Katchalov rides again at WPT Championship

In eerily similar fashion to his 2007 WPT Five Diamond win, Eugene Katchalov is running away with the WPT Championship.

Things are beginning to look rather familiar for Eugene Katchalov at the WPT Championship in Las Vegas.

At the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic here at Bellagio back in 2007, he ran like a god in the late stages, mowing down a field full of some of the best poker players on the planet to snatch the $2,482,605 first-place prize.

It was almost a case of déjà vu on Day 4 at the WPT Championship Wednesday as the New Yorker picked off player after player to build a massive chip lead heading into Day 5 with just 24 players remaining.

However, Katchalov told PokerListings it's not exactly the Five Diamond all over again.

"Not quite," he said. "The difference here is that at the Five Diamond I only had chips right before the final table. I was deep stacked then I lost a bunch of chips and I had to win them back before the final table."

Katchalov walked into the Bellagio's Fontana Lounge today with just 760,000 in chips and a plan to get it up over 1.5 million.

"I guess everything is going better than planned," he said, after ending the day with almost $4.3 million in chips.

As far as plans for Day 5 are concerned, Katchalov is taking a cautious approach.

"Tomorrow when I see my table I will make a plan," he said.

No fear.

Young Christian Harder is in the group behind Katchalov, including APT Macau champ Yevgeniy Timoshenko and 2008 WPT Five Diamond runner-up Justin Young.

In 2008, before he was even old enough to play poker in Las Vegas, Harder made back-to-back final tables on the PokerStars European Poker Tour in the Bahamas and Germany.

Despite his young age, the man who calls himself "charder30" online seems less than intimidated by the field here at the WPT Championship.

"I've played with a lot of them so it's not too bad," he said. "Though earlier I had Phil Ivey at my table and that was a little intimidating - Just a little."

Phil Ivey busted in the late stages of Day 4, but Bertrand Grospellier, Jennifer Harman, Shannon Shorr, Eric Liu, and Freddy Deeb headline the rest of a group of very strong players still in contention for the WPT Championship crown.

Although he will be a fair distance from Katchalov when play begins sometime after 12 p.m. Thursday, the venerable Scotty Nguyen is also well stacked and will come in brimming with confidence as usual.

"Of course I'm going to win baby," Nguyen told PokerListings. "What do you think? I'm going to say no."

The fight for a seat at the six-person final table and a shot at the more than $2 million first place prize continues with a plan to play five levels or down to ten players at Bellagio Thursday.

PokerListings will have all the action on our Live Tournaments page.