A three-bet to 12,000 was in front of Dominykas Karmazinas and Michael Mizrachi then four-bet for the size of the pot, making it 42,500 to go in the small blind.
"How much do you have behind, 90k?" Karmazinas asked once the initial raiser had folded, and Mizrachi nodded, the Lithuanian called.
On the flop of , Mizrachi instantly moved all in and Karmazinas called in a heartbeat.
Michael Mizrachi:
Dominykas Karmazinas:
Mizrachi was slightly behind with his aces and open-ended straight draw, while Karmazinas had flopped top and bottom pair. On the turn, Mizrachi improved to a straight, yet the on the river gave Karmazinas a full house. Mizrachi was eliminated on his first bullet and will surely be back in action soon again, as the tournament features a single re-entry option.
Mike Leah raised to 5,000 from early position and Christopher Kruk called from the big blind.
The flop came and Kruk checked. Leah bet 6,000, Kruk check-raised to 29,000, Leah shoved, and Kruk called to put himself at risk.
Mike Leah:
Christopher Kruk:
Leah had the lead with top two and Kruk needed to improve in order to win. The on the turn was no help to either player but the river filled Kruk's wrap, giving him Broadway to take the pot for the double-up.
With a massive pile of close to 170,000 chips already in the middle and the board reading , Ognjen Sekularac bet, Artem Babakhanyan moved all-in for 188,100, and Sekularac called to put Babakhanyan at risk.
Ognjen Sekularac:
Artem Babakhanyan:
Babakhanyan had the lead with a king-high straight and Sekularac needed a diamond on the river in order to stack him. The last card was the which further improved Babakhanyan's hand by giving him Broadway, so he took the pot for a huge double-up.
One of the highlights of the 2018 World Series of Poker, Event #42: $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha 8-Handed High Roller, has wrapped up the first day with 101 players out of a 192-entry strong field bagging up after ten levels of one hour each. Some of the biggest names on the international poker circuit took a shot at glory at the Rio All-Suites Hotel & Casino and it was Konstantin Beylin that ended on top of the counts with a stack of 617,500.
Beylin is no stranger to the WSOP, with seven cashes and three further cashes at WSOP Circuit events for just over $100k in prize money, His biggest payday was on this very event one year ago where he finished in 24th place and received $42,393 for his efforts.
Veselin Karakitukov is familiar with running deep in this event as well. At the 2016 WSOP, Karakitukov ended up in 5th place for a career-best score of $252,909. The Bulgarian bagged up the second-biggest stack with 549,500. Karakitukov's rise to the top of the leaderboard began very early when he was involved in a three-way all in with Ryan D'Angelo and Jason Mercier. Karakitukov had flopped top set against the nut straight of his two opponents, and the river paired the board to ensure the triple up for the Bulgarian.
The $25,000 price tag brought out some of the very best in the world, and plenty of notables made it through to Day 2. Following Beylin and Karakitukov was poker superstar Daniel Negreanu (532,000), Aaron Katz (525,000), George Wolff (504,500), David Len Ashby (498,500) and Scotsman Fraser MacIntyre (482,000). Negreanu was among those to bust on the first attempt, re-enter and successfully run up a big stack in the last level of the night.
Chance Kornuth (473,500), Robert Mizrachi (453,000), 2017 fourth place finisher Artem Babakhanyan (436,000), Chris "BigHuni" Hunichen (374,000), Scotty Nguyen (347,500), Jason Koon (325,000), Brian Rast (312,500), Paul Volpe (258,500), defending champion James Calderaro (234,500) and PLO serial crusher Tommy Le (230,000) all bagged solid stacks as well.
Among those to bust throughout the ten levels on Day 1 were Iraj Parvizi, Ben Lamb, Yuki Ko, Jonathan Abdellatif, Bryn Kenney, Esther Taylor, Farid Jattin, Keith Lehr, Jesper Hougaard, Jussi Nevanlinna, Jan-Peter Jachtmann, Michael Mizrachi, Richard Gryko and Anthony Zinno. Parvizi ran his second bullet up to more than half a million in chips before ending up on the rail not even an hour later on a table that featured Wolff, Jacob Kalb and Eric Berger.
Two dozen players re-entered and that number is guaranteed to grow, as the registration remains open for another two levels on Day 2. Michael Mizrachi is among those expected to take another shot at the coveted gold bracelet after coming fresh off winning an unprecedented third title in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Mizrachi was ousted by Dominykas Karmazinas when he got it in with aces and a straight draw on a ten-high flop, Karmazinas had two pair and ended up with a full house after the turn and river came running sevens.
Day 2 will recommence at 2 p.m. local time with level 11 and blinds of 1,500/3,000, the prize pool information will be released once the registration has closed at the start of level 13. Make sure to tune back in to find out who will remain in contention for the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller title.