Getting All "Mixed" Up

Every World Series of Poker final table has at least one good storyline. It could be the return of a poker icon to the hallowed ground that is a WSOP final table; the emergence of a 21-year-old poker phenom; an established poker superstar chasing his first bracelet.

But in the case of Wednesday’s final table for Event #4 ($5,000 Mixed Hold’em), the storyline is all those storylines mixed with some others for good measure, all rolled into one tantalizing finale.

There’s “the Professor”, Howard Lederer, who returns to a WSOP final table for the first time since 2004 when he made four final tables. Focused on business matters since then, Lederer recently re-dedicated himself to the game and now finds himself in fifth place with 324,500 chips.

Andrew Robl, all 21 years, 8 months and 10 days of him, could put himself in elite territory with a bracelet win Wednesday. Only three 21-year-old players have captured WSOP glory before. Should he manage to turn his short stack of 162,000 chips into first place money he’ll join Steve Billirakis, Jeff Madsen and Eric Froehlich as the only barely-legals to come through on the big stage.

And then there’s Erick Lindgren; he of 0 bracelets and 0 ESPN-televised final tables. He’s had success on the World Poker Tour and the Aussie Millions as well as countless other tournaments both online and live, but he’s never won a bracelet. The closest he came was in 2006 when held a 3-1 chip lead over Madsen only to have that lead evaporate, sending Madsen into double bracelet territory.

But it doesn’t stop there. If the final table for Event #1 ($10,000 Pot Limit Hold’em) was packed with star power, this one might have Supernova qualities.

David Williams, bracelet winner and runner-up in the 2004 Main Event; online poker pariah turned live tournament mercenary Justin Bonomo; WPT Caribbean Advenutre runner-up Isaac Haxton and Englishman Roland de Wolfe are also in play.  A win by de Wolfe would make him only the second player (along with Gavin Griffin) to have a WPT title, European Poker Tour title and a WSOP bracelet.

The shortest stack belongs to Italian Pat Pezzin, whose stack is only 108,000. Pezzin cashed four times last year including a 21st place showing in this event.

And then lastly, there’s the man known as “Chino”. David Rheem might not be a well known name to a casual poker fan. But he’s all over the pro circuit and when the cards first go in the air Wednesday, he’ll have the chip lead with 921,000 – nearly 250,000 ahead of Williams in second place.