WSOP Event #3 Wrap-Up: $1,500 Omaha Hi/Lo
by Bodog Poker | Jun 3 2009
We've all seen great individual athletes like Tiger Woods and Roger Federer repeat as champions of an event, but a poker player repeating as a champ at the
WSOP is far more difficult to witness. Poker fans saw just that this week, though, when Thang Luu won the $1500 Omaha Hi/Lo Event #3. Thang won the same event last year, and unbelievably finished second in the same event in 2007. Not since Johnny Chan's run at three
WSOP Main Events in the late eighties has there been such a feat accomplished.
This year Luu broke his own record from last year by beating the largest
Omaha field ever. In his '08 victory he won $243,342, which was 20K less than this year's first-place prize of $263,135. This year he was able to outlast 917 others for his second WSOP bracelet in as many years. He’s definitely the undisputed king of the
Omaha Hi/Low Split - 8 or Better Event #3. Luu was chip leader after the first day of the tournament and was able to play a reserved game until the later stages of the final table, where he cranked up the action and took control.
The heads-up battle started after Ming Reslock went out in third place and collected $106,373 for his three-day effort. Luu had 2.3 million in chips, which was a slight chip edge on Ed Smith who had almost as much with 1.8 million. The first hand that affected the chip counts occurred when Luu scooped a pot against Smith's second-best low hand to widen his lead.
After taking a couple more hands, Luu crippled Smith down to 100K in chips when Smith's low draw didn't come and Luu won the entire pot with a pair of jacks. The two chopped a few hands for a little while, but the final blow came when Luu got Smith to put all his money in after a board of Qd, 5s, 4h came off. The two players were holding...
Luu: Qc, 9d, 8c, 7d
Smith: Jc, 9h, 9c, 3h
... but a turn of 5h and a river of 10d were no help to Smith, who had to settle for second-place money of $162,110.
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