"Daddy - Use this cake to distract all the fish at your table! Good luck!!! Love, Ellie & Jude"
Those were the words written on a box of bundt cake sat in the middle of the $2,500 Big Bet Mix table. The cake, a present from Briana Ohel to her husband Randy from their two children, had already been dug into by Ohel himself, and then by nearby players such as Jon Turner and Mike Matusow.
Ohel said that he had told tournament staff and officials that they were welcome to a piece, and no sooner had he said it there was an official announcement that there was cake.
Ismael Bojang and Eric Wasserson were two of the players who quickly headed toward the table, as well as Jason Mercier, who insisted that it was a present for his wife Natasha.
Brandon Shack-Harris? No such luck. By the time he had gotten to the table, the cake was gone, eliminated from the tournament by hungry mixed-game players.
Ian O'Hara might not be a name recognized by most of the poker community yet, but he's off to a hot start today in Event #59: $2,500 Big Bet Mix, having already doubled his starting stack.
In a recent hand, a player opened under the gun to 250. O'Hara called on the button. Brian Rast called from the small blind and the big blind called as well. Action checked to O'Hara on the flop and he bet 1,075. The big blind reraised to 3,475. O'Hara plopped in a stack of chips and the big blind moved all in. O'Hara called.
O'Hara:
Big blind:
The turn was the and that left the big blind drawing to just one out to make a royal flush, but the river would lock up the pot for O'Hara.
O'Hara has already cashed five times this series, bringing home some profit in Events #54, #47, #43, 339, and #20, and with a hot start today, he may be able to lock up a sixth cash in this event as well.
Ever since the 2017 World Series of Poker schedule was released, there has been one event that several of the top names have been eyeing. Mixed games regulars Naoya Kihara and Brian Rast immediately took to Twitter praising its inclusion, and six months later the wait is nearly over.
If you've been keeping an eye on Twitter over the course of the WSOP so far, you will have seen Dan Smith, 2017 bracelet winner Bryce Yockey, Brian Rast and Andrew Robl (to name a few) chiming in about the Big Bet Mix being spread at the cash tables here in Vegas, and now it is time for the tournament version to get underway.
We will have to wait and see whether these players can pull themselves away from the cash tables to play, but Brian Rast has already made it clear how excited he is to play this event, tweeting "The @WSOP is having the inaugural Big Bet Mix tournament tomorrow. This is awesome. I can't wait!"
As a brand new event, there is no defending champion, therefore it presents a unique opportunity for mixed games players to write their name into the history books as the inaugural Big Bet Mix champion.
Play gets underway at 3 p.m. local time, with the following games in the rotation, which changes every six hands: Big O, No-Limit Hold’em, No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw, Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better, No-Limit 5-Card Draw High, Pot-Limit Omaha and Pot-Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw.
PokerNews has activated the My Stack App for this event, allowing you to directly adjust your chip counts in our live reporting blog using your iPhone or Android phone.
You can download the app for iPhone or Android now to get started. Then, create a new PokerNews account or update your current one to start updating your status immediately. Your followers can see all the live action that you're involved in.
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flop and he bet 1,075. The big blind reraised to 3,475. O'Hara plopped in a stack of chips and the big blind moved all in. O'Hara called. 
and that left the big blind drawing to just one out to make a royal flush, but the 
