Tran, Hellmuth Headline Legends of Poker Final Table on PokerGO

This year’s WPT Legends of Poker Main Event has been arguably one of the most historic World Poker Tour events of the tour’s 16-year history.  The WPT awarded the tour’s one-billionth prize dollar when the Legends of Poker Main Event played into the money on Tuesday but the final table lineup that emerged from Wednesday’s Day 4 session could make this year’s event even more historic when the final table hits PokerGO tonight.

JC Tran entered Day 4 with the overall chip lead and then more or less went wire-to-wire on the penultimate day of play to lead the charge into the final table. The two-time WPT champion and former Player of the Year comfortably sits at the top of the leaderboard, with over 2 million more chips than his nearest opponent, meaning Tran is in a good position to become the seventh player to ever win three World Poker Tour titles.

The chip leader won’t have it easy though, as there are plenty of formidable and hungry opponents around him. Each player at the final table is guaranteed $91,825 but there is $653,692, plus a $15,000 season-ended WPT Tournament of Champions seat, up top for the eventual winner.

In terms of past results, Art Papazyan is the least experienced player at the final table but with a very workable and comfortable 75 big blind stack, the Californian could make some noise against his more veteran opponents.

Those veteran opponents include newly appointed WPT Raw Deal Analyst Phil Hellmuth. The 14-time World Series of Poker bracelet winner has seemingly won everything there is to win in poker, save for a World Poker Tour title. The Poker Brat will have some work to do to unseat Tran and Papazyan from the top of the leader board but after expertly navigating his way through the second-largest WPT Legends of Poker field in history, Hellmuth will likely only be satisfied with one outcome on Thursday night.

DJ Alexander sits just under the Poker Hall of Famer and the Houston, Texas native will look to continue his white hot run that started during this year’s WSOP. Alexander finished 2^nd in the $1,500 Millionaire Maker, good for a $755,000 score, and has notched three-straight final two table finishes, in the $1,111 Little One for One Drop, the WPT Choctaw Main Event and the $5,000 SHRPO Championship.

After breaking through that pesky two table barrier, Alexander is now making his first WPT final table appearance, while Marvin Rettenmaier, pictured above, is returning to the spotlight. The German won the 2012 WPT World Championship for nearly $1.2 million and then picked up another WPT title later that year, meaning he is also alive to become the latest three-time WPT champion. Even though he returns at the bottom of the leader board, below Adam Swan’s 20 big blind stack, Rettenmaier’s past success will make him a threat if he is able to chip up.

Six players remain from a historic WPT Legends of Poker Main Event and while some of those players look to cement their current standing in the World Poker Tour history books, others look to put pen to WPT paper for the first time on Thursday night. Watch each of those narratives play out tonight, when the final table streams live on PokerGO, starting at 4:30 PM PT.