It's over. After 13 hours of play and 399 hands, the American poker pro Greg Merson, 24, was crowned the champion of the 43rd Annual World Series of Poker Main Event! Merson sat down at the final table two days ago with the third largest stack. After about seven and a half hours of play, only three players had chips left and Merson had 88.35 million chips - about 26 million more than his closest opponent, Jesse Sylvia.
After about seven and a half hours of play, Day 8 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event and the first night of the final table came to an end. The final 3 players who still have the chance of taking home the $8.5 million first prize and the world champion title are Greg Merson, Jesse Sylvia and Jacob Balsinger - all from the U.S. (the only non-U.S. player, Andras Koroknai, was eliminated in 6th place for $1.6 million).
Greg Merson, who was ranked third when the final table kicked off, had an amazing winning streak during Day 8. When Day 9 begins tonight, he will bring a massive 88.35 million stack to the table - about 26 million more than Jesse Sylvia, who had the lead when the final table kicked off yesterday. Balsiger, who eliminated Russel Thomas in 4th place and put an end to Day 8, will bring 46.8 million chips to the final table when play resumes. Day 9 is scheduled to kick off tonight at 5:45 PM local time. Until then, check out the interviews below (taken from WSOP's website).
The 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event started on July 7, 2012 with 6,598 players each putting up $10,000 to create a $62,031,385 prize pool. Today, after about a 3 month break, the final nine players ("The October Nine") will meet again at the Rio in Las Vegas and fight for the remaining $27,285,025 in prize money and, of course, the world champion title!
It ended up being Jason Lavallee and Ludovic Lacay who battled it out for the EPT Sanremo main event title yesterday. The heads up battle began after the two players agreed a deal - €644,910 to Lacay and €538,089 to Lavallee, with €100,000 and a Slyde watch left to play for. It was set to be a short match. Sure enought, it only took about 40 minutes until a winner had been crowned...
A big congratulations to Phil 'The Poker Brat' Hellmuth who outlasted a field of 420 players in the 2012 WSOPE Main Event in Cannes, France! This was the poker legend's bracelet victory number 13, and it occurred only three months after his 12th win at the WSOP (Event #18: $2,500 Seven Card Razz)!
Today the WSOP Europe Main Event final table will be played, and guess what? It will be one of the best final tables in a very long time! Phil Hellmuth has the lead with 3,434,000 chips and the chance of winning his 13th gold bracelet! Joseph Cheong (1,966,000 chips - ranked 3), the third-place finisher in the WSOP Main Event in 2010, is looking for his first gold bracelet victory! Jason Mercier (652,000 chips - ranked 7), the man who's widely considered one of the world's best tournament players, is on the hunt for a third gold bracelet. Below is a brief introduction of the 8 finalists who will be fighting for a first place prize of €1,022,376!
The 2012 WSOP Main Event attracted 6,598 players and became the fifth-largest Main Event in history. Nearly 2 weeks and more than half a million hands after that the $10,000 buy-in event kicked off, only 9 players remain with the chance of winning the gold coveted bracelet that comes along with the $8.5 million first prize! Yesterday we presented 4 of the 9 finalists. Here is some brief information on the other October Niners (ranked according to stack size).
The 2012 WSOP Main Event attracted 6,598 players and became the fifth-largest Main Event in history. Nearly 2 weeks and more than half a million hands after that the $10,000 buy-in event kicked off, only 9 players remain with the chance of winning the gold coveted bracelet that comes along with the $8.5 million first prize! Here you can read about 4 of the finalists (ranked according to stack size).
The Main Event attracted 6,598 players (from 82 different countries, aged from 21 to 92) this year. Now, after that Day 1 a b c, Day 2 a b c, Day 3,4,5,6 & 7 have been completed, only 9 players remain and have the chance of winning the gold coveted bracelet and the $8.5 million first-place prize!
The European Poker Tour Deauville Main Event is now finally down to a last table with 8 players. Paul Guichard, from France, holds the narrow lead over Vadzim Kursevich from Belarus. Guichard, who's known as one of the best players on PokerStars.fr, began the last day before the final table with 1.7 million. About 6 hours later, he had turned that stack into amazing 5,955,000.
The hottest name on the final table is of course Team PokerStars Pro Luca Pagano. This is his 20th cash and his seventh EPT final table. Today he will bring 2,010,000 to the final table and is second to last in chips. But with his final table experience he's still one of the favorites to take down the tournament.
There are some amazing cash prizes on the final table today. The winner will get a stunning 875,000 Euro, while the second place finisher gets 557,000 (could easily be the first prize in any major tournament). All the remaining players are guaranteed to get away with at least 67,200 each.
The second ever Epic Poker League Main Event is down to a final table, and, as you can see below, it's not lacking in talented and well-known players. However, the biggest name on the final table is Erik Seidel who's had an amazing live tournament year. Seidel will bring 1,031,000 chips to the final table - only David Steicke has more chips - 1,059,000. Steicke and Isaac Baron (3rd place - 876,000 chips) will most probably be Seidel's biggest threats on the final table.
The EPT Barcelona main event has now been narrowed down to a final table with 8 players. Tomeu Gomila, from Spain, is still in the chip leader, however, his lead is even greater now than when Day 4 started. In total, he will 6,985,000 chips to the final table today - the 2 closest competitors have about 4.5 million each. So, Gomila is definitely the big favorite to take home the €850,000 first prize and the biggest poker tournament ever held in Spain.
The only big name who made it to the final table is the Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov. But things are not looking very good for him at the moment since he only has 690k left and the blinds will be 25,000 - 50,000 with a 5k ante. Well, anything is possible in the game of poker so we will just have to wait and see what happens.
Nine days have now passed since the 2011 WSOP Main Event final table was set, and we are really sorry that we haven't been able to put up the news until now. Now, below you will find the 9 finalists and some brief information about each one of them (information taken from the official WSOP website). The final table (televised) will be played in the first week of November.
8 of the 9 finalists are guaranteed at least $1 million each, and the winner will become the World Champion and receive a prize check of almost 9 million dollars! All of the finalists have plenty of chips to work with, so expect it to be one of the most interesting final tables in WSOP history!
Yesterday the 4th day of the EPT Madrid Main Event was played. After many hours of play, the 24-player field had been narrowed down to 8 players and the tournament director called it a day. In a few hours, it's finally time for the final table to start. Up for grabs is a first place prize of €1,5 million, which is one of the top prizes in EPT history.
After 6 days of play, the EPT San Remo final table is finally set! Below are the 8 finalist who will battle it out today in order to make it all the way to the title and the first place prize of €930,000.
Today it's finally time for the EPT London Main Event Final Table. Eight of 848 players have made it this far and they will now fight for a big piece of the huge prize pool, and of course the EPT title. Chip leader is Kyle Bowker (USA), closely followed by no one else than John Juanda (USA) who has won millions of dollars, played lots of final tables and also won 4 WSOP Bracelets. Both Bowker and Juanda have accumulated huge stacks and if nothing out of the ordinary happens on the final table today, then it's probably one of them who will take home the tournament and the first prize of £556k!
Here are the 8 finalists:
Kyle Bowker (USA) 7,165,000 John Juanda (USA) 7,075,000 David Vamplew (UK) 3,670,000 Artur Wasek (Poland) 2,250,000 Tom Marchese (USA) 1,535,000 Kayvan Payman (Canada) 1,29,5000 Per Ummer (Cyprus) 1,245,000 Fernando Brito (Portugal) 1,100,000
Viktor Blom (Isiludur1 according to many) and Phil Ivey were the 2 big favorites to reach the final table (and even to win the tournament) when Day 4 of the WSOPE London Main Main Event started yesterday. Even though both of them played very good during during day 4, it still wasn't enough and neither of them made it to the final table.
Below are the 9 players who will sit down at the final table today and fight for some serious cash. You might recognize Roland de Wolfe, the English poker pro, among the finalists. Roland has a WSOP Bracelet, an EPT and a WPT title since before and he's the poker player with most experience on the final table.
It ended up being Martin Jacobsen (second last in chips when the final table begun but was big chip leader during Day 4 - 441,000) from Sweden and Toby Lewis (chip leader when the final table started - 3,322,000) from UK who were the last 2 men standing on the EPT Vilamoura Final table. Even though Lewis had a big chip lead when they started playing the heads-up, Jabobsen still managed to fight back and brought things back to square after some time. However, when both players had quite equal stacks, it all came to an end after this hand...
Ladies and gents, we're only one and a half hour away from the EPT Vilamoura Main Event final table. 384 players who entered the tournament about 5 days ago have became 8. Now these 8 players are about to battle for the first place prize of €467,835.
The swede Martin Jacobson, who had a big chip lead yesterday, has lost most of his chips and is now short stacked compared to 6 of the other finalists. Toby Lewis and Sam Trickett played fantastic poker during Day 4 of the tournament and and they will bring monster stacks with them to the final table today.
Here are the 8 finalists: Seat 1. Teddy Sheringham - 1,783,000 Seat 2. Toby Lewis - 3,322,000 Seat 3. Martin Jacobson - 441,000 Seat 4. Jason Lee - 1,167,000 Seat 5. Sergio Coutinho - 872,000 Seat 6. Sam Trickett - 3,318,000 Seat 7. Rob Hollink - 259,000 Seat 8. Frederick Jensen - 375,000
The final table of the EPT Main Event begins in a few hours. Eight players are about to battle for the first place prize of €400,000. The fact that most of them aren't used to play final tables where so much money is up for grabs might be something that can affect the quality of the game. However, I'm sure it will be an extremely interesting and thrilling final table to watch no matter what. No doubts about that! May the best poker player win!
The 2010 WSOP Main Event is finally down to the final table as there are only 9 players left. However, we will have to wait until November 6th for the televised final table. Even though the final table doesn't include so many notables as we maybe would have hoped for, I'm still sure that it will be a super exciting one. I will especially keep an eye on the only non-pro Cuong "Sol" Nguyen and Michael "The Grinder" Mizrach who we used to see in high stakes poker a few years ago. Anyhow, here are the 9 finalists and brief information about each one of them.
The $1,000 No Limit Holdem event (Event 13) of 2010 WSOP attracted a huge field this time. Not less than 3042 players signed up for the tournament and created a huge prize pool - for being such a cheap event to enter. Anyhow, after a few days of poker, we have finally reached the final table. These are the 9 players who are going to battle for the first prize of $472,479.
1. David Baker, 2 553 000 2. Matthew Vance, 1 731 000 3. Steven Gee, 1 540 000 4. Nicholas Heather, 993 000 5. Kyung Han, 613 000 6. Daniel Thomas, 423 000 7. Jared Hamby, 423 000 8. Mats Gavatin, 393 000 9. Jeffrey Gross, 281 00
The payout structure is quite steep, so we can probably expect the final table to go on for long time. Good luck to the remaining 9 players!
24 players made it to Day 4 (was played yesterday) of the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event. It turned out to be a very interesting and action filled day. However, it was a bit shocking that only 1 of the top 6 players in the beginning of the day made it to the final table. Well, he made it there with a monster stack! Nicolas Chouity (picture) has accumulated a huge stack and is in a big chip lead on the final table. He will for sure take down the tournament if he continues playing as good as in Day 3 and 4 of the tournament. Anyhow, here are the 8 finalists:
Seat 1: Herve Costa - 1,590,000 Seat 2: Roger Hairabedian - 1,130,000 Seat 3: Aleh Plauski - 1,695,000 Seat 4: Dominykas Karmazinas - 2,285,000 Seat 5: Josef Klinger - 1,170,000 Seat 6: Mesbah Guerfi - 3,670,000 Seat 7: Nicolas Chouity - 10,280,000 Seat 8: Andrew Chen - 3,670,000
Day 5 of the EPT San Remo Main Event is over. It was a big surprise to many (also disappointing) that EPT Snowfest winner Allan Bække, who had a big chip lead in the begin of the day, went out already in 12th place. Jakob Carlsson (picture), a young unknown swede who was in the lead after Day 3, had a fantastic flow in his game during Day 5 and he's now in a huge lead with a monster stack of 13,525,000 chips.
If he play his cards right at the final table today, then I think he will make it all the way. Well, anything can happen in poker and it will for sure be a very interesting final table to watch, even if Carlsson is first out! Lots of money is up for grabs! May the best man win!
708 players signed up for the Main Event of Irish Poker Open this time. Now, after that 3 days of poker have been completed, we have finally reached the final table. These are the 8 players who will play the final table later on today.
Seat 1: Peter Murphy -- 546,000 Seat 2: Ben Roberts -- 419,000 Seat 3: Edmund Sweeney -- 407,000 Seat 4: Santeri Valikoski -- 1,722,000 Seat 5: Rob Sherwood -- 497,000 Seat 6: Paul Carr -- 1,596,000 Seat 7: James Mitchell -- 1,155,000 Seat 8: Declan Connolly -- 735,000
The payout structure is quite steep, so we can probably expect a few of the finalists to be quite nervous, playing a bit tighter than they usually would do. However, it will for sure be very interesting final table to watch. The first place prize pays €600,000 and the second place €312,000. In other words, we can expect a very long and thrilling heads-up.
Phil Hellmuth has won and achieved almost everything a poker player can dream of. Just listen to this. Phil has won 11 WSOP bracelets, reached the final table in many major poker tournaments, he has interests and is the face for one of the worlds most popular poker sites, Ulimate Bet. And last but not least, he was inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame 3 years ago.
So what is left to achieve? Well, he has never won a WPT tournament and now he has a great chance to do so as he has made it to the final table of WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star together with 6 other players. Phil will bring 1,150,000 chips to the final table today, and only 2 players have accumulated more chips than him, Andy Seth (1,550,000) and Mclean Karr (1,225,000). However, Phil is the one with most routine and skill of the 7 remaining players. My money is on him!
Darvin Moon, the working class hero and second-place finisher in the WSOP 2009 Main Event, was a few days ago in a radio interview taking about his game and mistakes he had made on the final table. One of their main questions Dennis Phillips got, was the one about when he folded King-Queen to Steven Begleiter's Ace-Queen and then went to his wife to tell her that he had pocket queens. After doing this, most people were thinking, "What in the world is he doing?" He knew that people will see and hear what he's doing since the final table was being broadcasted. However, according to Moon, it was intentionally done and part of his big plan.
"No, that wasn't a mistake. I felt that the people backstage were listening on those mics and sending stuff out to the coaches. She'll tell you, before we come down there, that was the plan. Because I was miked when we went down to nine players and I felt that there was some stuff being sent around. I don't trust anybody when I'm playing cards."
Joe Cada, 21, became the new World Champion just a few moments ago! He and Darvin Moon played heads-up for almost 3,5 hours, and WOW what an heads-up it was! Cada started with more than double the chips than Moon. But Moon had no plans on giving up as he gave Cada a really tough fight and even overtook the lead for a while.
The big turn for Joe Cada came when he flopped middle pair and Moon pushed all-in with a straight draw. Cada's middle pair stood up and gave him the lead. Only 8 hands later it all came to an end...
Final Hand: Joe Cada has the button (big blind 3 million), Moon raise to 8 million. Cada double-checks his hand before announcing an all in. Moon dobule-checks his hand as well before making the call. 150 million is now in the pot.
The 2009 WSOP Main Event final table is now finally down to 2 players after 15 hours of play. Darvin Moon, 45, and Joseph Cada, 21, are going to play heads-up for the World Champion title and the first prize of $8,5 million on Monday night at 10:00 PST (Tuesday 07:00 AM). Joseph Cada has more than double the stack than his final opponent, Darvin Moon. However, both players still have plenty of chips and it will for sure be a thrilling heads-up to watch.
Phil Ivey ended up on 7th place Phil ivey, the big favorite to win the tournament, played very well on the final table and it seemed like no one wanted to double him up. But when Phil finally managed to get some action, the luck wasn't on his side. Phil moved all-in in before the flop with A[c]K[s] and Darvin Moon called with A[d]Q[s]. A queen came on the flop and neither turn & river cards were to no help for Phil. Phil Ivey ended up on 7th place and left lots of fans around the globe disappointed.
James Akenhead, from England, is a 26 years old Full Tilt PRO who will start the final table tomorrow with the least chips of the 9 remaining players. James hasn't been playing poker for a very long, but he has still been very successful and won over $800,000 online and live so far. At the 2008 World Series of Poker, he finished second in event #2 ($1,500 NL Texas Hold'em). With other words, he's not a newbie when it comes to playing in the World Series.
James will only bring 6,800,000 chips with him to the final table on Saturday, and he will need to double up at least 2 times quite fast in order to have some kind of chance of becoming the World Champion.
The 2009 WSOP final table is only 1 day away folks! Don't forget to vote for your favorite to win in our "Who will become the World Champion"-poll. For those of you who want to bet some money on the November 9 finalists, we can recommend KickOffPoker who also offers a €5000 deposit bonus & 45% cashback.
Antoine Saout, 25, is from Saint Martin des Champs, France and he's one of the 2 finalists that aren't born in USA. Antoine mostly plays poker online and there he has won about $200,000. Although he has been quite successful online, he has no records of any live tournament winnings, until now. This is Antoine's first ever WSOP and he won his entry to the Main Event through a $50 satellite online.
Antoine Saout had a really tough struggle to make it this far in the tournament. No one else than the other November 9 finalist Phil Ivey was seated on his left at the poker table for the 3 last days of the tournament. Now, however, both he and Phil Ivey are going to play for some serious cash on Saturday when the final table kicks off.
Antoine brings 9,500,000 with him to the final table on Saturday. He's quite short stacked with other words. But Antoine might have some kind of advantage because of the tough fight he had the 3 last days of the tournament. And who knows? Maybe he will be really dangerous if he mange to double up at the early stages of the final table.
Phillip "Phil" Ivey was born in Riverside, California February 1, 1976. When he was only 3 months old he and his family moved across the country to Roselle, New Jersey. Phil's grandpa taught him to play poker when he was just a kid, Phil then crafted his game playing skills amongst his co-workers at a New Brunswick, New Jersey telemarketing firm in the late 90's.
Used a fake ID When Phil was around 17 years old, he started going to Atlantic City to play poker for money. Of course he was too young to enter any of the casinos, but thanks to a fake ID card with the name "Jerome" on it he managed to get in. Phil used to play for 16-17 hours straight at the casino and sometimes he missed the last bus home so that he had to sleep on a bench near the casino. The casino staff used to call him "No home Jerome" because of that.
Kevin Schaffel, 52, a father of 2, was born and raised in Miami and is these days living Florida, USA. Kevin started playing poker at home with his family when he was just 11 years old. Many years later, he understood that he had some sort of talent for tournament poker and that he actually could make some money out of it. And so he did. Kevin has cashed in 7 bigger tournaments and won over $600,000 during his poker career. Even though he has been so successful and made so much money, he still wants more...
Aiming high Kevin's ambitions with poker part from making money, has always been to win either a WSOP Main Event, or a WPT title. If he wins the Main Event, which is the biggest dream for him, he will retire straight away and play poker and golf full-time.
Final table Kevin Schaffel brings 12,390,000 chips with him to the final table and is with that on 6th place. He doesn't see a quite short stacked Phil Ivey as a really big threat (like many of the other November 9 players) and he thinks that he has a decent chance of taking home the tournament even though he's far behind some of the players in chips.
Joseph Cada is only 21 years old and the youngest player on the final table. Joseph has been playing poker for 6 years and he started playing poker online at Party Poker at the age of 16. After that, he has achieved a lot in different tournaments at Full Tilt poker. This year Joseph Cada played his very first World Series and took the world of poker by storm as he made it to 2 final tables!
On Saturday Joseph and the other 8 remaining players will have hundreds of thousands people from all over the globe watching them. It will be very interesting to see if Joseph can handle the pressure like he said he could in an interview some time ago.
After some research about Joseph Cada it stands clear that he's one of the November 9 players that people talk the most about on different forums and websites. Many think that he won't have a chance on the final table, when others think that he has a great chance of becoming one of the last remaining players, but maybe not another Peter Eastgate.
Jeff Shulman, 34, was born and bred in Seattle, Washington and later on in life he moved to Las Vegas, where he's still living today with his wife and child. Jeff's biggest interests are golf, poker, and his job as editor for a big poker magazine, which his dad is the CEO of. But it's not from playing golf, or his job as an editor that has made him rich and famous.
Made millions from playing poker When Jeff started playing poker in 3rd grade at summer camp, he probably couldn't even dream of how successful he would become in poker some years after. Jeff became a good all-round player, but especially good at playing live poker tournaments, and it's from that he has built a fortune. In total he has won over $2,4 millions from different events in EPT, WPT, WSOP etc. Even though he has made so much money from different live tournaments, he has only won 1 major tournament.
Steven Begleiter, 47, reside in Chappaqua, New York with his family. Steven is a former executive for the investment bank Bear Stearns, where he has worked for almost 25 years. His interest for poker started already when he was a kid, and since then he has been playing poker regulary, but never for high stakes as he sees poker as a social thing.
He won his entry fee to the Main Event through a poker leuage with 20 players in his hometown. Whatever his final total cash winnings are at the final table, he intends to share 20% of it with those 20 players.
When Steven entered the main event, he had no expectations more than just making it to the money. When he finally got to the money, he noticed that players started dropping like flies, which made him feel more relaxed. It was at this time his long awaited winning streak started as well, and suddenly he had made it to the final table with huge stack. Steven Begleiter will start the final table on Saturday third in chips.
Eric Buchman, 29, from Valley Stream, New York started playing poker 10 years ago and was in the beginning just a break even player. But it only took him 2 years until he started winning. During his career as pro he has achieved quite a lot. For example he has cashed 9 times in WSOP and also has some great results from online poker cash games. In the beginning of the Main Event, Eric just had the strategy to survive to the next day. But on the last day of the tournament he changed his tactic and tried to accumulate as much chips as possible so he would put himself in a position to win the tournament. As the final table kicks off on Saturday, Eric is on second place with 34,800,000 chips.
With only 5 days left to go before the 2009 World Series of Poker final table kicks off, we will put a lot of our energy and focus on writing about the November 9 finalists and other relevant information that might be of interest. First out is chip leader Darvin Moon.
Darvin Moon - The working class hero Darvin Moon, 45, lives in Oakland, Maryland and work as a logger. He won his ticket to the Main Event through a satellite at a casino in West Virginia. But even though he was going to play the main event, he didn't put his hopes up high, and he could never ever imagine in his wildest fantasies that he would make it this far in the tournament. He was wrong as the whole cards and the flops were the best possible for him from start until the final table. Now he has a massive chip lead and is the big favorite to take home the main event.
On Saturday it's finally time for 2009 WSOP Main Event final table, and it's these 9 players who are going to fight for the first prize of $8.5 million and the World Champion title.
Darvin Moon - 58,930,000 Eric Buchman - 34,800,000 Steven Begleiter - 29,885,000 Jeff Shulman - 19,580,000 Joseph Cada - 13,215,000 Kevin Schaffel - 12,390,000 Phil Ivey - 9,765,000 Antoine Saout - 9,500,000 James Akenhead - 6,800,000
WPT Borgata attracted a huge starting field this year. Not so many notable poker players, but the tournament turned out great even though the most stars decided to play WSOPE in London instead. Of the huge starting field it came to be the 6 players below who made it to the final table.
Olivier Busquet - 10,350,000 Yanick Brodeur - 5,780,000 Ivan Mamuzic - 5,655,000 Jeremy Brown - 5,480,000 Keith Crowder - 2,750,000 Kenny Nguyen - 600,000
Olivier Busquet, from New York, had a big chip lead as the final table started. It was a very well deserved chip lead, and to be honest it seemed like nothing could stop him from grabbing the first prize of $925,514. But the way to the win of WPT Borgata wasn't all that easy for the American.
Darvin Moon, the chip leader in the Main Event of World Series of poker 2009 have no interested in signing any contract with any poker site. And it doesn't matter if they try to draw with millions of dollars and nice hotel rooms in Las Vegas.
One of the finalists in the main event of WSOP this year is so disappointed on how the tournaments have been organized this year that he said he will throw away his bracelet if he takes home the whole tournament. All this in order to make a statement and the with the hopes that things will improve in future world series of poker for other poker players.
According to different poker forums and magazines, Phil Ivey has betted x-amount of money on himself to win the Main Event to x-times the money. According to one of his friends and teammates in team PokerStars, he would take home one of the biggest wins the world of poker has ever seen if he becomes the last man standing.
The 2009 WSOP Main Event attracted not less than 6494 players (who paid $10,000 buy-in each), of all these participants, only 9 players "The November Nine" still have the chance to win some serious cash on the final table in November. One of these 9 players is no one less than Phil Ivey from team PokerStars.
After about seven and a half hours of play, Day 8 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event and the first night of the final table came to an end. The final 3 players who still have the chance of taking home the $8.5 million first prize and the world champion title are Greg Merson, Jesse Sylvia and Jacob Balsinger - all from the U.S. (the only non-U.S. player, Andras Koroknai, was eliminated in 6th place for $1.6 million).
