Seat 8: Andras Koroknai -- 29,375,000
By making the World Series of Poker Main Event final table, Andras Koroknai has become the first Hungarian player to do so. That also makes him eligible to become the first Hungarian Main Event champion the WSOP has ever seen, and he's got a solid chance to earn that honor as he stands second in chips with 29.375 million.
Entering this final table, Koroknai has over $1.84 million in live tournament earnings. The bulk of that comes from one major score. Back in 2010, Koroknai won the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic for nearly $1.79 million after topping a field of 745 players. Other notable cashes on his record include two in-the-money finishes in previous WSOP events. One of those was the 2010 Main Event where Koroknai placed 339th for $36,463.
Koroknai surged into the final table on Day 7 by busting Elisabeth Hille in 11th place, then Gaelle Baumann in 10th place. Interestingly enough, both were women and one (Baumann) was a player Koroknai had a little bit on controversy with prior.
Koroknai and Baumann were involved in a pot where Baumann had raised, Koroknai had announced she was all in, and then Koroknai mucked his hand before Baumann could act. You can read about the hand here, and it generated a lot of chatter from the community. What's even more interesting is that Koroknai told Robert Salaburu, "The French girl is mine," upon reaching the 10-handed final table. If anyone's going to be the bad guy at this final table, it's surely Koroknai.
When asked about eliminating both females from the event, Koroknai said:
"I hadn’t thought about it. When I sit down at the table, I don’t care if it’s a male or female player, everybody is equal and everybody wants to win. Everybody is each other’s opponents. There is no friendship at the poker table."
Koroknai is 30 years old and considers himself a professional poker player.