Tournament poker can be brutal, and Marco “CrazyMarco” Johnson (right) took a brutal beat deep in the WPT Championship to see his shot at the $2 million first prize ended with a 20th place finish for $65,370.  Johnson had moved all in after Jeff Madsen raised to 95k, Justin Young called and Brian “tsarrast” Rast called.  The all in bet was for just over 800k and after Madesen folded Young made the call.  Rast got out of the way and the two were heads up with Johnson all in.

Marco had AK and was in great shape tow in a 2 million chip pot against the AQ of Young, but a queen on the turn gave Young the pot and added to his chiplead while eliminating Marco.

After Marco’s elimination Christian “charder” Harder was able to bust Eric Liu in 19th place to bring the field down to 18 players and the final 2 tables.  Harder had raised enough from the button to let the two short stacks know if they put any chips in the pot they would be playing for their stacks.  Liu decided to put his 655k in from the big blind and Harder quickly called with the JT.  Liu had the KT and was well ahead, but with the J on the turn Harder was able to win the pot, bust Liu in 19th and chip up to around 3.4 million.

Madsen was the next to go losing a coin flip with pocket sevens against AQ when the AQ made a diamond flush with four diamonds hitting the board.  For his 18th place finish Madsen will receive $65,370.

Owen “Ocrowe” Crowe (left) limped from under the gun with aces and got himself into trouble when the flop came 933.  Justin Young had also limped and the blinds both came along for the ride.  On the flop both blinds checked and Crowe bet, Young raised and Crowe moved in for a total of around 1.3 million.  Young called with the 73 and his flopped trips stood tall to crack Crowe’s aces.  For his 17th place finish Crowe will receive the same $65,370 payout as the other finishers between 16th and 20th.

The day has also come to an end for Blake “Balla-B13″ Cahail (below right).  Blake was eliminated in 16th for $65,370 when his A9 ran into the AK of Yevginey “Atimos” Timoshenko.  The AK held up on the K-3-2-8-4 board to bust Cahail.  Blake had been involved in a few pots that had left him short stacked, losing one race that doubled up Owen Crowe just before Owen’s elimination.

So far day 5 has been all Justin Young and he is currently leading the way with 6.5 million chips.  With 15 players left the average stack is around 2.2 million.  Here are some other chip counts:

Christian “charder” Harder - 4 million
Shannon Shorr - 3 million
Brian “tsarrast” Rast - 2.1 million
Yevgeniy “Atimos” Timoshenko - 1.6 million
Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier - 700k

• April 23, 2009 -- WPT Championship 2009 Day 5 Gallery
• April 23, 2009 -- Final 10 Chip Counts
• April 23, 2009 -- Down to 10, Day 5 Complete
• April 23, 2009 -- Down to 20