PartyPoker.com Million V Tournament -- WPT Season 4
March 12 - 19, 2006

Day 1 The tournament began with 526 entrants with the field split up into two groups. Day 1 will be made up of 265 players. Cash will go out to the top 99 players with the 99th position paying $16,000. Here is the payout schedule for the top 6 at the final table:

1. $1,000,000
2. $700,000
3. $500,000
4. $300,000
5. $225,000
6. $175,000

1. Ali Elsami -- 78,000
2. Richard Predham -- 64,000
3. Victor Ramdin -- 61,500
4. Ville Vainio -- 59,000
5. Steve Godwin -- 54,000
6. Carmen Menechella -- 53,500

Day 2 With the beginning of this day the next half of the field made up of 261 players sat down at the tables. Some of the names playing on Day 2 were Barry Greenstein, Chip Jett, Mel Judah, Casey Kastle, Morgan Machina, Mimi Tran, Amir Vahedi and Steve Zoltow.

As the day progressed, a number of top players busted out. They include J.J. Liu, Jean-Robert Bellande, Amir Vahedi, Barry Greenstein, Matthew Hilger, Aaron Kanter, David Levy, Joe Sebok, Owner of Card Player Magazine Barry Shulman, Derek Tomko and John Spadavecchia. Day 2 ended with 106 moving on to the next round.

So now the overall group has been narrowed to 207 players all hoping to be the one to claim $1,000,000 and the title of champion. Here are the top 6 players with chip counts for Day 2:

1. Henrik Witt -- 84,000
2. Ali Eslami -- 78,000
3. Derek Kromm -- 68,000
4. Richard Predham -- 64,000
5. Victor Ramdin -- 61,500
6. Brian Clark -- 60,500

Day 3With this day of play came a number of surprises. Defending champion Michael Gracz was eliminated from the tournament 3 hours into play. Others who departed the tables include Yakov Hirsch, Stewart Kaplan, Dan Alspach, Russell Salazar and hard charging Chris Hinchcliffe. Once the dust settled, the number of players have been narrowed to 99. Here are the chip leaders with chip counts.

1. Kenna James -- 316,000 Chips
2. Peter Campo -- 293,000 Chips
3. Marc Souza -- 275,000 Chips
4. Mike Schneider -- 251,000 Chips
5. Jason Bouchard -- 240,000 Chips
6. Richard Joel -- 235,000 Chips

Day 4Ladies and Gentlemen we now have the 6 players that will make up the final table. 2 qualified online through PP's tournaments and the remainder were buyins. Although this final table is not full of top names, ( and that is a testament to the skill of the players at this tournament), the great thing is that we can take a peek at what may be the hot new players for next year. Now Kenna James is well known with his rocketing fame since 2003 where he made 16 final tables at different tournaments, winning half of them along with finishing 44th in last year's WSOP Main Event. 22 year old Mike Schneider currently attends the University of Minnesota studying journalism, planning to graduate in fall 2006. Mike doing what so many college students do is using his winnings to pay for college. Andrew Chitiea is a pilot examiner for the FAA, a flight instructor and corporate pilot who says he plays at least 3 times a week online at PP. 49 year old Scott Buller is the only final table player to make two PP Million final tables with the first in 2001 when Kathy Liebert won the title. Retired 58 year old Richard Joel has been playing for 40 years, playing online mostly these days after being introduced to Internet play by his son. And 21 year old Devon Miller states he is a professional who used to slip into card rooms and play for cash. (Moms, do you really know where your kids are?)

So that rounds out the field and we will post the winner once the information is released to us.

1. Mike Schneider -- 1,280,000 Chips
2. Kenna James -- 1,090,000 Chips
3. Andrew Chitiea -- 840,000 Chips
4. Scott Buller -- 810,000 Chips
5. Richard Joel -- 740,000 Chips
6. Devon Miller -- 470,000 Chips

Final Table 22 year old Mike Schneider became the winner of the PartyPoker V Million tournament, and made PP tournament history by being the youngest champion of the event series. Mike had James Kenna down to 120,000 chips when the winning hand was dealt. James went all in pre flop with J 6 and Mike called holding Q 10. The flop showed a Q and no other significant card came up to help either player, giving the champion the win with a pair of Q's. Here are the final table results with chip counts:

1. Mike Schneider -- $1,000,000
2. Kenna James -- $700,000
3. Scott Buller -- $500,000
4. Andrew Chitea -- $300,000
5. Richard Joel -- $225,000
6. Devon Miller -- $175,000