Cheney man in hunt at World Series of Poker

LAS VEGAS – Cheney poker pro Lee Watkinson was among nine players remaining in the main event of the World Series of Poker.

Play wound down early Monday to the group that will compete for the $8.25 million top prize at the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament’s final table. Watkinson, 40, is currently in sixth place with $9.9 million in chips.

Raymond Rahme, who held pocket queens, called Steven Garfinkle, a 37-year-old history professor from Bellingham, Wash., who had pushed all-in with a short stack and an ace and three. The queens held up, putting Rahme, a 62-year-old South African retiree, in fourth with more than 16 million chips and sending Garfinkle home.

He busted out in 10th, winning $476,926.

With the final table set, Philip Hilm, a 31-year-old Dane making a living playing poker online in England, held the lead with more than 22 million chips, followed by Toronto poker pro Tuan Lam, 40, with 21.3 million and British poker player Jon Kalmar, 34, with 20.3 million.

Kalmar said he was “nearly broke” before the $10,000 buy-in main event began play July 6, but he plunked down $500 in a satellite tournament to win a seat.

“Otherwise, I was thinking of taking a very long break from the game,” the former Internet technology manager said. “I was thinking of going back to work for a bit. Maybe not for a while yet.”

Also in the hunt for the top prize is Lee Childs, a 35-year-old software engineer from Reston, Va., with 13.2 million; Internet player Hevad Khan, 22, of Poughkeepsie, N.Y., was seventh with 9.2 million; Temecula, Calif.-based psychologist Jerry Yang, 39, was eighth with 8.4 million; and Russian poker pro Alex Kravchenko had 6.5 million.

The nine players were all that was left from a field of 6,358 who paid $10,000 in cash for a seat or qualified through satellite tournaments.

Those who busted out late Sunday and early Monday still went home with small fortunes.