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World Poker Classic's Toughest Final Table Yet

Greenstein, Tran, Nguyen, Phan, and Others Face Off Today

by Bob Pajich  |  Published: Dec 08, 2006  |  

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Talk about a tough table.

The final table of the $2,100 event at the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic that's scheduled to conclude today contains the most star power of any event of this series yet. The final 10 are: last year's Card Player Magazine Player of the Year Men "The Master" Nguyen;2006 POY contender J.C Tran; poker author and one of the toughest players around Barry Greenstein; David Phan, who has more than $4 million in lifetime tournament winnings; and Justin Bonomo, Mike Vanier, Alan Sass, Peter Gould, Ken James, and Todd Arnold, a handful of tournament vets all with cashes under their belts.

Men The Master always has fun

The chips counts are as follows:

  • Justin Bonomo - $374,500
  • J.C. Tran - $302,000
  • Barry Greenstein - $181,500
  • Men Nguyen - $170,000
  • Mike Vanier $144,000
  • Alan Sass - $128,000
  • Peter Gould - $67,000
  • Ken James - $60,500
  • Todd Arnold - $51,500
  • David Phan - $41,000

As chip leader, Bonomo is in fair shape to get his first major win. He already made one final table at the Five Diamond WPC, winning $16,465 only two days ago in the $5,180 event for placing eighth. That was his first cash of 2006.

J.C. Tran behind a mountain of chips

Tran currently sits 1,732 points away from taking over the top spot in a tight POY race. A victory here would cut that gap to 820 for the lead, and with with plenty of events left in the year, Mizrachi - and the rest of the top five - should be concerned. Mizrachi currently leads the POY race with 5,989 points. Tran currently sits in fifth with 4,258 points. Mike Vanier is ready to rock

Nam Le, who currently sits in the second spot on the POY list, showed up late at night with a gaggle of partiers who added even more energy to the event, which ended for the night well after 2 a.m. Le was there to see how Tran was doing, as he will be knocked down to third place with a Tran victory.

The players are playing for part of a $735,260 prize pool. The final table resumes at 3 p.m. and the players are playing for the following amounts: $266,820, $149,050, $74,525, $42,565, $31,940, $24,840, $17,745, $14,195, and $11,355.

CardPlayer.com's Lisa Wheeler provided live updates and color from the event, and she reported on everything from the huge pots that were raked in by the players to the amount of beers Nguyen drank at the final table (14 Corona by 2 a.m.). Click here for the updates. And click here to visit CardPlayer.com's POY standings to see the complete list.

 
 
Tags: card player magazine,   barry greenstein,   justin bonomo,   peter gould,   diamond world,   ken james,   mizrachi,   world poker,   poy,   gaggle,   partiers,   star power,   vanier,   late at night,   sass,   nguyen,   contender,   gap,   belts,   handful
 
 
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