WSOP Main Event Final Table Decided - Meet the "Octo-9"

After three day 1's, three day 2's and days 3-7 we have finally reached the final table (or the "Octo-9" as they are now being dubbed) of the 2012 WSOP Main Event. Out of 6,598 entrants these nine have all dodged bullets, hit miracle cards, busted legends, flopped the nuts, bluffed huge pots and made great lay downs on their way to the biggest poker paydays of their lives (well, in fact Greg Merson needs to finish 7th or higher as he took down the $10k Six Max event a couple of weeks ago for a little over $1.1 million already).

With 27 players remaining we still had a PokerStars Pro (Jan Heitmann), a couple of bracelet winners (Steve Gee and the aforementioned Merson) and a couple of ladies (Elisabath Hille and Gaelle Baumann) left in the field. As it stands the bracelet winners are both still in contention but the others mentioned have bitten the dust. Hille and Baumann were both looking to become the first female final tablist at the main event since Barbara Enright back in 1995 but both fell agonisingly short, falling in 11th (Hille) and 10th (respectively) with Baumann even getting a taste of a final table as she made the "unofficial" final table of ten.

Baumann in particular may be feeling a little hard done by given a hand which occurred in Day 4 which ought (more than likely) to have sent one of the current chip leaders (second placed Andras Koroknai) to the rail and bumped Baumann up the rankings. The hand in question was controversial to say the least. When play reached Koroknai in said hand he announced all in and shoved all his remaining chips into the pot, then, thinking his opponents had folded mucked his hand. However, Baumann, who had initially min-raised was in fact still in the pot. In their wisdom the floor decided that as the hand was dead that Baumann should only receive 60k (the amount she had raised to preflop) from her opponent. As it turned out, Baumann, who had her opponent covered, had pocket kings and in all likelihood had her opponent crushed. What must be doubly frustrating for Baumann is that it was Koroknai who eventually busted her in 10th place, just a couple of hands after she had doubled up to over 5 million. Incidentally it was Koroknai who also put out Elisabeth Hille in a seven million chip pot where his 77 outlasted Hille's AhQh all in pre-flop.

With Baumann out not only were there no more ladies in the tournament, it also meant that not one of the "end of day" leaders from throughout the Main Event made it to the final table as the days early chip leader, Marc Ladouceur went out in 14th place. Once again it was Koroknai who did most of the damage to Ladcoueur and once again it was in extremely fortunate circumstances. In a +18 million chip pot both players got all their chips in holding AK in what looked like it was destined to be a chopped pot. The four clubs which rolled off the deck however gave Koroknai the nut flush to Ladouceur's second nut flush. This left Ladouceur relatively short stacked on 5 million chips and it wasn't long before he chanced his arm with Ah7h which couldn't outdraw Greg Merson's pocket 4's.

When play wrapped up after the demise of Baumann we were left with just nine competitors, all chasing the ultimate WSOP glory and leading the way with a substantial chip advantage is Jesse Sylvia with 43.875 million chips, having practically doubled his already impressive stack in the final two hours of play when he really took advantage of his chip stack to push the table around to his advantage - a 14 million chip pot in which he eliminated Scott Abrams helping him on his way (when Sylvia's flopped set of sevens held up against Abrams top pair and diamond flush draw). Koroknai sits second on 29.375m with Greg Merson third with 28.725m. Merson is now guaranteed to pass Phil Ivey in POY year points although between now and the final table the WSOPE events could change that standing once again.

And here are your final nine...

1. Jesse Sylvia 43,875,000
2. Andras Koroknai 29,375,000
3. Greg Merson 28,725,000
4. Russell Thomas 24,800,000
5. Steven Gee 16,860,000
6. Michael Esposito 16,260,000
7. Robert Salaburu 15,155,000
8. Jacob Balsiger 13,115,000
9. Jeremy Ausmus 9,805,000

See you on October 28th when the search for the WSOP Main Event Champion 2012 continues.