Final Table On The Way

Welcome back to the Crown Casino for the final table of the Event 8: $100,000 Challenge!

Yesterday saw thirty-eight top-line pros take to the felt on the poker-designed TV set here in Studio 3. WSOP bracelet holders Phil Ivey, Howard Lederer, John Juanda, Erick Lindgren and Joe Hachem, alongside youngsters Jonathan Karamalikis, Jay Kinkade, Andrew Feldman, Justin Smith and Alexander Kostritsyn all took a seat. Throw in yesterday’s Full Tilt Poker $25,000 Shootout Invitational Champion and runner-up in David Oppenheim and James Bord, and the field was well and truly stacked.

Unfortunately - regardless of how great the aforementioned, and many others are - only a few can survive in a game of poker, and after ten hours of play, just eight remained once Winfred Yu hit the rail in ninth.

Seat	Player	Country	Chip Count	BBs	Chip %
1	David Benyamine	France	363,000	45	9.5%
2	Tony Bloom	England	148,000	19	3.9%
3	Chris Ferguson	USA	89,000	11	2.3%
4	Sam Trickett	England	961,000	120	25.1%
5	James Obst	Australia	571,000	71	14.9%
6	Jeffrey Lisandro	Australia	454,000	57	11.9%
7	Erik Seidel	USA	619,000	77	16.2%
8	David Steicke	Hong Kong	622,000	78	16.3%

For nearly every hand yesterday, Sam Trickett would hold the chip lead - at one point surging over the one million mark - to end the day as the chip leader on a table that includes a past winner, multi-WSOP bracelet winners and an online superstar.

With an AUD$1,525,000 first prize on offer, the action is going to be insanely intense as only six of the remaining players will be guaranteed a piece of the AUD$3,800,000 prizepool.

The PokerNews Live Reporting Team will be providing all the live coverage from 2:00 pm EST as we crown the Event 8: $100,000 Challenge Champion!