WPT Season 8 World Championship

The season finale of the WPT always provides a mountain of excitement, this year is no different. 195 runners started at the Bellagio, for the $25,000 WPT World Championship. Now down to the final 18 there are some big names and big news shaping up for a historic finish to the eighth season of the World Poker Tour.

The old guard and talented young guns are battling over a hefty first prize purse of $1,530,537. A myriad of talent, bracelets and final table appearances liter the remaining field.

One of the most-highly contested player of the year races is going to be decided by the final table.Faraz Jaka leads with the WPT Player of the Year race and the chips, but is far from a clinch. There are seven players still within grasp of the coveted title. It is shaping up to be a nail biter of a final table, with more possible outcomes than my math skills care to take a shot at.

POY Standings
Faraz Jaka - 1,300 POY pts
Olivier Busquet - 1,000 POY pts
Todd Terry - 800 POY pts
Josh Arieh - 700 POY pts
Matt Stout - 600 POY pts
Shawn Buchanan - 500 POY pts
Scotty Nguyen - 400 POY pts
Phil Hellmuth - 300 POY pts

POY points for this event:
1st place: 1,000 POY pts
2nd place: 700 POY pts
3rd place: 600 POY pts
4th place: 500 POY pts
5th place: 400 POY pts
6th place: 300 POY pts
7th place: 200 POY pts

Chip Count (WPT Titles/ WPT FT/ WSOP Bracelets/ WSOP FT)

TABLE 1
1. Eric Baldwin - 880,000 (0/0/1/3)
2. Shawn Buchanan - 1,224,000 (1/2/0/2)
3. John O'Shea - 495,000 (0/0/0/1)
4. J.J. Liu - 674,000 (0/2/0/2)
5. David Benyamine - 2,350,000 (1/3/1/4)
6. Phil Hellmuth - 1,377,000 (0/4/11/41)
7. Cliff Josephy - 458,000 (0/0/1/2)
8. Scotty Nguyen - 941,000 (1/8/5/12)
9. Olivier Busquet -1,088,000 (1/1/0/0)

TABLE 2
1. Nikolay Evdakov - 1,426,000 (0/0/0/0)
2. Robert Cooper - 662,000 (0/0/0/0)
3. David Williams - 2,072,000 (0/3/1/4)
4. Jason Lester - 421,000 (0/0/1/8)
5. Josh Arieh - 303,000 (0/2/2/4)
6. Billy Baxter - 1,630,000 (0/1/7/9)
7. Faraz Jaka - 3,117,000 (0/2/0/1)
8. Tony Cousineau - 60,000 (0/0/0/5)
9. Matt Stout - 274,000 (0/1/0/0)


Day 5 begins in less than an hour. There are sure to be some big moves and big finishes.