Christian Roberts was already sitting down at the official final table as the production crew arranged the final nine players.
"You guys want to make this winner take all?" he asked,
Scott Stewart made a show of doing the math in his dead, totaling up more than $10.6 million.
"Yeah, let’s do that," Stewart said to Roberts before turning to the other seven players, "Let's knock him out, and then chop it and take all his money!'
That's going to have to wait until Saturday. Both men made the the six-handed blockbuster final, led by Eddie Pak and featuring a return of Chris Moorman to the final after his 2023 fourth place finish. Ryan Yu and Rob Sherwood fill the other two seats.
Get ready for fireworks, because this may be the best final table of the WPT World Championship era at the Wynn.
Here's how the final six stack up:
- Eddie Pak - 66,200,000
- Chris Moorman - 60,800,000
- Scott Stewart - 40,800,000
- Christian Roberts - 28,600,000
- Rob Sherwood - 25,600,000
- Ryan Yu - 17,200,000
You want fun? This is gonna be fun.
Moorman looks to top himself
Though the final table is as or more talented than any in recent memory, there is no bigger star among the final six than Chris Moorman. He's well on his way to crossing the $10 million mark in live tournament earnings, and that doesn't count the uncountable amount of money he's made online over a long and respected online poker career.
Last year, Moorman finished fourth in the 2023 WPT World Championship, and everything about his form this week says he'll be satisfied with nothing less than the $3 million title here this weekend.
The Pak Man cometh
Moorman might have the higher Q-score, but Eddie Pak has the most chips. While not yet a household name, Pak has been playing like he invented the game over the past two days.
At 31 years old, Pak has less than half a million in lifetime tournament earnings, but you'd never know it to watch him play. Not only did he put the best of pros in tough spots throughout the most dangerous parts of the tournament, he did it while looking relaxed. Even as he reached the unofficial final table of nine players, Pak spent more time convincing opponent Scott Stewart to try to get some Raising Cane's chicken delivered to the final table than he spent sweating the tough spots in the game.
If you've not watched Pak play yet, be prepared to watch a guy ready for his moment on the big stage.
That's Stew to you
Don't mess with Scott Stewart. His rail might have been up all night partying the night before, but he's carrying himself like he's going to win. Before the unofficial final table began Friday afternoon, Stewart walked to the front of the stage in front of the hundreds of players in side events on the floor.
Like a performer in an avant-garde Vegas solo show, Stewart began stretching and doing a form of Big Man Yoga they don't teach at your local yoga shala. And then he walked his flip-flops back to seat two and sat down to finish the day. He looked down from the TV stage to where he'd been sitting at the outer table with ten players remaining.
"The trick is, up here I can't lose. Down there I was stupid," Stewart said.
He wants everyone to believe both, but it's possible only the "can't lose" part is true. The 36-year-old who was born and raised in Long Beach acts like he is everybody's uncle but will be the first to ask anyone, "Who's your daddy? If you want high comedy and high-level poker at the same time, he's the man to watch on Saturday.
A chase pack with experience
Though they sit in the bottom half of the chip counts, the remaining three finalists aren't inexperienced freerollers who got lucky in a big one.
Christian Roberts is an accomplished Venezuelan player who might have joked about winner-take-all but clearly believes he can take the top prize for himself. At one point Roberts walked with Stewart during a break and maybe a little sarcastically said, "Look at you. You're gonna win this whole thing. Good for you."
Roberts has a WSOP Online bracelet and a $218 runner-up finish on the WSOP Circuit as part of his $850,000 in lifetime earnings.
Rob Sherwood is better known overseas in England, where he has amassed the bulk of his $1.1 million in lifetime earnings. Like most of the players at the final table, Sherwood, 46, has already locked up his best-ever cash.
Ryan Yu literally grew up learning poker on his father's knee on Fremont Street in Vegas while his dad played video poker. Coming from a family that loved strategy games but weren't big gamblers, Yu quickly took to the online poker game and played for many years on PokerStars. Now, Yu'a Hendon mob lifetime earnings are above $2 million.
On the cusp, then on the rail
Though the day started with 16, there could only be six. That meant losing San Kim, the last remaining player who paid no money to enter the tournament thanks to his ClubWPT Gold $5 Million Invitational entry. Below are the guys who almost made the final six but busted just short.
- 7. Mykhailo Lendel -- $515,000
- 8. Anze Smajd -- $400,000
- 9. Jonathan "Jonty" Willis -- $310,000
- 10. Joshua Lisberger -- $310,000
- 11. Brian Yoon -- $255,000
- 12. Fabian Gumz -- $255,000
- 13. A.J. Kelsall -- $215,000
- 14. Jeremy Wien -- $215,000
- 15. Andrea Dato -- $215,000
- 16: San Kim -- $176,000
Saturday, the six finalists will return to play for the $3.1 million first prize and all that's left below it. This is what the remaining prize money looks like.
- $3,138,900
- $2,075,000
- $1,550,000
- $1,150,000
- $875,000
- $665,000
The final six will return at 4pm Saturday to play on the WPT stage. The live stream will kick off at 5pm on the World Poker Tour YouTube channel.
If the past few days of competition have been any indication, this is a final table stream you aren't going to want to miss.
All photos courtesy WPT
