Event 55 - $10,000 World Championship No Limit Holdem | 2007 World Series of Poker

07-17-2007 12:13 UTC-7

Final Table Bios: Tuan Lam

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Seat 6 - Tuan Lam
Chip Count: 21.315 million
Hometown: Toronto, Canada

Tuan Lam is originally from Vietnam and currently lives in Toronto, Canada. The 41-year-old's birthday falls on January 1st. He used to be a poker dealer and is now a full time poker player. He's married with two kids and enjoys soccer. He's been playing poker for 17 years and learned from friends. He's played in the WSOP three different times and he bought in directly.

According to Brad Willis at PokerStars Blog... "Known as BABYHAN on PokerStars, you'll find him regularly playing the high-limit cash games to a lot of success. Lam finished runner-up in the 2005 World Championship of Online Poker $200 short-handed no-limit hold'em event."

Tags: Tuan Lam

07-17-2007 12:10 UTC-7

Final Table Bios: Lee Watkinson

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Seat 5 - Lee Watkinson
Chip Count: 9.925 million
Hometown: Cheney, Washington

Lee Watkinson is the most well-known professional at the final table. He made four final tables at the WSOP and won one bracelet in the $10K PLO last year. He also made two final tables on the WPT and took second place twice, once to Doyle Brunson and the other to Eli Elezra (which also happened to have Scotty Nguyen and Gabe Kaplan at his table.)

Watkinson is an avid animal-rights activist and rescues retired chimps that have been exploited in show business or for research. Part of his tournaments winnings goes to help fund his work with chimpanzees. He also owns a record company and a clothing line. He holds a degree in economics and is an astute investor and businessman.

Tags: Lee Watkinson

07-17-2007 12:06 UTC-7

Final Table Bios: Jerry Yang

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Seat 4 - Jerry Yang
Chip Count: 8.45 million
Hometown: Temecula, CA

Jerry Yang is originally from Laos. The 40-year-old lives in California with his wife and six kids. He's a psychologist and social worker that earned a master's degree on health psychology. He's been playing poker for two years and this is his first WSOP. He won a $225 satellite at Penchanga. He's got the most karma points coming into the final table. He will be donating 10% of his winnings to the Make a Wish Foundation, Feed the Children, and the Ronald McDonald House.

Jerry Yang is one of the most deliberate players at the final table. He always takes his time to make decisions. He's been successfully using his skills as a psychologist at the table, analyzing his opponents' behavior in order to make better decisions.

Tags: Jerry Yang

07-17-2007 12:02 UTC-7

Final Table Bios: Lee Childs

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Seat 3 - Lee Childs
Chip Count: 13.24 million
Hometown: Reston, VA

The 35-year-old Virginia native recently left his computer systems job to devote more time to poker. He has his dad in the crowd who's way more nervous than he is while sweating his son. He learned how to play poker from the internet, books, and attending WPT boot camp. He's been playing for about five years and bought into the WSOP main event directly.

On his bio sheet, he wrote, "I wouldn't have gotten here without my incredible wife, dad, and all the support of family and friends."

Tags: Lee Childs

07-17-2007 11:58 UTC-7

Final Table Bios: Alex Kravchenko

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Seat 2 - Alex Kravchenko
Chip Count: 6.57 million
Hometown: Moscow, Russia

Alex Kravchenko was born in Archangel, Russia. He's married with two kids. He makes his living as a businessman, but if you've seen him play poker, he's all business. He displays very little emotion at the table and you can't get a read on him because he gives off the same intimidating blank stare.

Kravchenko is a self-taught poker player who's been dabbling in the game for over a decade. He's won over $219K in tournaments held in Europe and starting playing smaller-buyin tournaments about six or seven years ago in Moscow. He bought into the WSOP Main Event directly and could definitely afford it. He's the only other WSOP bracelet winner at the final table aside from Lee Watkinson. Kravchenko won an Omaha 8 event and beat Bryan Devonshire heads up to win. This is his third final table at the WSOP and he's cashed five times (not including the main event) for about $269K. He's also cashed in two previous WSOPs and cashed four times on the WPT.

Tags: Alex Kravchenko

07-17-2007 11:54 UTC-7

Final Table Bios: Raymond Rahme

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Seat 1 - Raymond Rahme
Chip Count: 16.32 million
Hometown: South Africa

Raymond Rahme is the oldest player at the final table. He's 62 years young and hails from South Africa. He's married with six children and is an avid golfer. He's a self-taught poker player who's been playing for two years. This is his second WSOP. He's made final tables in tournaments overseas. On the ESPN bio sheet question... What's the one thing you want the audience to know about you? He wrote, "Never give up."

Rahme has a documentary film from All Africa TV following him around. One of their channels shows poker 24/7. He's going to be having his own show. He happens to have the most loyal railbirds, dressed in matching green shirts that say, "Everybody loves Raymond!" They chant and sing and sway back and forth and yell things like, "Ship it to Africa!"

Tags: Raymond Rahme

07-17-2007 11:51 UTC-7

Final Table Players

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Seat 1 - Raymond Rahme - 16.32 million
Seat 2 - Alex Kravchenko - 6.57 million
Seat 3 - Lee Childs - 13.24 million
Seat 4 - Jerry Yang - 8.45 million
Seat 5 - Lee Watkinson - 9.925 million
Seat 6 - Tuan Lam - 21.315 million
Seat 7 - Philip Hilm - 22.07 million
Seat 8 - Jon Kalmar - 20.32 million
Seat 9 - Hevad 'Rain' Khan - 9.205 million

Note: There was an accidental redraw for seats at today's final table after play ended late Sunday night, and those were the seating assignments we posted. Jack Effel made a decision shortly after to revert to their original seats from the 10-handed table, which is tradition and standard procedure.

07-17-2007 11:50 UTC-7

PokerNews Video: Bustouts, Bloopers, and Best of !

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Stay tuned to PokerNews Video all day as we will try to bring you bustout interviews with every player as they are eliminated, as well as the eventual winner after he is crowned. We can't promise anything, as these guys are sometimes weary of doing lots of media after busting from the biggest tournament in the world, but we're definitely going to do our best.

Also today we should be putting up a best of/bloopers piece from all our WSOP coverage.

Tags: PokerNews Video