The final table of the World Poker Tour’s North American Poker Championship (NAPC) will kick off at 4:00pm ET today. At it will be a pair of well-known pros, Gavin Smith and Kathy Liebert. Both will seek to make poker history at the final table. Smith will look to notch his first major victory in his home country of Canada. Liebert seeks to become the first woman to take down a non-invitational WPT event.
The Fallsview Casino in Ontario, Canada, the site of the NAPC, will be bustling on Thursday when the final six players battle it out for the $1.1 million CAD first place prize. The tournament will appear on Fox Sports Net as part of Season VII of the WPT. Here are the seating assignments and chip stacks for the final table:
Seat 1 – Kathy Liebert – 1,620,000
Seat 2 – Gavin Smith – 2,815,000
Seat 3 – Marc Karam – 1,850,000
Seat 4 – Glen Witmer – 3,710,000
Seat 5 – James Trenholm – 1,365,000
Seat 6 – Ryan Fisler – 2,285,000
Liebert is the only American at the final table and the sole World Series of Poker bracelet holder among the final six. She won the inaugural Party Poker Million back in 2002. Liebert was the first woman ever to reach a WPT final table, doing so at the Bicycle Casino Legends of Poker in 2002; she finished sixth in that tournament for $22,575. This is the fifth WPT final table of her illustrious poker career.
Smith, a Full Tilt Poker pro, is the lone player at the final table who has logged a WPT title. He took down the Mirage Poker Showdown in 2005, winning WPT Player of the Year during Season IV. He also made the televised final tables of the Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship and World Poker Open that season. According to WPT coverage, he is in the midst of a six month sobriety prop bet.
In the three years that the NAPC has been held, Karam has made the final table twice and cashed each year. He amazingly reached the final table of the European Poker Tour’s end of year Monte Carlo Grand Final in both 2006 and 2007, cashing for fourth and second, respectively. He also appeared the final table of the Aussie Millions, meaning that among the six remaining in the NAPC, Karam may have the most well-rounded final table experience.
Witmer is the chip leader heading into the final table. You can spot the 67 year-old retired real estate broker frequently at Fallsview. He’s been playing for around 50 years. The champion of the Scorpion Poker League, Trenholm hails from Canada and will look to make his league mates proud on Thursday.
Fisler is primarily an online poker player who goes by the name “gotskillz.” He is the owner of RealPokerTraining.com, whose instructors include David Williams, Bodog Ari, Todd Arnold, and David Eisenstein, all well-known online celebrities. Fisler looks to become the third straight online poker pro to win a WPT event; Mike “SirWatts” Watson won the Legends of Poker event and Vivek “Flog” Rajkumar emerged victorious at the Borgata Poker Open. Rajkumar was eliminated from the NAPC on Wednesday.
Players ousted on Wednesday, when the field was trimmed from 27 to six, included Matt Matros (seventh place for $95,097 CAD), Erik Seidel (10th place for $49,450 CAD), and “Miami” John Cernuto (27th place for $38,039). We’ll have the winner of the NAPC for you right here on Poker News Daily.