TUAN LE WINS $2,856,000 WPT CHAMPIONSHIP

The final event of the third season of the World Poker Tour ended a few minutes before midnight at the Bellagio resort here in Las Vegas. The $25,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em event played the final table Sunday at 4:00 pm and played on and on until only one was left. Tuan Le survived the field of 452 players and seven days later was crowned the WPT Champion. The six players going into tonight’s final table was a representation of some of poker’s toughest competitors, so the action was top rate. Phil Ivey was the first to go out in sixth place collecting $264,195 on the way to the door. Rob Hollink was next to leave the party and received $377,420 followed closely by John Phan, out in fourth place with $518,920. The three handed play lasted into the night with Tuan hovering on the brink of elimination while Hasan Habib and Paul Maxfield continued to have a go at each other. Tuan got all the way down to $100K while the other two players had over $10 million each and appeared to have no hope; but, as he did at Foxwoods he never gave up and he didn’t wait for pocket rockts before making a move to collect some of the chips. And collect he did, until he finally took out Hasan Habib, who collected $896,375 for third. The heads up play began after the money was brought to the final table by Shana Hiatt completing her final duty before leaving the WPT for good.

Paul Maxfield and Tuan Le traded chips for the better part of an hour and a half. During this period Paul had Tuan all-in and on the ropes needing a miracle card on the river. Both times he pulled off the suck-out. Finally, Paul went all-in with his K,5o and was immediately called by Tuan showing Kd,Jd. The flop came J,10,3 giving Tuan a pair of Jacks and the lead. The Queen on the turn was no help to Paul and the 7 on the river gave Tuan his second WPT victory of the season. He collected $2,856,150 plus a $25,000 seat in next season’s championship. Paul had to settle for the consolation money of $1,698,390.

The crowd tonight was great; cheering for their favorite and having a great time. At the presentation of the trophy and prize money, Daniel Negreanu was presented with his WPT Player of the Year jacket (no, it wasn’t green) and trophy. Complete results of the final table are available at Poker Player Newspaper. Photos are being added to our Five-Star Photo Gallery daily so be sure to browse through the hundreds of photos.

The PPT, Professional Poker Tour, plays its final table at 4:00 pm tomorrow at the Bellagio. Stop in to see the Grand Master of Poker, Doyle Brunson, work his table magic.