Scotty Nguyen Leads Final Ten at WPT Championship

Friday marks the all-important play down day in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship. Tenth place will pocket $98,000, while the winner of the finale of Season VII will see their bank account rise by $2.1 million. In the chip lead entering the critical day of play is Scotty Nguyen.

Nguyen holds 5.9 million chips to begin the play down day, about 750,000 more than the second place stack of Yevgeniy “atimos” Timoshenko. Nguyen was all smiles when play concluded on Thursday, telling WPT Live Updates Hostess Amanda Leatherman, “The day was smooth. I never looked back. I started out with 1.8 million and my stack never went below that. Now, at the end of the day, daddy got all of the chips, baby.” Leatherman proceeded to ask Nguyen about his gold necklaces, which Nguyen responded, “This is power. This one is luck.”

Timoshenko made a run at Nguyen late in the day, busting Jennifer Harman in 11th place holding 10-2 against the Fill Tilt Poker pro’s pocket aces. Harman took home $81,710 for her efforts and is fresh off raising over $130,000 for the Nevada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in a charity tournament held last weekend. Timoshenko sent Andrew Lichtenberger packing in 13th place when his A-7 held up against Q-J. The flop came ace-high, keeping Timoshenko in the lead for good in the hand. Lichtenberger also received $81,710 for his efforts in the $25,000 buy-in tournament.

Holding the third largest chip stack is online poker sensation Christian “charder” Harder, who has amassed 4.6 million chips over the course of the five day-old tournament. Harder eliminated Ross Boatman in 15th place after coming out on the winning end of a race holding pocket jacks against Boatman’s Big Slick. The board came ten-high, boosting Harder’s chip stack to nearly 4.4 million. Harder also sent Eric Liu packing in 19th place. He called an all-in by Liu pre-flop with J-10; Liu dominated his opponent with K-10. However, a jack fell on the turn, giving Harder the win.

Justin Young holds the fourth largest stack at the Bellagio. He went on a tear over the course of Thursday’s play, eliminating a bevy of brand name pros from the prestigious tournament. One of his victims was Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson, who was instrumental in uncovering the cheating scandal on Absolute Poker. Young three-outed Johnson with A-Q against A-K by spiking a queen on the turn; Johnson finished in 20th place for $65,370. Young was also the bearer of bad news for Owen “ocrowe” Crowe, who limped pre-flop with aces under the gun. Young limped from the cutoff with 7-3 and was elated to see the flop come 9-3-3. Crowe promptly shoved and Young called. The hand pushed Young to over six million chips. He’ll come armed to Friday’s play down day with 4.2 million.

Here is how the final 10 chip stacks look entering today’s session:
1. Scotty Nguyen - 5,880,000
2. Yevgeniy Timoshenko - 5,105,000
3. Christian Harder - 4,650,000
4. Justin Young - 4,220,000
5. Shannon Shorr - 3,155,000
6. Brian Rast - 3,025,000
7. Eugene Katchalov - 2,385,000
8. Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier - 1,965,000
9. Ran Azor - 1,810,000
10. Bruno Fitoussi - 1,615,000

Notable eliminations on Thursday included:
11th Place: Jennifer Harman - $81,710
12th Place: Freddy Deeb - $81,710
15th Place: Ross Boatman - $81,710
18th Place: Jeff Madsen - $65,370
19th Place: Eric Liu - $65,370
20th Place: Marco Johnson - $65,370
23rd Place: David Grey - $49,025

Play picks up at Noon Pacific Time today and will conclude when six finalists remain. They’ll reconvene on Saturday in front of Fox Sports Net television cameras to determine a winner.

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Poker lexicon:

IN - Still eligible to win the pot. "I'm in" is often spoken as one adds chips to the pot, calling.
FOURTH STREET - In stud poker, the fourth card dealt to each player. Sometimes used to refer to the fourth community card dealt in Hold'em, although the more common term for this is TURN (q.v.).
STRAIGHT FLUSH - A hand consisting of 5 cards in sequence and the same suit.
RUNNER-RUNNER - A hand made using both of the last two cards dealt.
CHECK RAISE - To check initially, then raise a bet made later on in the same betting round. Frequently a sign of strength, but may be a bluff.
MARKED CARDS - Cards that have been (illegally) altered so that their value can be read from the back.

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