Seat 1: Vladislav Mezheritsky
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Vladislav Mezheritsky calls the Borgata his home away from home.
Whenever the casino hosts one of its wildly popular Poker Open series, Mezheritsky makes his way here for the duration, playing a full slate of events in search of that one big score. After five days of action here at the 2014 WPT Main Event Championship, he just might be on the verge of accomplishing that long held goal.
Mezheritsky - who was born in St. Petersburg, Russia but calls Brooklyn, New York home - has amassed $86,505 in live earnings over the last eight years, grinding the local circuit, travelling to EPT events and playing in this year's PokerStars Carribean Adventure. For reaching the final table here today, Mezheritsky is already guaranteed to triple his lifetime earnings, but with an April wedding on the way - his fiancé Katherine jokingly told us she's already upgraded the honeymoon package - the 31-year old will be looking to take home the life-changing payday awaiting today's winner.
Mezheritsky has played the game for nearly a decade under the screen name "imjuniar," using the heyday of online poker to strengthen his skills before Black Friday, and obviously his experience grinding thousands of hands per day has translated to the live arena.
Although he enters the final table at a decided disadvantage - short-stacked and with dangerous pro Jared Jaffee to his left - but after watching him grind for hours yesterday while bigger stacks went bust all around him, we don't expect him to go down without a fight.