After five full days of play the World Poker Tour’s $25k Championship taking place at the Bellagio in Las Vegas is down to the unofficial final table of nine players. Leading the way is German poker pro Marvin Rettenmaier, who is looking to make Party Poker’s decision to sign him to a sponsorship deal just before the tournament began look like the best bit of prognostication in a very long time!

The day began with 19 players trying to burst the money-bubble (only 18 players would get paid) and the unfortunate bubble-boy was poker pro Josh Arieh, who was eliminated by Marvin Rettenmaier who held Pocket Kings, besting Arieh’s AJ: Rettenmaier made a set on the turn, and to add insult to injury Arieh binked his Ace on the river, but it was too little, too late.

Another player who hit the rail on Day 5 was Joe Serock, who finished in 10th place, giving him a very good shot at the WPT Player of the Year award. All Serock has to do now is fade a Moon Kim 3rd place or better finish to win the prestigious award.

Rettenmaier is one of two players left in the tournament who crossed the 3-million chip mark yesterday (joined by Mike Mizrachi) giving Rettenmaier more than twice the number of chips as the current third-place player, Steve O’Dwyer.

Mizrachi is one of three former WPT Champions still alive in the tournament, Moon Kim and Nick Schulman being the others, but it will be Rettenmaier and the red-hot Steve O’Dwyer who most people will be keeping an eye on Thursday, as they try to pick-up their first WPT titles.

O’Dwyer has been racking-up big scores since last July, including 10 cashes of over $40,000, with a high-water mark of over $700k, and total earnings of about $1,75 million in that time period. Amazingly, a major tournament win has escaped O’Dwyer to this point, something he would like to get out of the way heading into the WSOP.

Here is a look at the seating assignments and chip counts for the remaining players, courtesy of the WorldPokerTour.com website:

* Seat 1: Wil Wilkinson – 705,000 (14 BBs)

* Seat 2: Michael Mizrachi – 3,124,000 (62 BBs)

* Seat 3: Hafiz Khan – 1,641,000 (32 BBs)

* Seat 4: Marvin Rettenmaier – 3,757,000 (75 BBs)

* Seat 5: Steve O’Dwyer – 1,643,000 (32 BBs)

* Seat 6: Nick Schulman – 1,350,000 (27 BBs)

* Seat 7: Moon Kim – 1,139,000 (22 BBs)

* Seat 8: Trevor Pope – 800,000 (16 BBs)

* Seat 9: Philippe Ktorza – 977,000 (19 BBs)

The plan for Day 6 of the WPT Championship is for the final nine players to play down to the official WPT televised final table of six before calling it a day.

Tags: Best Bit, Bubble Boy, Cashes, High Water Mark, Insult To Injury, Josh Arieh, Leading The Way, Mike Mizrachi, Moon Kim, Nick Schulman, Party Poker, Play The World, Prestigious Award, Prognostication, Rettenmaier, Seating Assignments, Serock, Sponsorship Deal, World Poker Tour, WPT Championship

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