David Chiu(credit: David Chiu's Official Web Site)
79 players remained as Day 3 began at the 2008 WPT Legends of Poker Main Event. They would stay until the final three tables were set. The action was difficult as the big dogs became railbirds very quickly. David Chiu eliminated the first two players of the day. November Nine member Kelly Kim, who has the shortest stack at the WSOP final table when it recommences in a little over two months, took the long walk to the rail a few minutes before Kathy Liebert did. Soon after, Gabe Kaplan and Daniel Negreanu are eliminated from the competition.
En route to the money bubble, Barry Greenstein, Antonio Esfandiari, Mark Seif, Toto Leonidas and Robert Cheung were also eliminated. The final two women remaining when play got down to five tables were Maria Ho and Van Nguyen, wife of Men “The Master” Nguyen and reigning WPT Celebrity Invitational champion. The ladies were seated at the same table, right next to each other. Nguyen’s stack was around 100k while Ho’s was nearing 300k.
Trong Nguyen takes out Erick Lingren, who was holding pocket kings, and Tuan Le, with a Q,10 in the hole, with a pair of sevens, after making a set on the flop. Ouch!
David Chiu, Mark Seif and former chip leader Ali Eslami finish right before the money bubble burst. Eslami actually took 37th place, giving him the official bubble boy title. Van Nguyen finished in 36th position, being the first person to earn money in the event and leaving Maria Ho alone as the only women in the event. She earned $14,085 as did the rest of the eliminated players for the remainder of the night.
As the players bagged their chips, Paul Smith had the chip lead with 946,000. Layne Flack, Matt Keikoan and Allen Cunningham were not too far behind. Marco Johnson and John Phan are still in the thick of the action while Maria Ho has 158,000 chips left to play with.
David Chiu is the reigning WPT Season 6 Champion! Join him at Full Tilt Poker’s Heads-Up PLO championship on September 6 & 7th. We’ve got the details for you here!