with the final seating draws announced here is how i see it shaping up:

dicken is in good position. when laak and doyle open from the button/ button +1 dicken will re-raise them and steal both the blind and the raise.

when j.j. liu is in the big blind he can open the pot and steal her blind (if laak and brunson haven't already opened).

when P.A. is on the blind and no one has opened the pot i see dicken taking pretty marginal situations to knock him out because if he does, afterwards he can probably steal pederson and liu's blinds all day (based solely on this tournements cardplayer updates [seems like they play real tight]).

having arguably the two best players, whose play you can very easily guess, on your right and the short stack on your left puts you in great position to make it to at least heads up.

maybe this is just wishfull thinking (i'm really pulling for him) but he couldn't have drawn better and in my opinion looks as the favorite to win the tournement.

how does everyone else see it shaping up?

Did you just say you can very easily guess Doyle Brunson's game?

"two best players, whose play you can very easily guess"

i think that is a contradictory statement almost by definition.

however, due to chipstack and position, i agree that gigabet is the
favorite if you had to pick.

maybe it's my imagination, but quite often in the second half of the
day it seemed that gigabets chipstack was magically moving upward
without being mentioned much in the cardplayer updates- he only eliminated one player.
this would seem to indicate that he is running the table by picking up
a large share of the small pots and dictating the action.
obviously this is hugely advantageous if he can keep doing this.

Yes that's true, and as the OP said, the players he has to his left are the players who may allow this to happen. If Brunson and Laak were to his left, they wouldn't let that get too far.

you guys are all right about "the best players whose play you can probably guess."

that was incorrect on my part.

i noticed this too. it was like "dicken crippled in a huge pot." then, i'd look at the chip counts and he'd be down, next time there'd be no mention and he'd be near the top again.

if their play way so easy to guess they wouldnt be the best players

yep. i'm still wrong. i acknowledged that i mis-spoke (see above post). one more of these and i'll have to edit the original.

sorry