Brandon Cantu has his sights set on the Main Event title, or maybe just being this year’s Lee Watkinson-Markholt.

Soooo…let’s start the search for this year’s Jerry Yang and Lee Watkinson-Markholt now.

With the elimination of Mike "The Mouth" Matusow in 30th place (brutal, on a flop of A-A-5, both he and Paul Snead checked, the turn was a 9, Snead moved all-in, Matusow called…The Mouth holding A-J, Snead A-9…ouch), all of the major headliner names are gone.

Even Cristian Dragomir The Fragrance is out.

With 27 remaining, the two chip leaders are Dennis Phillips (11,910,000) and Craig Marquis, who may or may not be related to Vanilla Ice (11,460,000). Phillips certainly has some Jerry Yang appeal (i.e. no appeal), but history has shown us that the chip leader with 27 left won’t be the chip leader at the end unless your name is Jamie Gold. An interesting story thread could’ve been all the young Internet pros going deep, like Marquis, but lots of those guys (David Benefield, Gbecks) have been knocked out too, so oh well.

Phillips and Marquis are followed by the still running hot/looking hot FOWCP Tiffany Michelle with 9,755,000.

Our pick to win it, David "Chino" Rheem, continues his steady climb with 8,280,000. Aside from us picking him since the beginning, Rheem will be interesting as he should make "good TV^TM" since he makes Kenny Tran look like the offspring of Humble Pie and Modest Mouse.

And the likely pick to be this year’s Lee Watkinson-Markholt, Brandon Cantu, 4,740,000.

Finally, the search for this year’s Brad Kondracki starts and ends with Chris Klodnicki.

Get full chip counts here.

Tagged as: 2008 WSOP, brandon cantu, David "Chino" Rheem, Poker News, Tiffany Michelle

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