Mike Wattel (2,887,000)
Wattel plays out of Phoenix, Arizona and has a poker record that goes back over 12 years. His first big win was a WSOP bracelet in 1999 in Omaha 8 or better. Since then, Wattel has eight more WSOP final tables and over $600,000 in career earnings from playing poker part-time.
Of our final table six, Wattel started yesterday's field of 27 with the shortest stack. With just 1M, he was in a comfortable position early yesterday as the very short stacks (200K-400K) were making moves early. Wattel spent most of the day looking up the leaderboard at some huge chipstacks and fighting for his tournament life. He enters today with 2.8M, which puts him in 5th place.