Scotty Nguyen Chip Leader of WPT Championship Heading into Day 6

Published on April 23rd, 2009 10:16 pm EST

Day 5 of the $25,000 World Poker Tour Championship is now in the books.

There are 10 players left in the tournament, with a very familiar name currently atop the leaderboard.

Scotty Nguyen will enter Day 6 as the chip leader of the tournament. Nguyen doubled up in a big hand about an hour before the end of play on Thursday.

With the board reading J-9-2-Q, Justin Young and Scotty Nguyen shipped their stacks into the middle of the table. Nguyen showed 9-9 for a set, while Justin Young showed Q-9 for two pair. The river was the harmless 2 of hearts, and Nguyen vaulted into the chip lead.

Jennifer Harman was the last player to be eliminated on Day 5. Yevgeniy Timoshenko moved in preflop holding the 10-2 of hearts, and the short-stacked Harman quickly called with pocket Aces.

The flop came Q-4-2, and Harman was well ahead in the hand.

Unfortunately for Harman, the turn brought the 10 of clubs, giving Timoshenko two pair. The river helped neither player, and Harman was sent to the rail.

The remaining 10 players will play down to 6 on Friday, with the champion being crowned on Saturday.

All of the remaining 10 players in the tournament are guaranteed at least $98,050 for making it this far. The winner will receive $2.15 million dollars, while the second place finisher will receive $1.45 million dollars.

There are a number of well-known players still left in the tournament, including:

Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier - 1.965 million
Scotty Nguyen - 5.88 million
Brian Rast - 3.025 million
Shannon Shorr - 3.155 million
Christian Harder - 4.65 million
Eugene Katchalov - 2.385 million

Some interesting points heading into the last two days of play:

-Scotty Nguyen would take over the all-time money lead (passing Jamie Gold) with a victory in this event

-if Katchalov wins then it will be his second $2 million dollar plus cash in a WPT event in the past year and a half (he took down the Doyle Brunson Classic in December of 2007)

-if Grospellier wins then it would be his FOURTH major tournament title since January of 2008

-Harder's largest cash ($200,000) came at the 2008 PCA

-Shorr would have just under $5 million dollars in lifetime cashes with a victory at this event

Here is a list of the remaining players in this event:

Seat 1 - Justin Young - 4,220,000
Seat 2 - Elky Grospellier - 1,965,000
Seat 3 - Bruno Fitoussi - 1,615,000
Seat 4 - Scotty Nguyen - 5,880,000
Seat 5 - Brian Rast - 3,025,000
Seat 6 - Eugene Katchalov - 2,385,000
Seat 7 - Shannon Shorr - 3,155,000
Seat 8 - Yevgeniy Timoshenko - 5,105,000
Seat 9 - Christian Harder - 4,650,000
Seat 10 - Ran Azor - 1,810,000

Day 6 will begin at 12 pm local time on Friday.


--

Filed Under: Tournament Results