With 36 Left, Who's Your Pick?

[Canada Cal, on the Haley beat---]

With 36 players remaining entering the official Day Six of the 2007 WSOP Main Event, who's your pick to take the whole thing down? Only one former champ remains: Scotty Nguyen, who is always a threat but has a bit under two million in chips, in the bottom third of the pack and far below the Top 10. PokerNews shows that Top 10 as this:

David Tran — 10,280,000
Philip Hilm — 9,950,000
Ray Henson — 8,250,000
Hevad Khan — 7,585,000
Kevin Farry — 7,400,000
Scott Freeman — 7,360,000
Lee Childs — 6,520,000
Jerry Yang — 5,090,000
Kenny Tran — 4,955,000
William Spadea — 4,575,000

There's no runaway leader, unlike last year, when talk-box Jamie Gold amassed a huge lead by catching card after key card and running away to the title. Tran looks like a serious threat, and Hevad Khan in fourth is a ferocious online player who, so far, has translated well to the big-time live scene. Hilm in second has bounced low and high throughout recent days, but is he in line for one of those classic Scandi blowups?

Bill Edler and new Russian star Alex Kravchenko remain alive too, though down in Nguyen's range in chips. Of the two, the experienced and still underrated Edler is the likelier choice (which of course, dooms him). The other Tran in the Top 10, Kenny, might be a good pick as well. The fun thing, though, is that with such a compressed field, today's 36-to-9 whittling is going to bring some huge hands and big surprises.