Scotty Nguyen Climbing Leaderboard With 24 Left at WPT World Champs

Poker pro Scotty Nguyen has put himself in great position to make a run at the final table of the WPT World Championships. (Bodog Beat Image)"]

Well, the top half of the leaderboard at the 2009 WPT World Championships is no longer littered with the big names that it was at the end of the last day of play, but there is still hope. At the moment, a semi-recognizable name - Eugene Katchalov - is heading up the 24-player remaining field with another "almost" name a couple of spots behind him - Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

Lurking behind them are a couple of very well-known and talented players. In fact, these two were the last two winners of the $50,000 WSOP HORSE World Championship, Freddy Deeb and Scotty Nguyen. Last year's HORSE champion, Nguyen, is currently sitting in sixth place with Deeb just two spots behind him. They are both above average but must look to chip up quickly today to make a run at the final table.

All sitting below average but with the ability to makes moves up the leaderboard are poker pros Jeff Madsen, Bertrand "elKy" Grospellier and Shannon Shorr. Closer to the bottom than the top are Jennifer Harman, "Crazy Marco" Johnson and Nick Binger.

Play will once again get underway at Noon Vegas time (PT) and they will be looking to get down to the six players who will make up the WPT televised final table. Stay tuned here for updates on who those six will be and don't forget that Bodog is offering many opportunites to qualify online for the WSOP through the Bodog Flight Club promotion, so be sure to check it out.