Saturday marks the final table of the Season VII World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship. Not one, not two, not three, but four PocketFivers will take to the felts in this marquee event, which began one week ago with 337 players. Holding a commanding lead over the rest of the table is PocketFiver Yevgeniy atimos Timoshenko, who won the Asian Poker Tour’s Macau event in 2008 for $500,000, defeating talented poker pro Steve Yea heads-up. The action kicks off at 4:00pm Pacific Time today from the Bellagio in Las Vegas. On site to witness what promises to be a lucrative evening is PocketFivesLive.com, which provides WPT coverage of online poker players.
Yevgeniy atimos Timoshenko (pictured at left) came into Friday’s play in the WPT Championship with the second largest chip stack. When the smoke cleared and the final six players were determined, Timoshenko’s stack was nearly twice the size of his next closest competitor’s. He’ll hold 13.3 million chips when the final table kicks off, about six million more than Christian charder Harder. On the final table bubble, Timoshenko busted Brian tsarrast Rast. The two were nearly even in chips with 5.7 million each after jockeying pre-flop. Then, Rast shoved with A-K and Timoshenko happily called, flipping over pocket kings. The board ran out 9-8-6-6-J and Rast was sent packing in seventh place, cashing for $204,000.PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington, who has been covering the action throughout the course of the week-long event, commented on Timoshenko’s prospects heading into the final table: "Another solid day of play and a big hand right at the end of the day sent Yevgeniy into the final table with almost a two to one chip lead over Harder." Prior to the monster hand between Rast and Timoshenko, Rast had doubled up through Harder and then eliminated Justin Young in eighth place with pocket queens against pocket nines. In that hand, Young flopped a set of nines, but Rast spiked a queen on the river to send Young home.
Christian charder Harder (pictured at right) entered the play down day at the Bellagio third in chips. Now, he’ll walk into the final table armed with the second largest stack of 7.4 million. He received a considerable amount of respect early on, including in a hand where he opened for 225,000 pre-flop. Ron Azor raised to 675,000 with three million left behind him, only to see Harder shove. Azor promptly folded pocket kings face up; Harder did not expose his cards. The PocketFiver has been near the top of the chip counts throughout most of the tournament. Harrington commented, "Christian was active at the table, holding the chip lead right up until the very last hand, and was able to put a lot of pressure on the other players as he continually chipped up. Harder and Timoshenko are poised for a potentially epic battle at the final table."
The duo will have to contend with two other PocketFivers who also reached the final table. Shannon ShannonShorr Shorr (pictured at left) holds the short stack in the room at 1.1 million. He’ll have his work cut out for him, as when play wrapped up on Friday, blinds were 60,000-120,000 with a 15,000 chip ante. He has plenty of live experience under his belt. Last July, he won a $3,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event held during the Bellagio Cup IV for $247,000 in a final table that also included "November Nine" member Scott r_a_y Montgomery. Shorr took fourth in the Main Event of the Aussie Millions in 2006 for $200,000 and finished second in a $2,000 buy-in tournament during the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) for $349,000.
The fourth and final PocketFiver at the final table is Bertrand ElkY Grospellier (pictured at right), who holds the third largest stack, 5.9 million. The card-carrying member of Team PokerStars Pro is on the verge of becoming the WPT Player of the Year, needing to outlast just one more opponent to claim the title. If Grospellier is bumped from the WPT Championship final table in sixth place, then John “The Razor” Phan will instead be named Player of the Year. Grospellier won the Bellagio Cup IV during Season VII for $1.4 million and grabbed 32nd in the L.A. Poker Classic. Phan also made the final table of the Bellagio Cup, but finished fifth. He won the Legends of Poker tournament, defeating Amit amak316 Makhija heads-up for $1.1 million.Here are the chip counts entering the final table:
1. Yevgeniy Timoshenko - 13,300,000
2. Christian Harder - 7,425,000
3. Bertrand Grospellier - 5,955,000
4. Scotty Nguyen - 3,275,000
5. Ran Azor - 2,525,000
6. Shannon Shorr - 1,130,000
Each PocketFiver remaining is guaranteed at least $285,000 for their efforts:
1st Place - $2,149,960
2nd Place - $1,446,265
3rd Place - $776,245
4th Place - $571,965
5th Place - $408,550
6th Place - $285,985
Check out PocketFivesLive.com starting at 4:00pm PT on Saturday. Best of luck to all PocketFivers remaining in the hunt for the $2.1 million first place prize.
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