WPT: John Phan Wins

Published on 29 Aug 08 17:05 by Drakhor

The US American John Phan won the Main Event of the 'Legends of Poker' in the Bicycle Casino. In the heads-up he defeated Amit Makhija and thus secured his first WPT title.

Six of once 373 players took their seat at the final table of the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Championship Event at around 4PM local time. The big favourite: John Phan, for whom it already was the fourth final table at the World Poker Tour (WPT). Trong Nguyen, Amit Makhija, Paul Smith, Zachary Clark and Kyle Wilson reached it for the first time.

Kyle Wilson and Trong Nguyen – Out at hourly Intervals

The first victim was Kyle Wilson. After about one hour of playing time, Zachary Clark busted Wilson's kings when he already hit an ace on the flop. Turn and river were blank cards and Wilson had to leave the table. Against 6 o' clock, it was all over for Trong Nguyen. With he lost against for Amit Makhija. The board came with . Flush for Makhija who thus became the uncontested chip leader.

Phan eliminates Paul Smith

Only a bit later, Paul Smith got nabbed. With he pushed all-in from the small blind. In the big blind sat John Phan, who had to deliberate first of all. After about 3 minutes it was too much for Smith, and he asked for the clock. Maybe a mistake. Phan called with . The flop of still looked very good for Smith. The turn card was the though and the river completed Phan's straight.

Makhija eliminates Zachary Clark

With only three people left, the game cooled down considerably. Only at around 10PM, the heads-up opponents had been determined. Zachary Clark pushed all-in from the small blind. Makhija called after some long deliberation with and was happy to only see for Clark. On the turn came an ace and Zachary had to join the rail.

Heads-up

Amit Makhija started with 6,440,000 chips into the finale of the last two. John Phan had 4,760,000 chips in front of him. The finale took over 60 hands and the chip lead switched several times between the two of them, before Phan could pull clear more and more.

In the decisive hand, he already had a clear chip lead with almost 9M chips in comparison to Makhija with about 2M. The blinds were at 150,000/300,000 with a 40,000 ante.

Makhija pushed all-in pre-flop with and Phan called with . The flop came with and put Phan clearly in the lead. The turn card was the and Makhija needed a king, a further ace or a queen to keep his chance for the top spot. On the river came the though and Phan won his first WPT title.

$10,000 WPT Main Event Legends of Poker Bicycle Casino
Rank	Name	Prize money
1	John Phan	$1,116,428
2	Amit Makhija	$563,320
3	Zach Clark	$281,645
4	Paul Smith	$246,450
5	Trong Nguyen	$211,245
6	Kyle Wilson	$176,035