<p>A 19-year-old freshman from the University of Georgia entered the final day of the European Poker Tour's Grand Final on Saturday as the only American remaining in the tournament and after several hours of play, became its chip leader with a million dollars of prize money on the line.</p><p>Jeff Williams of Dunwoody, Ga., started play in third place as the tournament's last eight players sat at the final table early Saturday in Monte Carlo, Monaco, according to officials from the Web site PokerStars.com, which sponsored the event. The nearly 300-player tournament, which included 38 other Americans, began Wednesday.</p><p>"When you get down to it, everybody is dealt two cards, so I think I've got a good chance," Williams said Saturday morning by phone from Monte Carlo.</p><p>After three and a half hours of play Saturday evening, Williams became chip leader with five people remaining at the final table, including professional player Marcel "The Flying Dutchman" Luske. Williams will earn at least $200,000 (168,000 Euros) and first prize is more than $1 million (900,000 Euros).</p><p>He outlasted three World Series of Poker world champions, including American Greg Raymer and last year's winner, Joe Hachem of Australia.</p><p>The teenager won entry to the 10,000-Euro ($11,914) tournament by winning a $40 online poker tournament last month on the Web site PokerStars.com. The smaller tournament granted him entry into a larger, $650 online poker tournament that allowed its top nine players to play in the EPT Grand Final.</p><p>Winning entry to the expensive tournament in such a manner is similar to the story of 2003 World Series of Poker main-event champion Chris Moneymaker, who qualified for that tournament's $10,000 buy-in fee through a $40 online tournament also on PokerStars.</p><p>"People are saying I'm the 'Chris Moneymaker' story right now," Williams said.</p><p>Williams said playing live poker is very different than playing online because players can see each others' faces and how they handle poker chips.</p><p>Williams, who said he has not played many large-player tournaments, said the only thing keeping him from playing other tournaments in the future is his age _ he must be 21 to play in U.S. casinos. In Europe, the legal age is 18.</p><p>"I'm still 19, I can't enter the World Series yet," he said.</p>
