The 2008 Caesars Palace Classic steamed full speed ahead on Wednesday and, by the end of the night, a familiar face was sitting atop the leader board.
On Wednesday, 166 players took to the felts in the Caesars Palace tournament room and immediately set into action. Although the players had started the tournament with 100,000 in chips, the rapidly-escalating blinds led to many players gambling with pre-flop all-ins rather than grinding the chip stacks that they had.
Day One chip leader Ryan Young could not find any traction on Day Two and his chip stack suffered for it. He was eliminated with fewer than 70 players remaining, along with other top pros who had gotten off to good Day One starts such as Layne Flack, Scotty Nguyen, Nam Le, and Jonathan Little. These gentlemen were among those who failed to reach the money bubble, which was popped with the elimination of Scott Epstein late in the action.
With the 27 players remaining guaranteed to receive at least $17,738 for their efforts, play relaxed somewhat as the final hours unfolded. Only eight of those 27, however, were eliminated before play was called earlier this morning. Taking home some hard-earned money were poker professionals Kathy Liebert and Tony Ma.
Other notable names remain to divvy up the prize money that is left, including Sabyl Cohen-Landrum, who was in second place to start of the day and continued to build her stack throughout it. After a big hand with Shane Garza, who was the chip leader at the time, Cohen-Landrum assumed her place atop the leader board for much of the afternoon and will start the final day of the Classic in excellent shape with slightly over three million in chips, good for third place.
Other professionals began to emerge from the pack as Day Two wore along. World Poker Tour announcer Mike Sexton worked his chip stack to remain in the running for the Classic championship (albeit at the bottom of the leader board) and WPT champion and World Series of Poker bracelet holder Johnny “World” Hennigan is also still in the battle in tenth place. Leading them all is a man who has made the transition from the online world to the live poker world very easily, 2007 WSOP final table participant Hevad “Rain” Khan.
Khan seemed to have everything working for him throughout the day. Whenever he was in a decisive battle, he took control of the hand and either won it through his cards or his betting. In a battle with Dar Mahboubi, “Rain” bet each street of an ace-high board, including a small bet on the river that seemed to spark Mahboubi, who chose this point to move his remaining chips to the center and was called. Both had hit the ace on the river and Mahboubi, who missed his nut flush draw with his A-6 of diamonds, was disappointed to see Khan’s A-J turn up, eliminating Mahboubi in 24th and earning the chip lead for Khan, who starts play today with 4.9 million chips.
When play begins at 2:00pm Pacific Time this afternoon, the remaining 19 players will play down to the champion. Khan looks to have a solid hold on the lead, but Cohen-Landrum, Jonathan Aguiar, and Michael Katz are some names to watch along with Sexton and Hennigan. Count on a long night for those who make the final table and, come early Friday morning, a lone survivor will be crowned the champion of the 2008 Caesars Palace Classic.
