Milan Leads Stacked Final Table; Seeks Bracelet in Back-to-Back Years
Event #25: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em 8-Handed began with 493 players – which created a prize pool of $2,317,100 – but on Day 3, just 23 returned to action. It didn't take long for 15 of them to hit the rail, leaving a stacked final table of eight.
France's Pierre Milan, who won a gold bracelet last year after taking down Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em for $536,768, leads the pack with 3.031 million, but he faces some stiff competition in two-time World Poker Tour champ Jonathan Little (2.039 million), reigning WPT Player of the Year Anthony Zinno (908,000), and three-time WSOP bracelet winner and 888poker's latest Team Pro, Dominik Nitsche (861,000).
Among those to fall on Day 3 were Shaun Deeb (22nd - $16,219), Jesse Sylvia (18th - $16,219), Joseph Cheong (16th - $19,672), Valentin Vornicu (15th - $19,672), and the start-of-the-day chip leader Tyler Cornell (11th - $30,238).
According to updates from the event, Cornell fell in Level 24 (12,000/24,000/4,000) when Dan O'Brien limped under the gun and Hans Winzeler did the same from the small blind. Cornell, who had grown short, then moved all in for 363,000 from the big blind. O'Brien moved all in over the top and Cornell discovered the bad news.
Cornell: 
O'Brien: 
The board ran out a clean 
and Cornell's run came to an unceremonious end.
The Final Table
| Seat | Player | Hometown | Count |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Tomlinson | Jupiter, FL | 1,363,000 |
| 2 | Dominik Nitsche | Minden, Germany | 861,000 |
| 3 | Dan O'Brien | Las Vegas, NV | 1,095,000 |
| 4 | Pierre Milan | Paris, France | 3,031,000 |
| 5 | Andrius Bielskis | Lithuania | 905,000 |
| 6 | Jonathan Jaffe | Longmeadow, MA | 2,205,000 |
| 7 | Jonathan Little | Las Vegas, NV | 2,039,000 |
| 8 | Anthony Zinno | Boston, MA | 908,000 |
The final eight players – who account for four gold bracelets and seven WPT championships – will return at 1:00 p.m. local time on Saturday to play down to a winner. Be sure to check back tomorrow to see who walks away with the $567,724 first-place prize.