Gus Hansen On Fire, Leads WPT World Championship Final Table

Danish poker pro Gus Hansen is the chip leader for the final table of the 2008 WPT World Championship. (Bodog Beat Image)

We're beginning to run out of pictures of Gus Hansen to post here. Seriously, the guy is on fire right now. He has managed to stay in, or very close to, the lead of the WPT World Championship for more than two full days of play, both of which featured some of the best players in the world. Of course, not many of them made the WPT televised final table, but it wouldn't be a WPT event this season if they did.

What could have been a star-studded table has once again narrowed down to just a couple of well-known players, and that's only if you are more than a casual poker fan. Hansen is the most recognizable player at the final table and will be gunning for his record-setting fourth WPT title in his sixth WPT final table appearance (these numbers don't count the novelty tournaments like "Bad Boys of Poker" and "Tournament of Champions"). A win here would also put the Dane just shy of the $9 million mark in career earnings.

The David to Hansen's Goliath is online poker pro and rising live tournament player Cory "ugotpzd" Carroll. Building off his success as an online poker player, Carroll has quickly become a noted name in the poker tournament circuit and enter's the final table in second-place. In just a few short years, the Canadian pro has racked up two WPT final tables (2nd at 2007 WPT Mirage Poker Showdown and, you know, this one), a WSOP Circuit event win (2007 event in Las Vegas), a WSOP Main Event cash and has accumulated over $1.2 million in career earnings, which looks to increase significantly by the end of play at this event.

Here are the full final table chip counts:

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

Players have been given a day off while the WPT crew builds the final table set and will return tomorrow to play for the $3.4 million first-place prize. Stay tuned for more updates from the WPT World Championship.

Charles Simmons is a poker news contributor to the Bodog Beat.