2008 World Poker Tour Championship Tournament
WPT Season 6

Day 1A
This was the meeting of the Who's Who of poker. With an entry fee of $25,500 per player, it has a far purer level of top talent than the WSOP Main Event. And the 210 players who stepped up to the tables were just that. Names like WPT announcer Mike Sexton, Doyle Brunson, John Hennigan, James Van Alstyne, Hoyt Corkins, Barry Greenstein, Dewey Tomko, Berry Johnston, Alan Goehring, Phil Hellmuth Jr. (who showed up 2 1/2 hours late), Eric Seidel and many, many others. All players received 50,000 in chips to start, with each level lasting 90 minutes. Today's goal is to play 5 levels and those remaining will move on to Day 2.

Well it would be nice if everyone could stay, but poker doesn't work that way. And with that Daniel Alaei was among the first players to bust out of the tournament. Following him were David Singer, David Williams, Scott Clements, Ted Lawson, Hasan Habib and Johnathan Little. By midnight there were 140 players left which included Mike Sexton 101,325, Wei Kai Chang 94,675, Doyle Brunson 80,850, Cliff Josephy 59,700, Joe Sebok 13,300 and Andrew Black 11,800. Day 1B will begin at 12 noon on Sunday.

1. William Baxter -- 167,150 chips
2. Darell Dicken -- 163,675
3. Steve Billirakis -- 156,800
4. Scott Epstein -- 147,800
5. Brandon Cantu -- 145,125
6. Abe Mosseri -- 123,400

Day 1B
Another 335 players came to the tables, making the total number of entrants for the WPT championships 535. Tomorrow we will have the prize pool amounts and payouts for the final table. But we do know that the top two players will become instant millionaires...if they already are not millionaires. You never know in poker who has what.

The names that showed up on Day 1B was a top notch A-list. Seen were Joe Hachem, Carlos Mortensen, Gavin Griffin, Gus Hansen, Mark Seif, Kathy Liebert, Chris Ferguson, Nenad Medic, Mike Matusow, Mickey Appleman, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Jennifer Tilly, Anna Wroblewski, Lee Watkinson, Allan Cunningham, Freddy Deeb, Layne Flack, T.J. Cloutier, Daniel Negreanu and Jennifer Harman-Traniello just to name a few! With a field this tough, incredible action has to follow. Bad beats had players folding pocket A's after the flop in order to preserve their stack of chips. Today's busts include Jennifer Tilly, Beth Shak, Justin Bonomo, Barry Shulman, Mike Vela, Brett Faustman and Theo Tran.

At the end there were 421 players combined who will move on to Day 2 which will begin at noon at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada.

1. Kenny Tran -- 193,025 chips
2. Robert Mizrachi -- 173,375
3. Carlos Mortensen -- 172,075
4. Jordan Morgan -- 171,750
5. David Benyamine -- 169,350
6. Tom Dwan -- 155,675

Day 2
We now have the payout schedule for the final table below. Money will go to the top 100 finishers and the prize pool reached $13,216,250.

1. $3,389,140
2. $1,714,800
3. $923,355
4. $593,645
5. $395,725
6. $263,815

1. Jayde Tran -- 620,000 chips
2. Gus Hansen -- 611,500
3. Tim Phan -- 602,500
4. Martin De Knijff -- 580,000
5. Michael Gracz -- 509,000
6. Phil Galfond -- 488,000

Day 3
Play began at noon continuing at level 11 with blinds at 1,500/3,000 and ante at 400. Within the first 30 minutes, a crowd favorite Scotty Nguyen was busted out of the tournament as well as Alan Sass, Phil Ivey, Kathy Liebert and Dan Harrington. Mike Matusow also busted after his A 6 suited lost out to another player holding A K. Jordan Rich was the bubble boy who left in 101st place, meaning the next bust will receive $39,570 for their hard work. Once that took place, in the next 40 minutes, about 40 players were eliminated who seemed happy with the fact that they will walk over to pick up their money and not go home empty handed. Marcel Luske joined the list of the fallen as his A K did not hold up to another players pocket 10's. Daniel Negreanu also was sent to the rail after the set of Jacks lost out to another players Jack high straight.

Gus Hansen was involved in a number of huge pots today which vaulted him to over the 2 million mark. On one hand Gus held pocket A's in a round with 2 other players and ended up with a full house (A's/7's) to give him a 650K pot. Well by 9:00 p.m., there were 55 players left that will go to their rooms for rest and come back at noon for another round of play. Here are the top 6 players with chip counts:

1. Gus Hansen -- 2,246,000 chips
2. Cory Caroll -- 1,900,000
3. David Chiu -- 1,231,000
4. Martin De Knijff -- 856,000
5. Nick Binger -- 829,000
6. Tom Dwan -- 805,000

Day 4
Action started at level 16 having blinds at 6,000/12,000 and 2,000 ante. On the first hand of play, Zvi Shiff went out after his paired 5's were bested by another player who paired 8's. He was followed by Tom Schneider (50th $43,968), Tim Phan (49th $52,765) when his K J suited lost to the paired 5's of Cory Carroll, Joe Sebok (48th $52,765), J.C. Tran (46th $52,765), Isabelle Mercier (41st $52,765), Martin De Knijff (39th $65,955), defending champion Carlos Mortensen (38th $65,955) who's pocket J's lost to the pocket A's of Jeff Shulman and T.J. Cloutier (34th $65,955) after losing to the two pair of Gus Hansen (6's and 3's).

But some who made big plays include Men "The Master" Nguyen who produced pocket A's to meet the all-in move by John Roveto holding pocket 10's when another Ace hit the table on the river, giving Men another 405,000 chips to add to his stack. Another person who deserves mention and congratulations was Johnathan Little when he cinched the Season 6 WPT Player of the Year award after the final contender Danny Wong was busted from the tournament. Unfortunately for Men Nguyen, he was busted in 26th place after Gus Hansen made his Jack high straight on the turn of a deciding hand. By the time 9:00 p.m. came there were 17 players left that will meet again at noon tomorrow to see who will make the final table.

1. Amir Vahedi -- 3,907,000 chips
2. Gus Hansen -- 2,929,000
3. Tom Dwan -- 2,874,000
4. David Tran -- 2,543,000
5. Jeff King -- 1,903,000
6. David Chiu -- 1,742,000

Day 5
Details are coming!

1. Gus Hansen -- 8,570,000 chips
2. Cory Carroll -- 6,670,000
3. David Chiu -- 6,050,000
4. John Roveto -- 2,270,000
5. Tommy Le -- 1,950,000
6. Jeff King -- 1,305,000

Final Table
This final table ran a lot shorter than expected as it took just under 5 hours for a champion to be declared for Season 6. Action continues at level 24 where blinds are $60,000/$120,000 and ante is $15,000. This was raised to level 25 with blinds at $80,000/$160,000 and ante at $15,000 when Jeff King went out in 6th place. King went all-in holding Ac Qc against Cory Carroll holding 10s 9s preflop. Carroll was able to pair his 10 card, sending King to the sidelines. Meanwhile, Gus Hansen has been winning so many chips to where he over 11 million by the 13th hand. He was responsible for eliminating Tommy Le in 5th place too. After the table shows Q 10 5 4, Le moves all in with pocket 5's and Hansen instantly calls with pocket 10's. With a river card of 3, Tommy Le goes off to collect his six figure payoff for his efforts. Three hands later, Cory Carroll ended up in 4th place. After a flop of Qh Jd 6d, Hansen moves all-in with 7d 5d and was called with Carroll having Ad Js. Turn card is a Qh and the river card is a 3d, giving Hansen the flush and the win. John Roveto ended up in 3rd place after a bad beat hand. With his last 2 million in chips, Roveto goes all-in with pocket K's and was called by Hansen holding Ac 10c. The table shows J 9 8 6 7, giving Hansen a Jack high flush and 22,905,000 chips going into the heads up with David Chiu with 4,360,000 chips.

This should have been a slam dunk, which seemed so obvious that one official said they should just give the money to Gus. Well...that was at hand 22. Both players were extremely cautious in their moves from this point on. In the continuing battle, Chiu doubled up on a set of 2's, then wins another big pot of 5 million. Slowly, Chiu crept up to reach beyond the 50% mark in total chips with over 15 million. And on the final hand with a flop of A 10 8, turn card of 5, Chiu bets resulting in Hansen thinking before going with an all-in move. Chiu responded with a call with Chiu having As 9s and Hansen having 10 8 for two pair. And the river card was an Ace giving Chiu a set of Aces and the title of WPT champion for Season 6!

1. David Chiu -- $3,389,140
2. Gus Hansen -- $1,714,800
3. John Roveto -- $923,355
4. Cory Carroll -- $593,645
5. Tommy Le -- $395,725
6. Jeff King -- $263,815