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Only five players stand in the way of a breakthrough victory for Amit “Amak316” Makhija at the World Poker Tour’s Legends of Poker championship event. The online poker superstar stands atop the chip count with 3.225 million as the final table gets set to go Thursday at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles.
Right behind Makhija is one of the hottest players on the professional circuit, John “the Razor” Phan, with 2.4 million. After winning two bracelets at the World Series of Poker this summer Phan continued his hot streak by making the final table of the WPT’s $15,000 Bellagio Cup IV and finishing fifth. Should Phan finish fourth or higher he would take top spot in the 2008 Bluff Magazine Player-of-the-Year race, passing Men “the Master” Nguyen.
Another top online poker player, Zachary “nofingclue11” Clark, has just over 2 million and is running on a hot streak of his own. Earlier this month Clark finished fifth in the PokerStars Sunday Million and recorded four cashes at the 2008 WSOP totalling $42,000.
Another player whose bread and butter is online poker is sitting in fourth is with 1.425 million. Kyle Wilson, once considered a basketball phenom, will be making his first final table appearance on the World Poker Tour. With just over $120,000 in career tournament earnings Wilson could be the dark horse of an otherwise tough final table.
Paul Smith, who lead the way at the start of play Wednesday, will start play Thursday with 1.13 million. With eight players remaining Smith’s stack had started to dwindle, but back-to-back double-ups propelled him to the final table.
Bringing up the rear is Trong Nguyen, the only player with less than 1 million in chips. With 980,000 Nguyen isn’t that far behind the rest of the field.
Taking the role of TV bubble boy was Matt Keikoan. The 2008 WSOP bracelet winner was eliminated by Clark after moving all-in from the small blind with 7d 4s. Clark woke up with Ah Kh and spiked a king on the flop to send Keikoan to the rail.
Other notable bustouts from the fourth day included Layne Flack (8th - $105,620), Lee Markholt (13th - $35,205) and Allen Cunningham (24th - $21,125). Maria Ho, known for being the highest finishing woman in the 2007 WSOP main event, finished just ahead of Cunningham in 23rd ($21,125).
Play will start with at 4 pm PT with blinds of 30,000-60,000 (5,000 ante). The winner will take home $1,116,428 plus the $25,000 WPT Championship seat while sixth place banks $176,035.
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