Nearly all of the world’s top poker pros were in attendance for the event held at The Bellagio in Las Vegas. Those who weren’t there may have still been at odds with the WPT over a lawsuit some players filed claiming the World Poker Tour Entertainment Company tried to unlawfully use their images and likeness to sell itself without consent. Annie Duke, Greg Raymer, and Phil Gordon were the three in the lawsuit who decided against showing up.

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But people like Phil Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson Antonio Esfandiari, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, and Gus Hansen were in Vegas and definitely up for the challenge of making it through six days of poker in order to claim the nearly 3.4 million dollar prize at the end.

Some of the top pros who didn’t even make it through one day of play included David Williams, Beth Shak, Jonathan Little, Scott Clements, Gavin Griffin, and Jennifer Tilly. Overall though, only 123 of the original 545 didn’t make it past day 1A and day 1B as the massive 50,000 starting chip stack players were given kept most of them in the thick of things. Jeff King bolted out to the early lead ending Day 1 at 211,575 chips.

With little settled in terms of ousted players, day 2 looked to separate things a little further with the 427 players remaining in the field. Early eliminations would come for such greats as Howard Lederer, Allen Kessler, and Phil Hellmuth when his pocket jacks couldn’t best Nick Binger’s pocket seven’s.

People who made it later in Day 2, but not late enough, included Chris Ferguson, Freddy Deeb, Hoyt Corkins, and Antonio Esfandiari. The overall chip leader by the close of the second day was Robert Mizrachi with 523,200 chips – 116,500 ahead of his closest competition in Jayde Tran who held 406,700.

With just 188 players remaining on Day 3, many players were starting to have a realistic shot at finishing in the money, or top 100. And with a prize pool of $13 million, there was plenty of money to go around. Some players were definitely going home empty-handed though including Scotty Nguyen, Mike “The Mouth” Matusow, and surprisingly Phil Ivey.

Finishing up Day 3 strongly, a very familiar face in Gus Hansen took the overall chip lead as he climbed to 2,250,000 followed by Cory Carroll and David Chiu. Also, Season 5 champion Carlos Mortensen was still alive with a chance to pull off the first WPT Championship repeat.

With 133 more players trimmed off the count, 55 people were all hoping to move up higher on the money list than they currently were on the fourth day. WPT Season 5 Player of the Year J.C. Tran made a good showing at this tourney but not good enough as he busted in 46th place and collected $52,765. And last year’s Championship winner Mortensen didn’t last a whole lot longer going out in 38th. T.J. Cloutier, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Steve Wong were among others who also didn’t make past Day 4.

Moving on into day 5, and the final 17 players, one more evening was required to settle the final table for the WPT Championship. Amir Vahedi was able to sneak the lead away from Gus Hansen and led him at 4 million to 3 million. David Tran was the first notable to go down followed by day 2 chip leader Robert Mizrachi and both collected $131,910 for their 13th and 14th place finishes.

Bryan Devonshire , who was second at this year’s World Poker Challenge, was another quick elimination at 12th before play got decidedly much slower. As is often the case, many people play very conservative when it gets closer to the final table and this tournament was no different.

Eventually though, players started getting riskier and Kenny Tran was one of them as he put two overcards in against Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s pocket sevens. Unfortunately for Tran, the overcards got no help and he went out but not before he collected $158,290 to along with his wife Jayde’s cash when she finished 45th.

Dwan, one of the best online players in the world, already made plenty of noise in the Championship for the goofy hats he had been wearing. However, he wouldn’t be making anymore noise as he was eliminated in 9th place despite having pocket kings. Amir Vahedi couldn’t make the 4 million chips he brought into the day last as he was the final person to be eliminated and collected $237,435 for seventh place.

This meant that the final table was set and going into the last day, here’s how the chip situation looked:

Seat/Player/Chip Count

Seat 1. John Roveto - 2,720,000
Seat 2. Gus Hansen - 8,570,000
Seat 3. David Chiu - 6,050,000
Seat 4. Tommy Le - 1,950,00
Seat 5. Cory Carroll - 6,670,000
Seat 6. Jeff King - 1,305,000

Hansen definitely held the advantage, however, David Chiu and Cory Carroll were certainly within striking distance. But still, many would favor Gus to win given his previous experience and decidedly bigger star power over the other competitors at the final table.

Jeff King, the leader on Day 1, wasn’t hearing any of this though as he quickly doubled up through Gus. Hansen would get his revenge not soon after though bouncing King out when Jeff couldn’t catch anything with suited A-Q vs. a pair of tens. Gus would continue on his streak by taking out Tommy Le as Le flopped a set of fives only to be the victim of Hansen flopping 10’s on the same hand.

Not yet finished, Gus Hansen went all-in against Cory Carroll on a flop of Qc-Jd-6d. Carroll decided to call and showed A-J for a pair of jacks while Hansen flipped over a flush draw with 7d-5d. Carroll certainly had the advantage but Hansen still had a chance. That chance faded a bit when Qh was shown but the river came up 3d and he had his flush. Carroll, on the other hand, had a fourth place finish and $593,645 payday.

Once again, Hansen was looking to eliminate someone (see a theme here?) in former NFL place kicker John Roveto. Roveto moved all-in with pocket kings while Hansen called him with Ac-Qc. The flop turned up Jh-9d-8s and Hansen once again had a decent drawing hand with an open-ended straight possibility. The turn came up a harmless 6d leaving Gus badly in need of a A, Q, or 7. And, as luck would have it, the river was a 7 giving Hansen his straight, busting Roveto, and drawing a big reaction from the crowd.

All of this set up an impossible match up for the remaining player Chiu. He was down 22,905,000 to 4,360,000 in terms of chips which made him one of the all-time underdogs in heads-up play at a major tournament. But he definitely wasn’t about to concede everything just yet.

And his play reflected this as he made an improbable run to even himself up with Hansen and then take the lead after 50 hands. No one would have predicted this at the beginning of heads-up play. And no one would have predicted the final outcome either with Hansen moving all-in after the flop of Ac-10c-8s-5s.

Chui would call him setting up the drama of the last hand. Gus showed 10-8 which gave him a two pair and an advantage over Chui’s As-9s hand. Chui needed an ace or spade to give him the hand and the victory and wouldn’t you know it – the river was an ace!

Possibly even better than the dramatic finale was Chui’s celebration of jumping up and down while waving the Chinese flag to thunderous cheering from the crowd. In a day where Hansen had every important river card come through for him, it was Chui getting the final and most important river card and the win.

Along with the movie-worthy win, Chui collected $3,389,140 and the accolades of being the Season 6 World Poker Tour Champion.