Jonathan Duhamel, 24, is a professional poker player from Montreal, Canada. He is one of the 5 PokerStars Pros in the field. In 2010, Duhamel became the 41st Annual World Series of Poker No-Limit Hold ‘Em Main Event Champion at the age of 22.
Although he is a poker player now, Duhamel originally went to college to pursue a career in finance. Since his 2010 WSOP Main Event victory, Duhamel has been busy traveling the worldwide tournament circuit, performing quite admirably and continually serving as one of the game’s great ambassadors.
Biggest Cash: 2010 WSOP Main Event Championship — $8,944,310
From Minneapolis, Minnesota, 71-year-old John L. Morgan serves as the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Winmark Corporation. In addition, he currently serves as chairman and chief executive officer of Tomsten, Inc. Morgan doesn't often travel for poker, but he frequently plays in Heartland Poker Tour events when they're held in Shakopee, a city located near his home. He has one WSOP cash.
Biggest Cash: 3rd-place finish in $1,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event at the Midwest Poker Classic — $26,888
Michael Mizrachi is 31 years old and resides in Miami, Florida. “The Grinder” is the proud owner of three WSOP bracelets, after having recently taken down the 2012 WSOP Poker Players’ Championship. Mizrachi also won the Poker Players’ Championship in 2010. Mizrachi started playing in tournaments in 2004 and has accumulated more than $14 million in career earnings. He was named CardPlayer Magazine’s Player of the Year in 2006, and has two WPT titles.
Biggest Cash: 5th-place finish in 2010 WSOP Main Event — $2,332,992
David Einhorn is a 43-year-old hedge fund manager from Rye, New York. He is the Founder and President of Greenlight Capital. Greenlight Capital is a "long-short value-oriented hedge fund." Started in 1996 with $900,000, Greenlight’s annualized return for investors is about 22 percent. When not running his successful business, Einhorn has been known to play cards, and play them well. In the 2006 WSOP Main Event — the largest poker tournament in history with 8,773 entrants — Einhorn finished in 18th place and went on to donate his $659,000 in winnings to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
An active philanthropist, Einhorn has stated his intent to donate to the City Year Foundation for this event. City Year is an education-focused non-profit that partners with high-need public schools to provide full-time targeted student interventions.
Biggest Cash: 18th-place finish in 2006 WSOP Main Event — $659,730
Antonio Esfandiari is a 33-year-old professional poker player. Known to the poker community as “The Magician,” the Las Vegas resident is a former magician turned poker player. With nearly $5 million in lifetime earnings, including one WSOP gold bracelet and two other titles, Esfandiari is one of the game’s most recognized and entertaining personalities. In fact, if he fails to make this final table, you will hear him commenting the event as part of ESPN’s live television coverage.
Biggest Win: Won 2004 WPT L.A. Poker Classic — $1,399,135
Jason Mercier is a 25-year-old professional poker player residing in Davie, Florida. Mercier has accumulated numerous tournament wins, which include two victories at the WSOP. Mercier is one of the few players coming into this event that has more than one World Series of Poker bracelet to his name. Both of Mercier’s bracelets are in pot-limit Omaha events. Mercier has earned nearly $1 million in WSOP events and has amassed more than $7,700,000 in worldwide earnings.
Online poker phenom Phil Galfond has cashed six times at the World Series of Poker and amassed nearly $1 million in WSOP winnings. In 2008, Galfond won a $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament to capture a gold bracelet. The Potomac, Maryland, resident has two additional Top 20 WSOP finishes.
Biggest Win: Won 2008 WSOP $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha — $817,781
Tom Marchese is from Parsippany, New Jersey. While he is just 24 years old, the professional poker player was given the impressive title of CardPlayer Player of the Year in 2010. Marchese is primarily an online pro playing under the name "Kingsofcards" but also has earned more than $3,800,000 in live tournaments.
Biggest Cash: Won 2012 WPT World Championship Super High Roller — $1,308,405
PokerStars Pro Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who won a gold bracelet at last year’s World Series of Poker, is one of the biggest poker personalities in all of Europe and also one of the most feared no-limit hold’em players in the game today.
The 31-year-old hails from Paris, France, and is better known as “ElkY.” He has lifetime poker earnings of more than $10 million, good for 16th on the all-time list. He has also captured the poker triple crown, winning a WSOP, EPT and WPT event already.
Biggest Win: Won 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure — $2,000,000
Guy Laliberté is the 52-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Canada’s famous Cirque du Soleil circus troupe. Originally a street performer, Laliberté currently owns 95 percent of the company. According to Forbes Magazine, his net worth is $1.5 billion (U.S.), making him the 654th richest man in the world. His most notable tournament success came in the form of a fourth-place finish in a 2007 World Poker Tour event. He became Canada’s first private explorer in space and the first to engage in a Poetic Social Mission in space. He is also the founder of the One Drop Foundation, a philanthropic foundation to fight poverty in the world by giving everyone access to water and of course the beneficiary in this great event.
Biggest Cash: 4th-place finish in 2007 WPT Five Star World Poker Classic — $696,220
