Chabra Leads the Final Table as Wong Chases His First Podium
It has taken 21 hours of play to find out the final six-handed lineup in the Event #13: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw which emerged from the 296-entry field, the largest for this event and buy-in level at the World Series of Poker. The remaining finalists have one thing in common; they are vying for the first bracelet of their respective careers. It's now time to find out who will take the $96,278 top-prize and join the ranks of WSOP champions.
Ajay Chabra holds over a third of the chips in play (1,031,000) and that alone would be enough to make him an early favorite. If that wasn't enough, Chabra's advantage might be emphasized by his precision which was observed by Frank Kassela, former champion of this tournament who called Chabra "Ajay, The Deuce Machine".
Chabra proved his talent for the game when he executed a savage bluff against Jerry Wong in a battle of two final table big stacks, putting his tournament life on the line.
Former November Niner Wong finished with a solid stack himself (535,000), and while Chabra has nearly twice as many chips, Wong's experience with tough final tables both live and online immediately puts him among the prime candidates for the win.
There is one thing that needs to be sorted between WSOP and Wong, though. "I have the second-most final tables without a top three finish," Wong told the table yesterday. He found out about that when he was following the story of Dan Zack who had the same trouble with the finishes at World Series until this week. Zack erased his curse by winning the $2,500 mixed triple draw and Wong will surely try to follow in his stride at the eighth attempt.
Final table seat order and chip counts:
| Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ajay Chabra | United States | 1,031,000 |
| 2 | Yuval Bronshtein | Israel | 378,000 |
| 3 | Bjorn Geissert | Germany | 170,000 |
| 4 | Steven Tabb | United States | 522,000 |
| 5 | Jerry Wong | United States | 535,000 |
| 6 | Michael Sortino | United States | 350,000 |
The final table also features Circuit grinder Steven Tabb who has already improved his 10th place finish from last year. Tabb led the tournament not only after Day 1 but also through a significant portion of Day 2. He enters the final day with 522,000.
The bottom half of the leaderboard includes seasoned veterans Yuval Bronshtein (378,000) and Michael Sortino (350,000) along with Bjorn Geissert from Germany, the only non-American player at the final table. Geissert is in possession of the shortest stack with 170,000.
It's certainly a fine mix to watch so come back to PokerNews at 2 p.m. local time to follow more live updates from the dynamic event which is about to crown its champion.