After a long session of being one off the final 2 tables play has finally concluded for the night with the elimination of Mark Newhouse. The schedule for today was 5 levels or down to the final 18, whichever came first. Throughout the day it looked like 18 would be reached pretty early in the day, but it ended up taking all but the last 45 minutes of the 5th level to cut the field down to two tables.

Amir Vahedi did the dirty work, eliminating Newhouse and ending play. Vahedi’s pocket deuces held up against Mark’s AT all in preflop. Scott Epstein was also eliminated at another table in a hand going on at the same time as Newhouse’s elimination hand. They will finish in 19th and 18th place and both will get $105,525.

Final 17 Chip Counts:
Amir Vahedi - 3,907,000
Gus Hansen - 2,929,000
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 2,874,000 (right)
David Tran - 2,543,000
Nhan Le - 1,950,000
Jeff King - 1,903,000
David Chiu - 1,742,000
Mike Gracz - 1,674,000
Karga Holt - 1,500,000
Kenny Tran - 1,442,000
Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll - 1,346,000
Robert Mizrachi - 1,079,000
Bryan Devonshire - 984,000
Nick Binger - 701,000
John Roveto - 556,000
Jeff Shulman - 473,000
Andy Black - 411,000

• April 23, 2008 -- Stalled at 19
• April 23, 2008 -- Billirakis Busted
• April 24, 2008 -- WPT Championship Day 5
• April 23, 2008 -- Redraw at 27