News / Chris Edwards / 18 June 2008 / Leave a comment

With less than half the field left, the $5000 Stud/8 World Championship event has a lot of high profile players battling for the chip lead.

Currently second is Shahram 'Shawn' Sheikhan, one of the most colorful Vegas gamblers. He has hit the screens many times and is best known for his near fist-fight with Mike Matusow during the 2005 WSOP where on the flop, during a hand he was not involved in, Sheikhan slammed his chips indicating he would have improved his hand. This enraged The Mouth and after an argument they were both sent to the rail for a 10 minute penalty. Sheikhan plays in high stakes mixed games at the Bellagio casino so is experienced in games such as Stud/8.

Also in the top 10 are brothers Robert and Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi. Amazingly they are 5th and 6th with only 1k separating their stacks. Michael is the most recognisable of the two after appearing on TV in such shows as 'High Stakes Poker'. He was the 2006 Cardplayer Player Of The Year after and has 2 WPT titles. In 2005 he tied a record by having 7 money finishes. He has since dropped out of the spotlight due to gambling problems but with performances like this is on track to regain his popularity. Brother Robert might not be as well known but has had his own great success, the biggest being winning the $10,000 PLO World Championship Event at the 2007 WSOP.

Also in the top 10 are Marcel Luske, Barry Greenstein and Marco Traniello (Husband of Jennifer Harman). If these players continue to do well we might have yet another high profile final table and professional bracelet winner. Here are the chip counts going into the second day.

Matt Grapenthien - 51,900
Shahram "Shawn" Sheikhan - 47,000
Marco Traniello - 41,000
Barry Greenstein - 40,000
Robert Mizrachi - 39,000
Michael Mizrachi - 38,000
Marcel Luske - 38,000
Brett Richey - 38,000
John Barch - 36,000
David Levi - 35,000