Minh Ly Leads, Hellmuth Lurks at $50k Final Table

Play was suspended at 5:30am Wednesday with nine players remaining in the $50,000 Player's Championship at the World Series of Poker. With a late surge, Minh Ly established a good chip lead sitting at 5,215,000 chips with second place Brian Rast at 2,660,000. Phil Hellmuth played a very steady game and managed his chips well to finish in the middle of the pack heading into his third championship final table of the series. After two second place finishes in $10k non-Hold'em events, Hellmuth has displayed his diversity this series after years of a reputation as only a Hold'em specialist.

They reached the money on Tuesday when a short stacked Robert Mizrachi bubbled in 17th. Sebastian Ruthenberg was the first player to get eliminated in the money, shortly followed by Barry Greenstein. Michael Binger, Josh Arieh and Yan Chen all busted before play stalled as the final table approached. It was another 3.5 hours before Jeffrey Lisandro was eliminated in 11th place, he was followed by Valdimir Shehemlev a few hands later leaving the final 9.

Seat and chip arrangement for final 9 players:

Seat 1: Brian Rast - 2,660,000
Seat 2: George Lind - 2,315,000
Seat 3: Phil Hellmuth - 2,245,000
Seat 4: Owais Ahmed - 1,402,000
Seat 5: Scott Seiver - 725,000
Seat 6: Minh Ly - 5,215,000
Seat 7: Ben Lamb - 1,180,000
Seat 8: Jason Lester - 920,000
Seat 9: Matt Glantz - 2,535,000

Play resumes at 3pm PST on Wednesday to determine a winner.

Player going deep but finishing out of the money were Day 3 chip leader Josh Arieh, Jon Turner, Shaun Deeb and Gus Hansen.

Ben Lamb and Phil Hellmuth are both in the race for Player of the Year honors as well as the $50k Championship prize.

P.O.Y Standings:

1. Ben Lamb 572.65
2. Chris Moorman 486.20
3. Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier 479.25
4. Phil Hellmuth 458.25
5. Samuel Stein 416.13

Despite the tough poker economy and a handful of notable big poker stars sitting out this event due to affiliations with Full Tilt Poker, the field broke last year's number and reached 128 players.

Prize money:

1st - $1,720,328
2nd - $1,063,034
3rd - $665,763
4th - $482,058
5th - $376,750
6th - $300,441
7th - $243,978
8th - $201,338
9th - $168,529