LAS VEGAS–The fireworks are still going off, just not as frequently anymore … and Tom has taken the chip lead. He\’s been at a pretty tough table:
Seat 1 – Tony G
Seat 3 – John Juanda
Seat 4 – Tom Schneider
Seat 5 – Gavin Smith
Seat 6 – Howard Lederer
John Juanda (fantasy team disappointment) was just eliminated, so not sure if that means their table will break or have a player added. Also not sure where Jeff Lisandro stands, as an obvious typo has him listed with 146 chips (even though the antes were recently at 700).
At present, the official prize payouts and total number of entries haven\’t been released yet, but we know (from our seat overlooking the action 12 miles away) that there were 78 players in the field, seven of whom get paid. Bottom payout is about $55k, top prize being $500somethingish-k.
UPDATE: Lisandro is the chip leader with 240,000. Tom is second in chips with 171,000. This doozy of a race for Player of the Year in a high-dollar obscure game played no-limit-style is back, baby!
BIASED JOURNALISM ALERT: Go Big Tom!
CLARIFICATION: Phil Hellmuth is also technically still in the hunt for Player of the Year. He reportedly has a paltry 25,000 chips. But he has had those 25,000 chips for at least two hours now. So for all we know he may or may not be the actual chip leader at some point during one of three levels.
ALT HED: Horserace Poker
(Yeah, but what a nail biter!)
