Slow going here during the first level of Day 3, with most pots thus far failing to reach the flop.
Just now came one in which three players tentatively made it to see some community cards, with Cam McKinley calling from middle position, Paul Taylor also limping from the button, and Timothy Finne checking from the big blind.
The flop came and all passed. Then Finne led for 28,000 when the fell on the turn, the other two folded.
This marks Finne's fifth career WSOP final table. He's hoping to improve on his previous best �� third-place finishes three different times (in mixed hold'em, H.O.R.S.E., and seven-card stud events).
It's been pretty slow going since the elimination of Viatcheslav Ortynskiy; in fact, min-raises seem to be enough to pick up the blinds. After about six hands of not seeing a flop, Roch Cousineau opened for 38,000 from middle position only to have, Paul Taylor three-bet the pot from the cutoff. The button and blinds both got out of the way and Cousineau moved in. Taylor called off and the cards were turned up:
Showdown
Taylor:
Cousineau:
The flop kept Cousineau ahead with aces and tens, but the turn did give Taylor low outs. Lucky for him, the river was one of them and he took down half the pot to stay alive.
Sonu Sharma opened from under the gun with a raise to 40,000 and it folded around to Viatcheslav Ortynskiy on the button. Ortynskiy had survived one small double-up. He'd also folded a few hands, including from the blinds. Now with just 15,000 left, he was pushing all in again.
It folded back to Sharma who was given the tiny side pot of 1,000 as the big blind is 16,000 at present. The pair then tabled their hands �� for Ortynskiy, and for Sharma.
The flop was good for Sharma, coming to give him a set of kings. Ortynskiy still had a low draw to which to pin his hopes, but the turn was the and river the , and Ortynskiy is out. We've reached the official final table for Event 47!
Cameron Mckinley raised to 42,000 from early position and Kyle Carlston made the call from middle position. The rest of the field got out of the way, and it was heads-up action to the flop.
Mckinley fired out 75,000, Carlston called, and the dealer burned and turned the . This time Mckinley used two hands to slide out a bet of 150,000, which proved enough to get Carlston off the hand.
On the first hand, it folded to Steven Loube who checked his cards, then folded, exhaling a little when he did.
"I had all these thoughts about you taking me out the very first hand," said Loube to Charalampos Lampos, the only other player at the table with more chips than he to start today. Lampos chuckled in response.
Paul Ewen then raised to 32,000, and only Kyle Carlston called from the big blind. The flop came and both checked. The turn brought the and a bet of 45,000 from Carlston, called by Ewen.
The river was the and both checked once more. Carlston turned over for an ace-high flush, and Ewen mucked.
Welcome back to the third and final day of Event #47: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better. Just 10 players survived the first two days of potting, repotting, split pots, quarters, and scoops, all that's left from a whopping field of 978.
That huge field created a total prize pool of $1,320,300, the bulk of which is still left to be given out to these final 10. Charalampos Lappas returns to the biggest chip stack today with just under 1 million chips, thanks primarily to his having claimed a big pot versus the Russian Viatcheslav Ortynskiy in the very last hand of Day 2, leaving the Russian with less than two big blinds to start today's play.
Just behind Lappas is Steven Loube of Atlanta, Georgia who also sports a nearly 1 million-chip stack. Loube caught a rush of hands during the last level-and-a-half of Day 2 to position himself with Lappas at the top of the counts.
But this is PLO Hi-Low, which means a lot can change quickly. Just ask David "Doc" Sands who last year in this same event had more than twice the second-place player's stack with 10 players remaining only to fall in 10th and bubble the official final table.
Here's where players will be seated today up on the main stage in the Pavilion Room, along with their starting stacks:
Seat
Name
Chips
1
Roch Cousineau
505,000
2
Kyle Carlston
277,000
3
Paul Taylor
180,000
4
Steven Loube
947,000
5
Timothy Finne
455,000
6
Paul Ewen
234,000
7
Viatcheslav Ortynskiy
27,000
8
Charalampos Lappas
994,000
9
Cameron Mckinley
477,000
10
Sonu Sharma
300,000
The action starts about an hour from now. Come back here to follow it all as we find out who among these 10 will emerge as the next WSOP gold bracelet winner.