rifat Palevic | 207,400 |
| 3rd | Edward Ochana | 181,900 |
| 4th | Sorel Mizzi | 177,000 |
| 5th | Ralph Perry | 174,400 |
| 6th | Jeffrey Lisandro | 162,500 |
| 7th | Richard Austin | 158,500 |
| 8th | Sandra Naujoks | 157,000 |
| 9th | Cliff 'JohnnyBax' Josephy | 148,800 |
| 10th | Dave Devilfish Ulliott | 140,900 |
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