WSOP Report Day #33: Nick Schulman Leads PLO Hi-Lo 8 or Better Final Table & David 'ODB' Baker Chases Limit Bracelet

Four WSOP events reached crucial stages without awarding any gold bracelets on Sunday night as some of the action was crazy, some was calm, but all of it was exciting. The 50th annual World Series of Poker is approaching it’s most crucial stage, as with just days before the WSOP Main Event, bagging a bracelet has become pivotal to many players’ hopes of having a great summer.

NICK SCHULMAN WON’T BE ON THE MIC AS HE LEADS PLO FINAL

PokerGO won’t have the commentator we’d originally booked in for the final day of the $10,000-entry Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship as regular man-on-the-mic Nick Schulman will be chip leader as play kicks off. After a penultimate day that looked like it might go one way and another, Schulman ended up on the right side of some brutal swings with 3,355,000 chips. He was followed in the counts by a more steady riser, as Brian Hastings goes into the final second in chips with 2,735,000 after barely breaking a metaphorical sweat.

Schulman will be sat two to the left of Hastings on the final day of action tomorrow, live streamed for PokerGO fans. Along with Schulman and Hastings, Joe Hachem (2,430,000), Chris Vitch (1,940,000), Denis Strebkov (885,000), Corey Hochman (170,000) and Michael McKenna (65,000) will all harbour hopes of the $463,670 top prize, though Hochman and McKenna have the slimmest of chances after the latter in particular was left with less than a single blind.

Final Table Seat Draw:

DAVID ‘ODB’ BAKER LEADS FINAL 21 PLAYERS IN LIMIT HOLD’EM EVENT

After 541 entries were whittled down to just 21 players, David ‘ODB’ Baker led the field hoping to become the $1,500 Limit Hold’em event winner. Baker had an extraordinary day at the felt, ending play with 1,275,000 chips, more than double his nearest rival, Ronald Carmona, who has just 488,000.

Baker wasn’t the only luminary to book a seat in the next day’s draw, with Chris Ferguson multi-tabling his way to an above-average stack of 361,000 (he also finished 7th in the latest WSOP Online event) and Daniel Negreanu bagging up 206,000 in his latest attempt to end his 11-year Vegas bracelet hoodoo.

KASSOUF RETURNS IN CRAZY EIGHTS ACTION

With a massive 10,000+ entries in the $888-entry Crazy Eights event, several big names will be looking to power through the remaining field and bag the $888,888 top prize when Day 2 takes place at 12 noon on July 1st. Day 1d was the biggest flight of all, with almost half the total tournament entries taking part in the final frenetic flight. One of the stars of the show was the WSOP ‘legend’ William Kassouf, famed for his smack-talk inspired deep run in the 2016 WSOP Main Event.

Kassouf, largely absent from the poker scene in recent months following his controversial parting-of-the-ways with his sponsor, bagged up 523,000 chips. That may be some way behind Day 1d chip leader Luis Pinho (1,419,000) or his closest rivals Gal Erlichman (1,275,000) and Romanian player Vlad Darie (1,200,000), but Kassouf will have been happy with his days work and joins several other prominent British professionals in the Day 2 mix of 1,223 players. Others to survive included 2004 Main Event champ Greg Raymer (383,000), 2013 Main Event winner Ryan Riess (157,000) and female players Vivian Saliba (152,000) and Maria Lampropulos (86,000).

MERCIER, ELEZRA AND ZHU ALL PROGRESS IN FINAL MIXED EVENT

The $10,000-entry $10,000 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo Championship is down to just 68 players from 134 entries after an entertaining Day 1 took place. Returning multi-bracelet winners Eli Elezra (264,000) and Jason Mercier (216,500) both challenged for the lead, but that honor fell to Ali Eslami, who totalled 275,500 at the close of play. Omaha Mix runner-up (and dethroned champion) Yueqi Zhu wasn’t far behind with 272,000 chips, while Andres Korn also impressed, bagging up 266,500 in the final mixed game of the 2019 World Series of Poker.

Who’ll become the latest player to win a WSOP gold bracelet at the 2019 World Series of Poker? You can watch the action unfold live today on PokerGO and CBS All Access as more coverage of the 2019 WSOP bracelet events takes place. Selected bracelet events will be streamed exclusively on CBS All Access in the United States.