The $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha (Event 35) began Wednesday with 363 players. 64 returned for Day 2, 36 made the money and by the end of the night only 11 remained.

At the end of the night it was Rifat Palevic, of Sweden, who led the way into Day 3.  Throughout the day Palevic ended the tournament life of Nam Le, Chris Ferguson, Bruno Fitoussi, Richard Tatalovich and Philip Marmorstein. If he is able to take down the final table it will be the first bracelet for Sweden at the 2009 World Series of Poker

Early on a three-way battle emerged between Denmark, Sweden and Canada for a spot at the final table. Jesper Hougaard, Palevic and Sorel Mizzi traded spots at the very top of the leader board for most of the day and eradicated player after player in the process.

Throughout the day Mizzi picked off David “Devilfish” Ulliott, Steve Conigliaro, and Ryan Fee as well and cutting through the stacks of Isaac ”westmenloAA” Baron and Ralph Perry.

Late in the day Mizzi won a large pot off Hougaard, the Day 1 chip leader, leaving him crippled for the remainder of the game. During level 16 Hougaard was sent to the rail when he moved his remaining stack to the middle with a pair of sevens. Barron made the call and was able to turn a set of Aces and sent the Dane to the cash cage for $14, 433.  

Baron was able to rebuild his stack after being clipped by Mizzi, but began to falter late in the night. Baron lost a huge pot to Josephy when he called a 24,000 bet after the flop and a 64,000 bet after the turn. On the river Baron bet 140,000 and was called by Josephy. Josephy rivered a set of Jacks and Baron uttered before mucking that he only had one pair. He will go into Day 3 with one of the shortest stacks.

Germany’s prettiest poker player, Sandra Naujoks, was the last woman standing of the tournament but was unable to make her first cash of the Series when she was eliminated just three spots away from the money. Naujoks took with her to the rail Germany’s chance at a first bracelet for the 2009 WSOP.

Naujoks got all her chips in the middle with Clayton Newman against Richard Austin after a flop of 5 4 2. Naujoks turned over [10s] [10d] 5 5, Newman showed A 4 3 2 and Austin flipped A 8 7 6. The J on the turn and the K on the river did nothing to improve Naujoks set of fives.

A Texas sized battle caused the bubble to break when John “Tex” Barch made the push after the turn on a board of A 5 8 6. The Texan held J [10d] 9 7 for a made straight draw and the flush draw. Austin made the call with 7 4 3 3 looking for a straight flush draw. The river brought the lone star card he needed, the 2 and Barch was sent to the rail just shy of  his first cash of the Series.

It is not uncommon in a PLO game for a  large percentage of the field to hail from outside the U.S. PLO variant games are more popular in other countries and are just beginning to catch on in the States. Due to this fact many languages are spoken throughout the field of entrants.  

At the beginning of play during Thursday Tournament Director Jack Effel made a reminder to all players that Rule No. 15 must be obeyed. Rule No. 15 states that only English is allowed to be spoken at the tables during a live hand at a tournament within the U.S. Effel announced that penalties would be given out to any player violating the rule due to problems during Day 1.

Some players hoping to win a bracelet for their countries included Van Marcus of Austrailia, John O’Shea of Ireland and James Smyth of Hungary. All three countries have yet to win a World Series Of Poker bracelet this Series.

The remaining 11 players will return Friday at 1 p.m. to play down to a final table. Once a final table is reached the remaining nine will compete for a WSOP bracelet and top prize of $409, 484.

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