World Poker Tour: High Stakes and Dramatic Moments

The World Poker Tour (WPT) event had a total prize pool of $6,537,600, with the first prize being $1,654,120. Notable players included Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, and Melanie Weissner. Several Russian poker stars, including Alexander Kravchenko, Nikolai Evdakov, Vladimir Shchemelev, Alexei Rybin, and Evgeny Kachalov, received untouched starting stacks of 30,000 chips, giving them an advantage over Phil Ivey, who had only 29,900 chips after the first day.

Arkady Stekolschikov, a backer, had 111,000 chips after the first day and eventually made it into the prizes. Marco Johnson ended the first day with 1,475 chips, and Vivek Rajkumar had 4,675 chips. After the second day, 238 players remained, with Joe Deniro leading with 366,700 chips. Nikolai Evdakov had 213,200 chips and won two side tournaments: one in Pot-Limit Omaha and the other in IronMan.

Hoyt Corkins lost to Mike Sauer's Kx Kx with Qx Qx on the bubble. Arkady Stekolschikov eliminated Michael Mizrahi in a crucial all-in situation. Gregory Brooks had a notable hand against Carlos Mortensen, winning with Ac Jd against Kx Kx. Amirah Lehavot, playing for the fund of Stas Alekhine, had a strange chip dumping situation with Dan Heimiller. Nikolai Evdakov lost to Gregory Brooks, who had two outs on the river. Vivek Rajkumar led with 3,231,000 chips, followed by Gregory Brooks, Amirah Lehavot, Carlos Mortensen, and others.