Hwang Leads the Way Into Wednesday's National Championship Final Table
On Saturday, Day 2 of the WSOP National Championship saw the remaining 39 players of a 157-entrant field return to battle down to a final table. The lineup was an eclectic mix of qualifiers from the WSOP POY and WSOPC Leaderboards, and by the end of the night, three from the former and five from the latter made up the final table with Yung Hwang and his stack of 1.224 million leading the way.
The day started off with 21 players leaving empty handed as only 18 were slated to get paid. Among the players to his the rail early were Chris Moorman, Nicolas Fierro, Joseph Cheong, Aaron Massey and Gene Dudek. They were soon joined by two other players after they became victims of Hwang’s early heater.
It happened when Josh Tieman moved all in from early position for 39,500 and cleared the field to Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier on the button. The Frenchman opted for a three-bet to 66,000, the small blind got out of the way, and Hwang moved all in from the big for 184,500. Grospellier, who had 180,500, splashed in a call and the cards were turned up:
Showdown
| Grospellier |   |
| Hwang |   |
| Tieman |   |
The board ran out a clean 
and Hwang scored the double elimination and vaulted toward the top of the chip counts.
From there, more eliminations occurred including that of Fabrice Soulier, Paul Sokoloff, Chris Tryba, Jerry Monroe, Jamie Kerstetter, Stephen Kats and Jacob Naquin, just to name a few. With 19 players remaining, the money bubble last nearly three hours before bursting. It final happened when Matt Keikoan raised to 18,000 from the hijack and Mitch Schock moved all in from the big blind for 34,000 total. Keikoan made the call with
, which was behind the
of Schock. Unfortunately for the latter, the board ran out 
and the bubble was burst, guaranteeing the remaining 18 players a $22,278 payday.
Once the money was reached, the action picked up and the eliminations resumed. Below is a list of those who fell short of the final table. Check out their elimination hands simply by clicking on their name.
In-the-Money Eliminations
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 9th | Justin Gardenhire | $39,030 |
| 10th | David Peters | $31,855 |
| 11th | Drazen Ilich | $31,855 |
| 12th | Mark Bonsack | $31,855 |
| 13th | Eugene Katchalov | $26,439 |
| 14th | Brian Rast | $26,439 |
| 15th | Nick Binger | $26,439 |
| 16th | Hao Le | $22,278 |
| 17th | Jonathan Sorscher | $22,278 |
| 18th | Allen Kessler | $22,278 |
Here’s a look at the 2012 WSOP National Championship Final Table, which will air on ESPN August 7th once completed.
2012 WSOP National Championship Final Table
| Seat | Player | Chips | Qualified |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | David “ODB” Baker | 281,000 | WSOP POY Entrant |
| 2 | Amanda Musumeci | 322,000 | At-Large Qualifier |
| 3 | Sam Stein | 651,000 | WSOP POY Entrant |
| 4 | Huy Nguyen | 331,000 | At-Large Qualifier |
| 5 | Yung Hwang | 1,224,000 | At-Large Qualifier |
| 6 | Nikolas Stone | 471,000 | Harrah's St. Louis Casino Champ |
| 7 | Matt Keikoan | 957,000 | WSOP POY Entrant |
| 8 | Ryan Eriquezzo | 474,000 | Caesars AC Main Event Champ |
The remaining eight players will return at 1 PM PST on Wednesday, July 11 to play for the bracelet and $416,051 first-place prize. The action will be filmed on the ESPN Main Stage to be aired in August; in the meantime, you can catch all the action and eliminations as they happen here on PokerNews and WSOP.com.