This was one of the lightest days since the first few days of the 2009 World Series of Poker. With the long-awaited $50K HORSE tournament ready to begin on the following day, the tournament staff scheduled lightly for the day before. The media, staff, and players were secretly pleased to have a somewhat empty tournament area for a day.
While there were two tournaments hitting and playing through their final tables, only one tournament was in its second day and only one new one began. With simplicity as the theme of the day, let’s just get to the action:
Event 47: $2,500 Mixed Hold’em, Day 2
When the tournament began on Wednesday, June 24, there was only one event starting that day, so anyone looking for their WSOP fix had to get in on the mixed hold’em action. And 527 of them did just that, creating a prize pool of $1,212,100 for the top 54 players. Day 1 ended with fewer players than usual on a tournament’s first day, as there were only 67 of them bagging their chips.
When those 67 players returned on Day 2, they immediately rushed for the money bubble. As it approached and hand-for-hand play kicked in, the tournament staff kept the game at no-limit until the bubble burst. And it took some time, as no one wanted to give up their chance at the minimum $4,739 payment. Finally, three bustouts took place at once, and with Bryan Devonshire eliminated by Randy Haddox, Charles Teplitz taken out by Casey McCarrel, and Klein Bach ousted by an unknown player. Since all three left on the bubble, the three players split the 53rd and 54th place prize money and came out with approximately $3,159 each.
Play then sped toward the final table, and at the end of the night, it happened. Lee Vlastaris and Karlo Lopez got involved with capped betting going to the 
flop. More betting led them to the 
on the turn, at which point, Vlastaris was all-in with 
for the draw, but Lopez had him beat with pocket kings. The 
on the river ended Vlastaris’ run in tenth place, which was worth $19,672 in prize money.
The final table, set to take place on Friday, June 26, was established as follows:
Seat 1: Bahador Ahmadi 708,000
Seat 2: Zachary Humphrey 99,000
Seat 3: Barry Greenstein 193,000
Seat 4: Hasan Habib 114,000
Seat 5: Karlo Lopez 941,000
Seat 6: Randy Haddox 555,000
Seat 7: John McGuiness 406,000
Seat 8: Ylon Schwartz 286,000
Seat 9: Matt Woodward 653,000
Event 48: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Low Split-8 or Better, Day 1
The only starting event of the day brought a somewhat surprising number of players to the tables for Omaha-8 action. Not only did they claim to know how to play PLO, but they seemed ready for the 8-or-better version of it as well. A total of 762 players registered to take their chances on the game, and that created a prize pool of $1,040,130, which would provide payouts for the top 72 players and a $228,867 for the ultimate winner.
By the end of the night, most of the players were gone. The field thinned throughout the day/night at an astoundingly fast rate, and only 87 were left when the event stopped for the night. Just outside the money, those players would return the following day to play through the bubble and on to the final table with poker pro Perry Friedman at the top of the leaderboard holding on to 144,500 chips. Tommy Vedes brought up second place with 119,300, and the rest of the top five were Barry Craig, Brandon Cantu , and Ray Bonavida.