16 weeks on from the 2013 World Series of Poker, the nine final table players who survived return to the felt in Las Vegas today to battle it out for the winner’s millions and the prestige of taking home a WSOP main event winner’s bracelet.
5 Americans, a Canadian, an Israeli, a Dutchman, and a Frenchman are all that remains of an original entry field of 6,352 players, all but one of them professional players with varying levels of experience. The odd man out is Jay Farber, a night club promoter.
Each of the finalists has already received $733,224 in prize money for making the table, and that’s all the first man to fall will get…but the prize money escalates as each player is eliminated, and the top seven spots will receive over a million each, with the winner taking home $8,359,531.
“This may be the most skilled nine players at the final table,” WSOP spokesman Seth Palansky said this week. “You expect that after the initial jitters, these guys will not be making amateur mistakes”
The final table composition, and individual chip counts at the start of the action, will look like this:
JC Tran (38,000,000)
Amir Lehavot (29,700,000)
Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (26,525,000)
Jay Farber (25,975,000)
Ryan Riess (25,875,000)
Sylvain Loosli (19,600,000)
Michiel Brummelhuis (11,275,000)
Mark Newhouse (7,350,000)
David Benefield (6,375,000)
Today’s plan is for the finalists to play down to the last three and then break for the night, returning next day (Tuesday) to decide the winner.