Andras Koroknai had the button to kick off the action at the final table. Steve Gee opened to 700,000, and action folded to Russell Thomas in the big blind. He called to take a flop of . Thomas checked, and Gee bet 850,000. Thomas called.
The was added to the board on the turn, and Thomas checked. Gee fired two million. Thomas made the call, and off to the river they went.
The river paired the board with the , and Thomas checked again. Gee fired 4.55, and Thomas folded.
The players are being introduced to the crowd by the one and only Jack Effel, the World Series of Poker tournament director, and our own Sarah Grant in the video below. The cards will be in the air shortly!
Russell Thomas had $126,796 in live tournament earnings prior to this World Series of Poker Main Event run. The bulk of that money came from two large WSOP scores in 2010 and 2011. The first of the two was in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em — Six-Handed event where he took fifth place for $84,256. The second was a 248th-place finish in the 2011 Main Event for $40,654.
Leading up to the final table, Thomas reached out to Jason Somerville for coaching. The two worked together on a short documentary series that chronicles Thomas' training leading up to the Octo-Nine. You can find all of those episodes here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
Thomas is 24 years old and from Hartford, Connecticut, although he grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Before Black Friday, Thomas took a job as actuary for Aetna Insurance, so he isn't considered a professional poker player, although that may change with this score. When asked if Thomas would continue his professional life depending on what happens in October, he said the following:
"I am going to take a leave of absence for sure until October. If I got out in ninth place I would definitely go back to my job, because I don’t think $750,000 is enough and because I don’t have a 100 percent of myself anyways. But If I got third or something I would quit for sure and just play poker."
And despite being an actuary and regularly working with numbers, Thomas doesn't think it relates to poker as much as people think:
"Well, to be an actuary you have to pass a bunch of exams. One of them was called probability. So I have studied probability pretty intensively. The math helps, but it doesn’t correlate as much as people think. Playing poker makes you better at poker."
Thomas will enter the final table fourth in chips with an above-average stack of 24.8 million. He has a good chance to make a deep run, but not as good as his former roommate Jesse Sylvia, who starts the final table with a big chip lead. Those two shared a residence before, and we'll see if they can share two of the three final spots on Tuesday.
In 1989, Phil Hellmuth became the youngest player to win the WSOP Main Event at age 25. In 2008, Peter Eastgate broke Hellmuth’s record, winning the tournament at age 22, and in 2009, Joe Cada broke Eastgate’s record, winning at age 21.
Jake Balsiger, 21 years and 9 months, has a chance to best Cada and become the youngest Main Event winner. Like Cada, Balsiger enters the final table short on chips – he has 13.115 million, which is just over half of the average stack.
Balsiger is a political science major entering his senior year at Arizona State University. He currently lives in Tempe, Arizona, and was born in Portland, Oregon. Prior to the Main Event, Balsiger cashed in Event #2: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, finishing 100th for $3,531, and he also cashed in one of the popular $235 Rio Daily Deepstacks, finishing in 75th for a whopping $353.
When asked how he felt about making the final table, Balsiger told WSOP.com, “It feels amazing. Best I’ve ever felt in my life. It’s like the highest high there is.”
He also added:
"I’ve wanted to play since I was 13 years old, watching it on TV. This is my first one and it’s totally surreal. When I was 18, I wasn’t any good. I wouldn’t say I was any good until this year. I’ve made a couple of minimum cashes. I won’t have to worry about money for a long time I would say, hopefully for the rest of my life. I guess I can do whatever I want. This is pretty nice. I started out grinding low stakes online, eking out a very meager living, but I was happy to not have a real job. Then when I started playing live, which I really liked because I could take as long as I wanted and other things which suited me a lot better. I want to play poker for a living, but once I’m gone from this tournament, I don’t want to give it up for an office job."
Like Russell Thomas and Jesse Sylvia, Balsiger reached out for an established professional for coaching; Mike "Timex" McDonald. McDonald has some great coaching results, including Pius Heinz (winner of the 2011 WSOP Main Event) and David Einhorn (third in the $1 Million Big One for One Drop).
Every final table has to have a short stack, and this year it's Jeremy Ausmus. He's the only player under 10 million in chips, but that doesn't mean he can't run it up to become champion.
Ausmus is a professional poker player who resides in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was born in Colorado and achieved his bachelor's degree from Colorado State University. Married to his wife Adria, Ausmus has a son and a daughter.
Here's what Ausmus had to say about how he got into poker:
"Just in college. It’s funny. I watched Rounders, and I was wondering — cause I’ve always been into games, video games, chess, just strategy, thinking games and poker –- and I watched the movie and was wondering if you could really make a living with poker. I didn’t know if it was all luck or skill. So, I went and bought a book. I watched the movie like five times in a week, me and my roommate. Then I went and bought a book from Barnes & Noble, and it said, “Yeah, you can make a living playing poker.” So, I was really intrigued and bought more books about, like, how to play poker for a living basically. And then, you know, it was blowing up then, and I met some people that liked to play, and then I got into some games around town. Then I went to travel to Black Hawk (casino in Colorado where he was living) on the weekends. And it just escalated more and more into playing a lot, winning and improving."
Prior to this final table, Ausmus had $427,105 in live tournament earnings. He's had several five-figure scores, but only one six-figure score. That score came in 2011 when Ausmus took third in The Big Event in Los Angeles for $190,000. He also has 13 other WSOP cashes.
With this large score, Ausmus doesn't think he'll be making any big purchases to splurge. He said he might pay off his house, and make some other "responsible" purchases, but that he "probably won’t go and buy a nice watch." At the end of the day, Ausmus said, "I’ll probably just add it to my bankroll. I’m going pay down some debt. We’ve been talking about doing some remodeling on the house."
Greg Merson isn't the only player at this World Series of Poker Main Event final table with a gold bracelet... enter Steven Gee. Gee is also the oldest player at the final table at age 57.
In 2010, Gee won his first gold bracelet for $472,479. He conquered a $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em event with 3,042 players, meaning his knows how to maneuver his way through large fields. Getting to this final table, Gee had to do just that, and he now has the experience of winning a WSOP event under his belt.
Outside of his bracelet win in 2010 and this final table appearance, Gee has never had a score over $4,500. He does, though, have a total of five WSOP cashes to his credit.
Gee was born in China, but resides in Sacramento, California. He considers himself a professional poker player, but formerly worked as a Formerly a Manager of Software Projects for the California Public Employees Retirement System.
When talking about his lengthy poker background, here's what Gee had to say:
"I’m from Sacramento, California but originally from China. I was a professional poker player in the 1970’s, back when I was in my 20’s playing draw lowball. At 22, I was playing the biggest games around. At that time, I was the only young guy at the table. Poker was not popular back in those days like it is today. Being a poker player was a lot like being a pool hustler. We played at the Oaks card club, $60/120 limit. I was the only 20-something year-old there. There were some guys in their 30’s, some in their 40’s. Everybody else was in their 50’s. But the world’s changed now. Look at a poker room in a casino today and the whole lineup is in their 20’s. I went back and got my college degree, got married, worked a corporate job, you know 8 to 5. Then, in 2008 I quit my job to play poker full time. Poker was so popular at the time, I wanted to win a WSOP bracelet and I wanted to do it now. I didn’t want to wait until I was 70."
If he's able to take down this title, Gee will become the second Chinese-born winner of the Main Event, alongside Johnny Chan. He can also become the oldest person to win the Main Event since Noel Furlong won at the age of 62 in 1999.
A lot of eyes will be on Greg Merson at this final table, as he's widely regarded as the most skillful player to reach the Octo-Nine. Stack-wise, Merson has just under 29 million and sits behind only Andras Koroknai and Jesse Sylvia.
Earlier this year, Merson won his first-ever World Series of Poker gold bracelet in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em — Six-Handed event for over $1.13 million. If he's able to place in the top seven here, he'll earn his second seven-figure score of the year, and his career.
Prior to his run here, Merson held over $1.3 million in live earnings. Like Jesse Sylvia, Merson took to WSOP Europe, but also came home empty handed after giving it a go in several events.
Not only can Merson win the WSOP Main Event and the greatest title in poker history, he can also claim the WSOP Player of the Year honor. To do so, Merson must win the event and that will allow him to overtake the current front-runner Phil Hellmuth.
Merson has come a long way in his short career. Coming from an online background, he fell into a lot of money from poker and picked up a drug addiction. He's fought hard against that to get his life back in order and has been working on that for quite some time now. It's a feel-good story for sure, and here's what Merson had to say about his struggles:
"Yeah I thought I had it all figured out at a young age. I thought I had my s*** together. I let the lifestyle get the best of me. It was a good experience to go from being at the top of online cash games to six months later struggling to beat $1/2 Six-Max. I worked really hard to get all the way back to the highest games again, almost to where I was before I came here. I definitely have a way more positive mind set about everything. I am way more comfortable about everything. I don’t spend money nearly as much. I’m not flashy."
Merson should have the most pro-filled rail of supporters at the final table, including the likes of Phil Ivey and Michael Phelps. Hopefully, they'll help channel some of that championship heritage over to Merson.
Coming into the final table as the chip leader is Jesse Sylvia, with 43.875 million in chips. Hailing from Massachusetts, Sylvia finished Day 7 with 22.1% of the chips in play and 14.5 million than the next closest player. He considers himself a professional poker player and currently resides in Las Vegas.
Upon initially moving to Las Vegas, Sylvia roomed with fellow Octo-Niner Russell Thomas, making for an interesting twist to this final table. The two of them had dinner together from Day 2 on in the Main Event before stretching their runs all the way down to this Final Table.
When asked about discussing this dream scenario with Thomas, Sylvia had the following to say:
"Of course. After Day Two, Russell and I had dinner together every night. We would talk about our chip counts and hands we played over dinner. Then, his family came out and my girlfriend came and when all of us would get dinner I would be like, “I hope you’re the one I get to play heads up. When we got down to ten-handed, we just looked at each other. I was shaking my head and he was shaking his head back and forth. It was apparent we were both going to make it. Then, we went out and partied last night, afterwards. I was sitting with him and I said, ‘Like, oh my God, – this is incredible!’ So yeah, we’ve talked about it but it’s always been a joke."
Prior to this final table, Sylvia had $58,478 in live tournament earnings. He almost increased his live winnings by cashing in the World Series of Poker Europe Main Event, but became the exact bubble boy.
Sylvia enters the final table with the big lead, but only one recent winner (Jonathan Duhamel) was able to turn the chip lead into a win. The WSOP asked Sylvia if he were offered a guaranteed second-place finish, if he'd accept the offer. Here's his answer:
"Honestly, I would have to think about it a bit more. But my gut instinct is that I would not take second. I think the way I think about this is unique to me because I am different than a lot of people who get to this stage. There is a common thread that poker players do not care about money when it comes to playing. But I do not really care that much about money even away from the table. I have taken months off and traveled. I lived in Costa Rica for three months, where I lived on like $1,200 the entire time. I can live on no money and be very happy. Of course, we have already made a lot of money (by finishing at least ninth) – but it’s not like that’s enough money to do whatever you want the rest of your life. So, 25 thinking about it a bit more, I might accept the five million dollars. But I still think I would be a little more
inclined to go for the glory."
Whether or not Sylvia will turn his chip lead into a win, or top-three finish, is left to be determined, but he's got quite the lead to make that happen.
. Thomas checked, and Gee bet 850,000. Thomas called.
was added to the board on the turn, and Thomas checked. Gee fired two million. Thomas made the call, and off to the river they went.
, and Thomas checked again. Gee fired 4.55, and Thomas folded.
