To say that Phan is establishing himself as a force to be reckoned with on the poker tournament circuit would be a bit on an understatement. He was the only player at the 2008 WSOP to win multiple bracelets, 2-7 Triple Draw and Seven-Card Stud, and has reached two WPT televised final tables since then, this event being the second. Add to that another WSOP cash and a couple of other smaller cashes in random events, and Phan has earned $1,875,933 since June 15 of this year. Not too shabby. This also puts him solidly atop the CardPlayer Player of the Year standings.

Here are the full final table placings and payouts:

1st place: John Phan – $1,091,428
2nd Place: Amit Makhija – $563,320
3rd Place: Zachary Clark – $281,645
4th Place: Paul Smith – $246,450
5th Place: Trong Nguyen – $211,245
6th Place: Kyle Wilson – $176,035

The World Poker Tour rolls onto Atlantic City next for the Borgata Poker Open on September 14 and if you want a chance to qualify for a WPT event for as little as $1, then check out the daily online poker satellites in the Bodog Poker room.

However, if you dig a little deeper and take some time to look around the intertubes at the profiles of the players at this final table, as we did, then you'll see that their presence there is not so confusing.

Chip leader Amit Makhija is probably better known by his screen name "amak316″ and as a noted online poker player who has just begun to translate his success at the virtual tables into success at brick and mortar casinos. Already to his credit are a final table at the 2008 WSOP, two cashes in other WSOP events and a 20th-place finish at the EPT Grand Final. Behind him is the aforementioned Phan, who takes over the top spot in Cardplayer Magazine's Player of the Year standings with this final table appearance.

Next up is Zachary Clark, who has racked up seven WSOP cashes over the last two summers, and is another player who is probably better known by his online name, "CrazyZachary." This is his first major poker tournament final table appearance, but after many, many appearances at the final tables of some of the biggest online poker tournaments, there no reason to doubt his ability to take this down. In fourth place we have Canadian poker player Kyle Wilson and his four WSOP cashes and one WPT money-making finish.

The two smallest stacks at the final table, Paul Smith and Trong Nguyen, also happen to be the two least experienced players, but as we all know, that's never stopped anyone before.

Stay tuned to the Beat for updates as play resumes at 4pm local time when the cameras roll for this WPT televised final table.

Heading the pack down the home stretch is Paul Smith with a stack of 946,000. He is followed closely by Amit Makhija (842,000) and six-time WSOP bracelet winner Layne Flack (807,000). After that, and probably because we jinxed the tournament yesterday by saying there were still a lot of big names left, are not a lot of big names. The few still remaining are Lee Markholt, Allen Cunningham, "Crazy" Marco Johnson and 2007 WSOP last woman standing Maria Ho.

Our deepest apologies go out to Daniel Negreanu, Barry Greenstein, David Chiu, Antonio Esfandiari, Gabe Kaplan, Toto Leonidas, Kathy Liebert, Erik Seidel, Kelly Kim and Erick Lindgren for apparently jinxing them out of the tournament. Several of them walked with some pocket change for their efforts, however most of them did not. Enjoy LA, we hear the weather's nice. Rest easy in the fact that you still have more money than us.

Play resumes at 2pm local time and contrary to our incorrect guess yesterday, they will actually play down to a six-handed final table tonight as it is scheduled for Thursday, which is tomorrow. So, stay tuned for more updates from the Bodog Beat and if you want a chance to qualify for the WPT for as little as $1, then check out the online poker satellites in the Bodog Poker room.

Starting the day with the chip lead was poker pro Ali Eslami, but he found his stack dwindling and he gave up his spot partway through the day and was replaced at day's end by Adam Weinraub. Others who finished the day near the top include Marco Johnson, Max Pescatori, Mark Seif, Erick Lindgren and Antonio Esfandiari. Other notables further down the field are Layne Flack, Eric Seidel, Allen Cunningham, Maria Ho, Kelly Kim and several others, giving this tournament the potential to have a star-studded final table.

Hopefully, we didn't just jinx it.

Several other big name pros, like Phil Laak, Vanessa Rousso, Lee Watkinson and Men "The Master" Nguyen, were not so lucky and found themselves with some extra time on their hands to grab a star homes map and head to Beverly Hills.

Play resumes at 2pm local time and our guess is that they will try to get down to a final table tonight. Remeber, WPT final tables are six-handed. Stay tuned for more updates from the Bodog Beat and if you want a chance to qualify for the WPT for as little as $1, then check out the online poker satellites in the Bodog Poker room.

Even though the event drew a large number of well-known pros, attendance was still down sharply from last year, drawing only 373 total participants, a full 112 players less than the 2007 edition.  However, due to the lower numbers, the concentration of pros is higher, making it more likely that we will have more interesting stuff to write about.

Outside of the obvious storylines with the super well-known players, sitting in 10th place at the beginning of the day is 2008 WSOP final tablist and a member of the mythical supergroup "November 9″ is Kelly Kim, who seems to be using his newly-acquired bankroll to get into major tournaments and is doing quite well.

Other pros spotted out in the field were Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Michael Binger, Kathy Liebert, Scott Clements, Team Bodog members David Williams, Justin Bonomo, Jean-Robert Bellande and Ari "BodogAri" Engel, Daniel Negreanu, Jenn Tilly, Theo Tran, Alex Bolotin and Chad "lilholdem954″ Batista.

Play resumes at 2pm local time and will end when six blind levels have been completed. Stay tuned for more updates from the Bodog Beat and if you want a chance to qualify for the WPT for as little as $1, then check out the online poker satellites in the Bodog Poker room.

The $10,000 buy-in event has always drawn some of the biggest names in poker and last year was no exception. The final table featured poker pro David "The Dragon" Pham, 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom "DonkeyBomber" Schneider and eventual champion "Action" Dan Harrington, who took home the $1.6 million first-place prize. This year looks to be no different and will most likely be well-attended after the dearth of major poker tournament action over the last couple of months.

Day 1A of the WPT Legends of Poker kicks off tomorrow at Noon local time.

Coming up over the next couple of months is the APT Macau event next week, the similarly-named APPT Macau on September 1, the first WSOP Circuit event of the new season in early October and many, many more WPT events.

Online poker players have the chance to win a $12,000 prize package to one of these World Poker Tour events through the Bodog Poker "Player's Choice" promotion. Online satellites for the WPT run daily in the Bodog Poker room for as little as $1.

The first event was a $300 No Limit Holdem tournament that took place on August 10. It drew 252 entrants who rebought an incredible 358 times to generate a prizepool of $177,510. Nguyen took home $65,700 for hist first-place finish.

The second event was a $500 Omaha Hi-Lo tournament on August 12 that 112 poker players bought into. The total prize pool was $54,320 and Nguyen received $20,535 for outlasting the field.

The culmination of this preliminary tournament series is the $10,000 buy-in 2008 WPT Legends of Poker championship event that kicks off on August 23. Last year's championship final table drew several big names, including David "The Dragon" Pham, Tom "DonkeyBomber" Schneider and champion Dan Harrington, who walked away with $1,600,365 for the victory, and this year looks to draw the same caliber field.

If you want to travel the world and play poker for millions, then make sure to check out Bodog Poker's $12,000 Player's Choice package. Satellites are running daily to qualify online for the WPT, EPT, APT or LAPT events