As expected, it was a long one. It took more than 15 hours to decide the PLO bounty game, and in the end, Karim Chatur and Mike Kim still decided to chop it heads-up as there were barely 40 big blinds total in play in the final level.

The two were dead-even when they decided to chop, so they split it down the middle with Mike Kim taking the official win and Karim Chatur settling for second place. Four-handed play went on for more than an hour before Mike Spiruda and Mike Kim had a big confrontation. The money went in on an eight-high flop with Kim on top pair and Spiruda with an overpair.

It looked like four-handed would continue when the turn bricked out, but Kim tripped his eight on the river to send Spiruda to the cage for 4th place money. That opened the gates, and Rob Limpert hit the rail in third shortly after with Kim coming to heads up with a big lead.

The lead didn't last long though as Chatur quickly won a huge pot with quad tens to get even and after trading a few small pots before the blinds went up, they were still roughly even and decided to call it a night.

Final Payouts for Event #9: $560 PLO Bounty

The PLO Bounty game is now over after the final two players made a deal to chop up the money and end it. Karim Chatur took second for the chopped prize of $6,725.

Mike Kim started heads up with the lead, but Karin Chatur just hit quad tens for a huge pot to bring the stacks basically even.

Immediately after the exit of Mike Spiruda, Rob Limpert got queens into king-ten for Mike Kim. Limpert said he was way ahead but Kim was confident he'd hit his king, and that's exactly what happened, sending Limpert to the cage for 3rd place.

Four-handed was epic, but it's finally down to three ways now after a big confrontation between Mike Spiruda and Mike Kim. Kim limped under the gun and Karim Chatur called before Spiruda potted to 240k.

Only Kim called, and Spiruda shoved the flop. Kim called with an eight in the middle of a seven-ten run against queens with five-four for Spiruda. Kim bricked the turn, but tripped his eight on the river to send Spiruda to the rail.

The blinds have dropped to 20 minutes with the start of Level 26.  The average stack right now is just 14 bigs.

Karim Chatur raised to 175k and then snapped it off when Rob Limpert shoved the big blind. Limpert had three kings with a seven while Chatur was on eight-eight-nine-six.

Chatur hit his nine on the flop and turned an eight for the set. That held on a brick river and Chtur doubles

Rob Limpert potted to 175k and then called off the rest of his short stack when Karim Chatur reraised to 400k. Limpert had red aces with a ten three and he flopped a set to hold and get the double.

They were five-handed for ages, but the dam finally burst. Paul Brar shoved for less than pot under the gun and Rob Limpert re-potted to 420k next to act.

Paul Brar:
Rob Limpert:

Limpert turned the straight on the board to send Brar to the rail.

It's getting short on the PLO final table now with only about 17 big blinds average at the moment. The remaining players will take a break following this level.

I'm not sure what has happened, but the current blinds are wrong. They are actually playing at 15k/30k/30k. Blinds should be corrected when I move to the next level.

Leo Zhang was very short and shoved for 40k under the gun. Rob Limpert and Karim Chatur called from the blinds, and checked through the board until the river when Chatur fired 40k. Limpert called but mucked when Chatur showed a straight with queen-jack-eight-deuce. Zhang also mucked and hit the rail in 6th place.

They are down to 6 players left in the PLO now after Be Cooper his the rail in 7th place for $1,700, though I missed the action while I was writing up the end of Event #10.

Mike Kim raised early to 45k and got calls from Rob Limpert in the hijack and Ryan Comely on the button. Kim fired 185k on the flop and Limpert mucked, but Comely called off for less. Comely had the best at that point with a pair of queens, but Kim had overs and straight draws and he got there to send Comely to the rail in 8th place.

The final 8 players are now in poker for Leve 21 with the average stack now at 21 big blinds.

They are on the break following Level 20 and Ryan Comely and Karim Chatur both have more than 750k for the lead with Comely slightly in front. When they return from the break they'll be moving to poker to finish the night out. Full chip counts for the final 8 are on the Chip Counts tab.

They are down to 8 players left now after Ron Lauzon bubbled the final table in 10th place and Antonio Manfredi was the first to exit from the final table in 9th place.

They are in the money now with 10 players left after Mike Chouinard and Herbert Zamora went out on the same hand on different tables. As a result, they will chop 11th place between and the rest of the players are now in the money.

Both games are now hand for hand to the money with 12 left in the PLO Bounty and 10 left in the Turbo side game. 

They are three off the money now, and two eliminations away from hand-for-hand play to the money. The most recent casualty tonight was Kyle Ho.

They are now four off the money spots with 15 players left in the PLO game and just under 25 minutes remaining in Level 18. Nohad Teliani was the most recent exit from the final two tables.

They are down to 16 players left in the PLO Bounty game now and one of the recent busts was Francis Fan. He still had an outside chance of taking over the lead today with a win in this one, but with him out, that leave Eric Wasylenko unchallenged on top of the pile.

Ryan Comely has the chip lead at break with 390k while the Calgary version of Paul Brar has 386k. Antonio Manfredi also has more than 300k - See the chip counts tab for a full look at the final 18 stacks tonight as collected on the last break.

The final 18 players are just heading out for a break following Level 16. They'll be back at the felt in about 15 minutes, and I'll grab chip counts on the break.

They are down to the final two tables now in the PLO Bounty game with 18 players left. They are just moving to new seats after the two-table redraw with just over 10 minutes left in Level 16.

There are still 19 players left alive near the start of Level 16. That puts the average stack now at about 29 big blinds right now.

They are one away from the final two tables now and 8 off the money. Level 15 is about halfway finished.

They are down to 21 players left now, 10 off the money spots with just over 10 minutes to play in Level 14. That pushes the average stack up to about 40 bigs now.

They are down to 23 left in the PLO Bounty game now with just over 20 minutes to play in Level 14. Among the recent players to hit the rail in this one were Coletn Yamagishi and Nicholas Milkovich. The remaining players are on about 37 bigs average stack.

The action has slowed considerably with the field now at 26. The average stack is now 43 bigs and they are 15 off the money spots now.

Francis Fan looks to be the leader right now with about 235k in front of him.

They are still on three full tables with 27 players remaining and 5 minutes left in Level 12. They'll go for a break at the end of this level. The average stack right now is about 50 bigs.

There are still 27 players in the game as Level 12 starts and Francis Fan is still in the mix looking for more PoS points. Among the other players still alive are Nu Teliani, Colten Yamagishi, Antonio Manfredi, Michael "Berny" Bernstein, Rob Limpert, Kyle Ho, Mike Kim, Joon Park, Karim Chatur, Ron Lauzon, Ali Khani, Ryan Comely, Nicholas Milkovich, Martin Riely, Brady O'hara, and Leo Zhang.

They are down to 29 players left in the PLO game now with almost 5 minutes gone in Level 11. That puts the 18 players off the 11 paid spots tonight.

They are down to 33 players in the PLO game now and among the recent players to bust was Bash Ramahi, currently second in the Player of the Series race. He was seen on his way to the poker room to get into the Turbo however, so he's still battling for points. Ramahi will find current leader Eric Wasylenko in that Turbo field as well.

Meanwhile, Francis Fan is still sitting behind a pretty big stack in the PLO game, so all of the top three are still in the action tonight looking for points.

They are down to 36 players left in the game now on the final four tables. The average stack right now is about 62 bigs with 3.36 million chips in play.

The numbers are now confirmed at 112 entries for the PLO Bounty game. There are still 38 players left in the game, but only 11 of them will get a share of the prizes later tonight. The winner is set to pocket $8,310 - see below for a complete look at the prizes and they'll be up on the Payouts tab shortly.

The total is still unofficial but it looks like the PLO game finished with 112 entries on the board. If that holds, it means 11 players will share in $30,800 in prizes, with an additional $22,400 in bounties in the field as well. I'll confirm the numbers once the prizes are posted.

After a quick look around at the stacks on dinner, it looks like Darlene Hernandez is leading with a bit more than 275k right now. Mike Chouinard and Nu Teliani are also both playing more than 200k. See the Chip Counts tab for a look at some of the bigger stacks I found on dinner.

There are about five minutes left in Level 8 and players will be off for a 45-minute dinner break at the end of this level. Entries are open until the end of dinner and the field will be set when they sit down for Level 9 after dinner.

RIght now, they are one entry shy of $50k in prizes with 105 entries on the board. It looks certain to at least hit that number, but at this point, I don't expect too many more entries.

Level 8 has just begun with 101 entries on board and almost $48k in prizes. There is just over an hour left to get into the game now.

There is a bit more than 5 minutes left in Level 7 with Level 8 as the final level of entries. The field just hit 100 entries for a combined prize pool of $47,500. Among the players I've spotted in action today are the top three players in the Player of the Series race, which will come to a conclusion today with Events #9 & #10. That is because the prize for the winner is a Main Event seat for this series, so Event #10 will be the final event that qualifies this time around.

Eric Wasylenko,  Bash Ramahi, and Francis Fan are in action today trying to add to their totals. Among the other players I've spotted today are Mal Hagan, Brady O'hara, and Rogelio "Ogie" Orian.

Level 7 has just begun and there are 93 entries on the board for total prizes just shy of $45k. It looks like they need two more entries to hit the $45k mark and it seems certain they'll get that far, and they only need 13 more entries to cap $50k in prizes.

There are about 10 minutes remaining in Level 6 now, and after this level, there will be two more levels of entry before the dinner break and the end of entries at the start of Level 9. They just hit 90 entries for today so far with 47 players still at the felt.

The prize pool is now over $40k in total and among the players in their seats for a piece of it are Kyle Ho, who just arrived today for his first event in this series, as well as Joon Park, Mike Kim, Rob Limpert, Darcy McDonald, Kenny Gooding, Antonio Manfredi, DJ Sharma, Ross Wilson, Bernice McLennan, Nohad "Nu" Teliani, Ryan "Rybo" Smith, Michael "Berby" Bernstein, Jay Chaudhary, and Ron Lauzon.

They are now one entry away from $40k in total prizes. There are currently 84 entries on the board for $39,900 in total, with $16,800 in bounties and $23,100 in the prize pool for later.

After a quick circuit of the room on break, it looks like Bau Ta is the leader with about 150k while Martin Riley is playing about 125k. Mike Kim is among the other players with more than 100k right now. See the Chip Counts tab for a look at a few of the stacks from break.

I'm a bit late to the floor today after a late-night marathon session last night in Event #8 but with less than 10 minutes to go in Level 4 they are up to 70 entries with 50 players still at the felt. That puts $33,250 into the total prizes with $14k in bounties and $19,250 going to end-of-day prizes. I'll try to find a few big stacks at the break.

Thursday's focus will be on four-card bounty action as Event #9: $560 PLO Bounty kicks off at 1 pm. Players sit down with 30k in chips and every player will have a $200 bounty on their head.

Blinds are 30 minutes long until heads-up play when they will drop to 20 minutes. Players have eight levels of poker to enter the game, putting the final chance to enter at about 6 pm.

This will be a one-day event and I expect the turnout to be high and the game to go pretty late. As a result, I likely won't be on the floor to start the event as I had a late night on Wednesday and expect another late one tonight. I should be in the room by the first break I expect.