2012 World Series of Poker

Another night of poker action has come to a close here at the 2012 World Series of Poker. This time it was Day 1 of Event 58: $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better that has entered the history books. At the end of night, it was Roman Verenko who held the most chips as he will start tomorrow’s Day 2 with a large 83,100-chip stack. Not far behind Verenko was Yuval Bronshtein with 71,400 in chips.

With a reduced buy-in, it was always very likely that this event would see more entrants than last year when Nick Binger defeated a field of 352 players and that’s exactly what happened. A total of 526 players created a very handsome prize pool of $1,435,980 and it is $330,277 that will go the eventual champion.

Some of those who won’t be getting their hands on any of the above prizes are Daniel Negreanu, David Williams and Viktor Blom, all of whom busted very early in the night. Phil Hellmuth was a late addition to the tables, but ended up being eliminated during the final level of the night.

John Racener, Bill Chen and Phil Ivey also couldn’t survive through to Day 2. We arrived at the table during Ivey's last hand with a flop already out on the felt, with Ivey up against one opponent. Ivey led for 700 on the flop and his opponent raised the pot. Ivey then called all in for 3,300 and the two players turned their hands over. Ivey held and was up against his opponent's . The turn and the river were of no help to Ivey as he was sent packing.

Managing to do much better than those players were Amnon Filippi, Erick Lindgren, Scotty Nguyen and Jennifer Tilly as each of these players will be returning to the tables tomorrow with plenty of chips. Also still in contention are the likes of David "ODB" Baker, Mike Matusow and Humberto Brenes. Another player who will be at the felt tomorrow is last year's Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split 8-or-Better champion, Nick Binger.

Be sure to return tomorrow from 2:00 PM as approximately 173 players return for Day 2 of Event 58. We will be trying to get as close to a final table as possible tomorrow, so don’t miss it!

Here is how some of the notable names ended up finishing Day 1. As you can see, it is Roman Verenko who accumulated the most chips. A full list of Day 1 chip counts will be posted as soon as they are made available.

The clock has been paused and the call for three more hands has been made. We will have some of the notable end-of-day chip counts up soon, along with a wrap up of the day's action.

Phill Hellmuth, Jeff Madsen and Barry Greenstein has all been eliminated late into the evening here on Day 1 of Event 58.

phil_hellmuth phil_hellmuth Out of PLOmaha 8/B (great event!). Showing up 6 levels late hurt me, BUT it was worth it to be w family and friends after $1 Million tourn July 04 2012

barrygreenstein Barry Greenstein Unbelievably out in two huge pots. Nut flush draws and low draws. Nothing came. #wsop58 July 04 2012

JeffMadsenobv Jeff Madsen i busted the plo8... it hurts a lot cause ive been consistently going deep.. really wanted to go deep in this one.. 1k thursday.. then main July 04 2012

The hand started with David "ODB" Baker opening the pot with a raise to 1,500. The player in the cutoff then made the call and it was on to the player in the button who raised the pot. Back on Baker and he would re-raise the pot - putting him all in. The cutoff player then went deep into the tank, with one of the players at the table eventually calling the clock on him. He had one minute to act and eventually decided to fold with a few seconds to spare. The button player was now also all in and the two players would turn their hands over.

Baker:

Opponent:

The board would Baker's opponent pick up the high end of the pot, while the two players would have to split the low half of the pot.

We didn't see when all the chips went in, but Max Pescatori was all in holding and was coming up against an opponent's . There was a board out on the felt, with Pescatori holding a set on the flop, but then being out drawn by the time the river rolled out.

Here is how a few more of the players are doing with just around 60 minutes remaining in the evening.

There are currently 225 players still remaining in this tournament and just one more level to go before the chips are bagged up for the night. Who will make it through? Stay tuned.