It's rather unusual that live tournaments with buy-ins around $1,000 attract many (if any) players from the poker elite, but the $1,100 Omaha Hi-Low/Stud Hi-Low event at the 2017 L.A. Poker Classic managed to do just that.
Phil Hellmuth ($21 million in live tournament earnings) and Mike Matusow (approx. $10 million in earnings) were two of the big stars who particpated and they made it through the 72-entries field to play heads-up for the title. Hellmuth emerged victorious in the epic battle and was awarded with a trophy and $25,200 while Matusow received $14,400 for his efforts.
"Mike and I had a blast and he said we were going to end up heads up. He was pretty short at one point I didn't have a ton of chips and he said we're gonna get heads up. Once he gets chips he's so tough. At Omaha 8 Stud 8 he's such a good player at especially these games. He and I, I felt like it would be a good battle," Hellmuth told lapcnews.com following his victory.