Young Phan has Huge Lead Going Into Final Day of $5,000 Championship Event

Young Phan, the genial pro from Irvine, CA, will hold a big chip lead going into the final day of the 5,000 championship event of the WSOP Circuit tour at Caesars Indiana.

Phan, 47, will start with 502,000 out of the 1,540,000 chips in play. Originally from Vietnam, Phan has been playing poker for 21 years. He is still looking for his first WSOP bracelet, though he has a batch of seconds and thirds.

Phan was saying he signed six autographs. "That means I'm going to knock out six players," he had predicted. He did better than that, eventually knocking out seven!

Next in starting chips today was Scott Fischman with 207,000. At age 23 Fischman became the youngest player ever to win two back-to-back bracelets at the WSOP, accomplishing this feat in 2004. He is also an author and columnist for Card Player magazine.

Day two action went very fast, with a dozen players knocked out in less than an hour. By 2 p.m. we were down to two tables. Talk about an imbalance! All four of the remaining "name" players -- Phan, Fischman, Barry Greenstein, and Men "The Master" Nguyen -- ended up at the same table.

Greenstein went out in 17th place. He had A-Q against Phan's pocket 10s. He flopped an ace and hit a queen on the river to no avail because Phan had flopped a set. Greenstein, famed as the "Robin Hood of Poker" for donating tournament winnings to charity, has two bracelets among his numerous tournament cashes, and is the author of the acclaimed poker book, "Ace on the River."

By the next break, we were down to 14 players. Phan, his chips piled sky-high, was the leader with around 360,000, followed by Fischman with about 290,000, while the Master, who three times has won Card Player's Player of the Year award, had dropped down to about 58,000. The average chip count at this point was 102,666.

Play resumed with blinds of 1,500-3,000 and 500 antes. As the round was nearing an end, with 12 players left, two suddenly went out. John Hayes moved in for 52,000 with A-10 and Phan called with pocket deuces. Shawn Quillan also called with all his chips and turned over a J-10, without realizing he had 6,000 more chips than Hayes. Phan then called for the additional amount. The board came Q-8-3-4-4, Phan's deuces held up, and he had knocked out his sixth and seventh players. "I'm missing an autograph," he said.

The last player out was Stacy Kopacz, the only woman still left in the tournament. She raised pre-flop with pocket 9s. On a flop of A-A-8, she bet 16,000. Dennis Anness, with A-K, put her all in for her remaining 14,000. Kopacz couldn't catch the 9 she needed, and we were down to the final nine who will return at 2 p.m. tomorrow. -- Max Shapiro

Final Day Seats and Chip Counts

For more information, please contact:

Max Shapiro - WSOP Media Director at (323) 356-3303

Or visit our official website: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com

World Series of Poker Commissioner - Jeffrey Pollack
Director of Poker Operations for Harrah's Entertainment - Jack Effel
Caesars Indiana Poker Room Manager - Jimmie Allen
Caesars Indiana Tournament Director - Doug Sullivan