Tomorrow (Thursday) will see the nine survivors of an original field of 7,221 in the $10,000 buy-in World Series of Poker Main Event return to the felt with ambitions to claim the $8.15 million reserved for the ultimate winner. However, everyone around the table will be well rewarded, with the first elimination cashing a million dollars, and the remaining bust-outs all collecting pay-outs on a sliding upward scale from that amount.
Leading the chip counts on 97,250,000 is Scott Blumstein, a New Jersey pro enjoying his first Main Event, and at 26 the youngest player at the table. His live career earnings top $300,000, mostly earned last year in a single live tourney, but he has gained significant experience online in the New Jersey regulated environment.
Chasing Blumstein on 85,700,000 is the oldest player at the table, the amiable John Hesp (64) who has made an impact not only with his sharp poker, but his eccentric and colourful clothes and fun personality. A self-made and now retired businessman from Bridlington in England, Hesp is a recreational tournament player who says he entered the main event to fulfill one of his bucket list ambitions. He plays roughly once a month in live tourneys and has cashes worth just under $3,000 on his resume…a figure already dwarfed by the minimum one million dollars he already has qualified for as a member of the final table.
Third in chip counts is French professional player Benjamin Pollak (34) with a stack of 35,175,000 and live tournament career earnings of almost $3 million. He went deep (finishing in 27th place) in the 2013 Main Event and is widely respected in the poker community in his home country. He is an experienced World Series of Poker player with twelve cashes totaling almost half a million dollars in past years on his c.v.
Bryan Piccioli was almost eliminated in the final stages leading to the final table this year, but pulled off a miraculous recovery and now holds the fourth largest chip stack at the table at 33,800,000. The 28-year-old pro from Allegany, New York is a prolific online player who has racked up over $6 million in the online environment, along with just short of $2 million in live tourney career earnings He is an experienced World Series of Poker player and holds a single WSOP gold winner’s bracelet, achieved in 2013 at the WSOP Asia Pacific competition. He has cashed at World Series of Poker Main Events over the last two consecutive years, finishing 84th in 2016 and 958th in 2015.
Pennsylvania’s Dan Ott (25) is doing remarkably well as a relatively inexperienced player at his first World Series of Poker, and on 26,475,000 holds the fifth position on the chip count list. He has only two previous cashes totaling under $4,000, a figure already eclipsed by the minimum million dollars he has just earned from making the final table.
The ultra-cool Damian Salas (22,175,000) lists sixth in chip counts and is a 42-year-old former attorney turned professional player from Argentina (and the first Argentinian to make the WSOP Main Event).He has a little under a million dollars in previous career tournament earnings, and treble that from online action, where he is a respected player. Salas is no stranger to WSOP and has 13 series cashes to his credit, including $25,230 in last year’s Main Event, where he finished 418th. He attributes his ability to remain cool, calm and focused despite the long days of tension-filled action in the main event to yoga.
in seventh place on 21,750,000, French poker pro Antoine Saout (33) is a well known and respected name in the game, and this year he is one of two main event final table players (the other is Ben Lamb) making their second Main Event final table appearance. Back in 2009 Saout finished third in the main event, cashing $3.8 million. He also finished 25th in the main event last year to earn almost $270,000, and can boast previous career earnings approaching $6 million.
UK poker pro Jack Sinclair (26) has had a roller coaster Main Event, at one point heading the chip counts with fellow Brit John Hesp but then suffering some disastrous reverses that have knocked him back to eighth place on 20,200,000…but he is still at the final table and is an unpredictable player. With just $14,000 in previous career earnings he is a mainly online player, where he has enjoyed significant success and built up a wealth of skill and experience. He’s building on that in the live environment, and this year entered 11 different WSOP events, cashing in three of them.
Ben Lamb (32) joins Saout as a final table player who has been here before – six years ago in the main event, where he finished third and took home $4,021,138. He also made a deep run in 2009 before going out in 14th place. This year he has the lowest stack at the table on 18,050,000, but this Las Vegas professional player never gives up and is hugely experienced, with a WSOP winner’s bracelet and career tournament earnings in excess of $7 million. He is respected as one of the top high stakes cash game players in the world.
Here’s another look at the prize list for the remaining nine players:
1. $8,150,000
2. $4,700,000
3. $3,500,000
4. $2,600,000
5. $2,000,000
6. $1,675,000
7. $1,425,000
8. $1,200,000
9. $1,000,000
Final table action kicks off at the Rio in Las Vegas at 5.30pm local time Thursday, when the players reconvene with 400,000-800,000 blinds and a 100,000-chip ante.