Brandon Shack-Harris Leads Last Six in Event #49: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship
Day 3 of the 2018 World Series of Poker Event #49: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed Championship has concluded with six hopefuls remaining out of a field of 476. Five former WSOP bracelet winners, as well as one former WSOP Main Event finalist are still in contention of claiming the top prize of $1,018,336 and the coveted gold bracelet that comes along with it.
After a dramatic last few hours, Brandon Shack-Harris shot towards the top of the leaderboard and bagged up 7,730,000 to end the day as the chipleader. Shack-Harris already has 30 WSOP results, two bracelets and more than $2.8 million in WSOP cashes to his name.
He ended atop the counts after scoring a massive double through Mike Leah in the final level of the night. In a big blind versus button battle, Shack-Harris check-raised the pot with bottom set and Leah put him to the test with top two pair. After spending a long time in the think tank, Shack-Harris called and held up to double in the biggest pot of the event so far.
Second in chips is Ryan Hughes with 5,140,000 in chips. Hughes also has two bracelets to his name and became the first-ever player in World Series of Poker history to claim two titles in Seven-Card Stud High-Low 8-or Better events. Hughes was a contender for the 2017 WSOP Player of the Year and already has another two WSOP final tables in the current summer already.
Loren Klein (4,240,000), Rep Porter (2,680,000), Jerry Wong (2,160,000) and Scott Bohlman (1,855,000) round out a stacked line-up for tomorrow's showdown. Wong is the only finalist without a WSOP bracelet to his name but has a claim to fame of his own after finishing 8th in the 2016 WSOP Main Event.
There are 27 minutes remaining in level 30 at blinds of 80,000/160,000 and the action of the final day will be streamed live on a security delay of 30 minutes on the PokerCentral Twitch channel. PokerNews will provide all the action as it happens as of 2 p.m. local time on Tuesday, June 26th, 2018, on the way to crown another WSOP champion.
Seat Assignments for the final day
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rep Porter | United States | 2,680,000 | 17 |
| 2 | Brandon Shack-Harris | United States | 7,730,000 | 48 |
| 3 | Jerry Wong | United States | 2,160,000 | 13 |
| 4 | Loren Klein | United States | 4,240,000 | 27 |
| 5 | Scott Bohlman | United States | 1,855,000 | 12 |
| 6 | Ryan Hughes | United States | 5,140,000 | 32 |
Action of Day 3
The early eliminations came at a quick pace and among those to bust right away in the first level of the day were Ardit Kurshumi, Scotty Nguyen, David Wang and Bogdan Capitan. Nguyen had lost a big portion of his stack and wasn't able to crack the aces of Anton Morgenstern, while Wang's aces failed to hold up against William Kopp.
Mark Herm flopped a straight and the nut flush draw only for Anton Tsang to get there with a runner-runner full house. Only a few minutes later the last three tables were set, as Alexey Makarov eliminated Ryan Laplante and Mark Davidoff in back-to-back hands, Andjelko Andrejevic became the third casualty on the same table in the third consecutive hand.
Among the next to fall were Matt Giannetti, Mack Lee, Henri Koivisto and well-known poker YouTuber Joey Ingram. The latter had nurtured a short stack for quite some time and ended up second-best against Jerry Wong to bow out in 17th place. Ingram's rare foray into the tournament area resulted in his largest ever tournament cash by a wide margin, quadrupling his lifetime winnings at the WSOP.
The last two tables started with a bang, as Richard Gryko went from a big stack to zero in two hands. The Brit couldn't beat the aces of Rep Porter on a king-high river when a spades draw bricked off and Gryko then ran into the aces of Anton Morgenstern right after. Dario Sammartino was next to go. He had top pair, a wrap and flush draw but Anson Tsang's naked aces held up, the Italian couldn't pull off the chip and a chair miracle after this massive blow.
There was more late drama to come, though. After the pre-dinner eliminations of Aaron Duczak, Morgenstern and Martin Kozlov, only 11 players remained. Kopp departed right after while Hughes, who went from chipleader to second-bottom stack, doubled through Makarov, and Tsang was eliminated by Bohlman over on the other table at the same time.
Mike Leah was on the fortunate end of an aces-versus-aces hand that saw him spike two pair on the river, and Hughes doubled into a big stack once more when he looked through Wong's big bluff on a double-paired eight-high board and three hearts with just a pair of aces in his hand.
Shack-Harris doubled through Richard Lyndaker, who then bowed out right after, and Makarov's two pair ended up counterfeit against the better two pair of Leah. Ultimately, however, it was the Canadian that ended up short of the live stream showdown after his huge move against Shack-Harris, and Hughes sent Leah to the rail with kings full.
The PokerNews live reporting team will be back to provide all the action until a winner is crowned on Tuesday, June 26, 2018.