WPT World Poker Challenge Title Goes to Markholt

Just six players held onto chips at the end of play Thursday. After just three and a half hours of final table play Friday at the Grand Sierra in Reno, former Professional Poker Tour winner Lee Markholt would grab his first World Poker Tour title and nearly $500,000.

Final table setup:

Zach Hyman - 285,000

Jeff DeWitt - 249,000

David Pham - 406,000

Jason Potter - 1,156,000

Bryan Devonshire - 674,000

Lee Markholt - 1,137,000

Jeff DeWitt held onto a short stack and looked across the table at five more experienced faces. The newcomer DeWitt would get the rest of his chips in with a flush draw against Markholt's pocket queens. The flush never materialized and Dewitt was done in 6th. David "the Dragon" Pham came to the table as the most accomplished player, but couldn't get it going Friday, eventually seeing himself outkicked for his tournament life. Jason Potter never recovered after coming up short in a race with Bryan Devonshire and was eliminated in 4th by 2007 Wynn Classic winner Zach Hyman.

Hyman would take a hit from Markholt early in three-handed play. That was quickly followed up by a race, his Kh-Jh never catching up to Devonshire's 9-9. Just minutes into heads-up play, Devonshire would get the rest of his stack in with 4-3-2-J on the board, his 8-4 drawing dead against the J-4 of Markholt. Markholt's 15th WPT cash meant his first final table and ultimately, his first WPT win. The $493,815 first-place prize puts Markholt over the $1 million mark in career WPT earnings, making him the 86th WPT Poker-Made Millionare.

Here are the final table results:

1st - Lee Markholt - $493,815

2nd - Bryan Devonshire - $271,625

3rd - Zach Hyman - $149,862

4th - Jason Potter - $103,030

5th - David Pham - $93,664

6th - Jeff Dewitt - $84,297

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Read WPC runner-up Bryan Devonshire's blog exclusively at PokerPages.com

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