by Tim Lavalli

Arnie Toler is down to 25,000 and he puts it in after a flop of and shows Jamin Stokes shows and wins it all with a pair of threes on the turn and a blank on the river.

I spoke with Jamin after the event and with confirmation from the tournament staff, it appears that he came about as close to a wire-to-wire win as you can get in a poker tournament. At the first break yesterday Jamin was in the top two or three chip stacks (no one ever counts it down that early) but at the second break he was the clear chipleader and came to the final table in the lead, which he never gave up. He played the big stack the way its meant to be played; a lot of the short stacks all-ins were called by Jamin with Ace-medium and Ace-small. Hewon some, he lost some; but all day he was the chipleader and takes home the ring. Nice two days work!

	$78,270 Winner Event #8

We are heads up with Jamin Stokes holding about a 4 to 1 chip lead on Arnie Toler.

	Arnie Toler

	Jamin Stokes

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The two big stacks are staying out of each others way as they wait to pounce on Mack Ham with a 20,400 short stack. Mac gets it all-in with and gets a call from an on the flop and a on the river makes three Aces for Jamin and 3rd place for Mack Ham.

	Mack Ham

Next hand Chris Combs puts his chips in with and he too gets an Arnie Toler call with . Again no cards for anyone and Chris takes home $18,975 for his 4th place finish in Event #8.

	Chris Combs

After a blankblankblank Matt Thornton uses his to push all his chips in and gets a call from Arnie Toler with no help for either player and Matt is our fifth place finisher and earns $14,230.

	Matt Thornton

Coming off a break we are now at 1500/3000 blinds 400 ante. Jamin Stokes has almost exactly half of the chips at this five-way final table.

We have a raise to 10,000 (1K/2K blinds) and a call of the 10,000 and Jamin Stokes pushes in the big stack and gets no calls. A strong move there by Jamin.

Its steal the blinds and push the chips around time, so let's check up on the total payout schedule for this event.

Approximate Chip Count

Chris Combs has pushed in three times, stole the blinds twice and won one showdown. He is still the short stack but in much better position.

Will Hammock gets all his chips in with well a darn good hand he gets the call from Jamin Stokes with and hears from Matt Thornton that he folded one of the remaining two kings. So Jamin is drawing slim but he has Will covered. And yet..... on the turn hits the felt and Will is out in 6th and wins $11,860 with CRACKED ACES!!!

	Will Hammock

Hand #8 Chris Combs goes all-in with and almost steals the blinds but gets a call from Matt Thornton is Seat #1. Matt shows . The flop comes blank blank and Matt makes a pair of 3s, blank on the turn but lo and behold a magic on the river, a pair of nines for Chris and we have our first all-in survivor from a showdown.

Hand #6 (Do we sense a pattern here?) Billy Sheffey finds the felt with all his chips and his , he is not happy to see a call from Jamin Stokes with . The flush possibilites are dead and the board hits absolutely nothing for either player. Billy takes home $9,485 for his 7th place finish.

	Billy Sheffey

Hand #4 Jerry "Gene Z" Zehr gets his chips in the middle with and gets the call from Arnie Toler who shows blank blank blank on the flop but a big on the turn makes a pair of aces for Arnie and "Gene Z" is out in 8th.

	Jerry "Gene Z" Zehr

Hand #2 Chad Moore gets in all-in with and gets a slow call from Matt Thornton with and then the monster flop of and Matt hits the diamond flush and Chad is out in 9th. Chad had a 2nd place finish earlier this year in Tunica that win made him 70K+ and he has just added $4,745 to that for today's finish.

	Chad Moore

A little more of an update from today's $2,000 NLHE before we get into today's/yesterday's final table in the $1,500 NLHE Event #8. In today's event Men "The Master" has been slowly but surely building a nice stack. They are down to five tables and Men is sitting opposite end from Liz Lieu who has still hanging in there but her stack has been up and down all day but never really, really up. I also heard of a sit bet; player X has taken Men "The Master" to outlast ten other players chosen by player Y at the first break. As of last count I believe six players remained in the "Y" stable and Men continues to prosper.

And now, Live from the beautiful new WSOP themed poker room here at Caesars Indiana on the banks of the rolling Ohio River, its the Final Table of the $1500 No-Limit Hold Em Event #8.

As always todays Final Table goes off at 4 PM EDT.

Before we get to the payout list and final table participants, I know you are all wondering just how many of the big name professional players are making the trek to Elizabeth, Indiana. So here is the list of pro sightings as of noon today:

John Phan currently ranked #1 in the 2005 player points standings

Nani Dollison has been in town for several days

James Pham has also been here for a couple of days

Liz Lieu arrived yesterday in time for the $1500 NLHE tournament

David "The Dragon" Pham also was entered in the event yesterday

Scott Fischman and part of the "crew" are in town

Men "The Master" Nguyen has also arrived

There were rumors of a few other arrivals but I am reporting only those I have confirmed with my own eyes. More celeb poker reports when I hit the room in about an hour. Now on to today's final table the $1500 NHLE that began at noon yesterday and got down to the final table just before 2 AM this morning. One hundred and sixty three entries yesterday paying 9 places.

I would like to introduce you to Mighty Marty, who protects your innocent reporter from the big, mean, nasty poker players, who try to push me away from their tables.

	Mighty Marty