At the World Poker Tour’s North American Poker Championship (NAPC), Vivek Rajkumar is trying to do something that no other player has ever done on the WPT circuit: win back to back Main Event titles. Rajkumar, the champion of the WPT Borgata Poker Open, is the chip leader with 27 players remaining, but hot on his trail are four well-known poker pros. Play on Wednesday will continue until the final six players are left standing. They’ll then compete in front of Fox Sports Net television cameras for the $1.1 CDN first place prize on Thursday.
Vivek Rajkumar is as hot as it gets in poker right now. In September, he took down the last event that the WPT hosted, the Borgata Poker Open, cashing for a healthy $1.4 million. He had five World Series of Poker cashes in 2007 and added three more in 2008 for a grand total of $161,884. At the ripe old age of 22, he is on the verge of making WPT history. He’s an accomplished online poker pro who has been able to translate success to the live arena.
Standing in his way are four highly-successful poker pros. Second in chips is Canadian Gavin Smith, who is the owner of 18 WSOP cashes for nearly $1 million. He finished 11th in the $50,000 HORSE event at the WSOP in 2006 for $205,920 and was the runner up at the New Orleans Circuit Event in 2006 for nearly $300,000. In that event, he almost banked an additional $700,000 off Allie Prescott, which would have been his had he won. He made not one, not two, but three final tables in WPT events during Season IV – the Mirage Poker Showdown, Doyle Brunson North American Poker Championship, and World Poker Open – for a combined $1.6 million payday. The Full Tilt Poker pro holds 979,000 chips, just behind Rajkumar’s 1.08 million.
Matthew Matros sits with the third largest chip stack at the Fallsview Casino, the site of the NAPC, with 943,000. Matros made the final table and finished sixth in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament at this year’s WSOP, banking $148,875 and doubling his lifetime cash total. Matros finished third in the esteemed Season II WPT Championship, the $25,000 buy-in end of year tournament, and cashed for over $700,000.
Kathy Liebert holds the fourth largest chip stack at the NAPC with 879,000. The business and finance major is the proud owner of a WSOP bracelet, which she won by virtue of taking down a $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout event during the 2004 World Series of Poker. She recorded her first WSOP cash back in 1997 and was the runner up in a $3,000 No Limit Hold’em tournament in 1998. Liebert has over $1 million in lifetime WSOP earnings and has four final tables and nearly $900,000 in winnings on her WPT resume.
Erik Seidel is perhaps the most accomplished player left in the field. He’s an eight-time WSOP bracelet holder, the first of which he won back in 1992. His most recent came after he won the $5,000 buy-in World Championship No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball with Rebuys event during the 2007 WSOP for $538,835. His 53 in the money finishes puts him in a tie for the sixth most ever with PokerStars pro Humberto Brenes. Seidel took down his first WPT title in April, winning the Foxwoods Poker Classic for nearly $1 million and boosting his lifetime WPT take to $1.7 million.
Here are the top ten chip stacks headed into Day 4, which begins at noon on Wednesday:
1st Place: Vivek “Flog” Rajkumar – 1,081,000
2nd Place: Gavin Smith – 979,000
3rd Place: Matt Matros – 943,000
4th Place: Kathy Liebert – 879,000
5th Place: Erik Seidel – 851,000
6th Place: Nick Alafogiannis – 784,000
7th Place: James Trenholm – 745,000
8th Place: Brian Hawkins – 676,000
9th Place: Samuel Greenwood – 611,000
10th Place: Khaled Aljoma – 552,000
Notable players eliminated on Day 3, which occurred on Tuesday, included
Sebastian Ruthernberg (29th for $30,621 CDN), Steve Paul-Ambrose (32nd for $30,621 CDN), Sorel Mizzi (33rd place for $30,621 CDN), Joe Sebok (34th for $30,621 CDN), Steve Sung, Barry Greenstein, Lee Markholt, J.C. Tran, and Jason Gray, who was the first player ousted on Day 3.