2008 WSOP Final Table

                This year’s WSOP Main Event is shaping up to be quite interesting.  This table is among the youngest in the poker organization’s history with the average age of the players being just 31.8 years old.  Dennis Phillips, the chip leader, is the only final table player that’s past his 30’s, and the youngest player Peter Eastgate is only 22 years old.

Even more interesting is the absence of well known faces.  Most all of the final table players are complete unknowns that is with the possible exceptions of David Rheem and Kelly Kim.  With all these players so green to the WSOP and some even to the sport of poker, it’s anyone’s guess who will take home the top prize and their first bracelet at this year’s Main Event.    

 

Ivan Demidov

Chip Standing for Final Table:  2nd – 24,400,000 chips or $4,372,695
Total Winnings: $65,081
Total Tournament Cashes: 3
WSOP Cashes:  1
Wins: 0
Age: 27
Started Playing Poker: 2006
Years in major tournament play:  2
Preferred Game:  No Limit Hold’em
Online Poker Room:  Sponsored by PokerStars, playing mostly online since 2006
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking: 5641
Hometown:  Moscow, Russia

 Demidov has called himself a semi-professional poker player in the past, but after November 9th the semi will likely be dropped.  Even though he’s sitting in second for chip count going into the Main Event, bookers are already giving him 4 to 1 odds of taking home the title.

Demidov is an avid online poker player and has made most of his poker winnings in that arena.  Though Demidov won’t be the youngest to earn a bracelet if he wins, he can still break a record.  If he places 3rd or better he’ll become the best placed Russian in the history of the Main Event.

 

 

Peter Eastgate

Chip Standing for Final Table: 4th – 18,375,000 chips or $3,292,962
Total Winnings: $76,084
Tournament Cashes: 2
WSOP Cashes: 0
Wins:  0
Age: 22
Started Playing Poker: 2005
Years in major tournament play:  2
Preferred Game: high stakes, shorthand or head’s up cash games
Online Poker Room: Sponsored by PokerStars, plays at Ladbrokes as well
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking:  8216
Hometown:  Odense, Denmark

The pressure is definitely on for Dane Peter Eastgate.  Not only could he win the Main Event but by doing so he would become the youngest winner of the tournament in WSOP history.  Like many poker players of the younger set, Eastgate has been spending a lot of his 3 years of poker playing in online poker rooms.  In his home country Eastgate is already well known for his online cash game playing.

No matter what with a guaranteed $900,670 going to 9th place Eastgate will go down in the record books as one of the top 10 winningest Dane’s in poker history.
           

 

Kelly Kim

Chip Standing for Final Table: 9th – 2,620,000 chips or $469,527
Total Winnings: $351,774
Tournament Cashes: 37
WSOP Cashes: 2
Wins:  2
Age: 31
Started Playing Poker:  1995
Years in major tournament play: 5
Preferred Game:  No Limit Hold’em
Online Poker Room:  Sponsored by Full Tilt for the Main
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking:  1412
Hometown:  Whittier, CA

Kelly Kim is no stranger to poker, so it’s certain he knows the odds are heavily going against him as the decidedly short stack at the final table.  But really being the short stack when there were still 13 players contending for the 9 coveted spots, Kim seems to know how to play the position.  Unlike his opponents Kim has the advantage of experience playing in the Main Event the last 5 years giving him an edge that can’t be overlooked.

Kim also clearly knows how to adjust his play to the game at hand.  He has said of his 2008 Main Event playing that his strategy changed after becoming the short stack.  It worked to get him to the final table and he’ll need that knowledge to keep afloat with a stack of only 10 big blinds.

 

 

Craig Marquis

Chip Standing for Final Table: 8th – 10,210,000 chips or $1,829,722
Total Winnings: $ 35,759
Tournament Cashes: 3
WSOP Cashes:  3
Wins: 0
Age: 23
Started Playing Poker:  18 months ago
Years in major tournament play: 1
Preferred Game:  No Limit Texas Hold’em
Online Poker Room: Full Tilt, Marquis
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking:  4982
Hometown:  Arlington, TX

Going by the online handle “craigmarq” Craig Marquis is a big advocate and competitor of online poker.  Though he paid cash to enter the Main Event, Marquis has been known to frequent online poker rooms like Full Tilt (whose gear he’s been sporting), naming online players like Phil "Jman" Galfond as the poker players he respects the most.  If he won he would follow in the footsteps of players like Chris Moneymaker, however like Eastgate, Marquis would have the honor of being the youngest player ever to win the Main Event.

His path to the final table proved Marquis isn’t afraid to bet big and put the pressure on.  In fact it was that exact scenario that led to him beating Dean Hambrick and putting him in 10th place to solidify the final table.  Regardless of the outcome it’s sure that Marquis will still be found in the online poker rooms and most likely more WSOP tournaments.

 

 

Scott Montgomery

Chip Standing for Final Table:  3rd – 19,690,000 chips or $3,528,622
Total Winnings: $406,585
Tournament Cashes: 5
WSOP Cashes:  3
Wins: 0
Age:  26
Started Playing Poker:  2004
Years in major tournament play: less than 1 year
Preferred Game:  No Limit Hold’em
Online Poker Room: Sponsored by UltimateBet
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking:  206
Hometown:  Perth, Ontario, Canada

To say Scott Montgomery has had a good year would be a serious understatement.  Montgomery has just begun his journey on the pro poker tournament circuit with all of his winnings in either WSOP or WPT event.  Montgomery started playing poker online at UltimateBet using the handle “r_a_y” he won a couple big pay outs which helped him begin buying into live tournaments this year.

It’s unlikely Montgomery will be too intimidated at the final table as he’s already been in similar situations against greats like Phil Ivey and Phil Hellmuth.  It also doesn’t hurt that he studied mathematics in college, proving once again how important calculating the odds really is. 

 

 

Dennis Phillips

Chip Standing for Final Table: 1st – 26,295,000 chips or $4,712,296
Total Winnings: $4,578
Tournament Cashes: 2 (WSOP circuit events)
WSOP Cashes:  0
Wins: 0
Age: 53
Started Playing Poker: 2004
Years in major tournament play: 1
Preferred Game:  No Limit Hold’em
Online Poker Room: Sponsored by PokerStars
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking:  8359
Hometown:  Cottage Hills, IL

Dennis Phillips is an old school kind of player, completely unaffected by the glitz, glamour and millions that come with professional poker.  He doesn’t play the game for fame and fortune, he plays because he enjoys it.  Considering he’s has a huge stack advantage going into the final table and has only been playing 4 years he must really enjoy poker.

He’s also smart with his money.  Phillips qualified for the Main Event by winning a $200 satellite tournament in St. Louise where he can frequently be found at the tables.  Anyone would be lucky to have the fiercely loyal Phillips as a member of their poker team and they all plied him to wear their gear at the bubble table.  (PokerStars was somehow able to convince him to add a patch logo to his shirt.)  But Phillips refused preferring to wear one of his company’s shirts instead because those are his people.   

               

 

 David Rheem

Chip Standing for Final Table: 7th – 10,230,000 chips or $1,833,306
Total Winnings: $706,494
Tournament Cashes: 18
WSOP Cashes:  5
1st Place Finishes:  4
Age: 28
Started Playing Poker: 1998
Years in major tournament play: 3
Preferred Game:  No Limit Hold’em
Online Poker Room:  Sponsored by PokerStars
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking:  
Hometown:  Miami, Fl

Rheem is one of the most experienced players at the table and no stranger to WSOP tournament final tables.  Rheem wasted no time getting to the casinos of Florida where he grew up shortly after his 18th birthday.  After playing the smaller stakes for some time Rheem gradually moved his way up to the high level games he’s now found playing.

Though he’s only given 10 to 1 odds to win Rheem is still a serious contender.  Though he’s placed high in WSOP events before Rheem hasn’t yet earned himself a bracelet.  He got close enough to taste it in 2006 losing to poker pro Allen Cullingham in the $1,000 NLH re-buy event.                       

 

 

Ylon Schwartz

Chip Standing for Final Table: 5th 12,525,000 chips or $2,224,591
Total Winnings: $ 258,612
Tournament Cashes: 30
WSOP Cashes:  11
Wins: 0
Age:  38
Started Playing Poker:  2000
Years in major tournament play: 4 (with exception of one tournament in 1998)
Preferred Game:  No Limit Hold’em
Online Poker Room:  Sponsored by PokerStars
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking:  940
Hometown:  Brooklyn, New York

Ylon Schwartz knows a thing or two about taking people’s money.  He started racking up at chess tables in his hometown at the tender age of 13 before moving on to the casinos where more money could be won.  Schwartz bet well along the way and going into the Main Event he had already cashed more than enough for his ME seat playing in the $2,000 Limit Hold ‘Em event.

As savvy as Schwartz is about gambling online poker didn’t slip by him.  He’s been playing regularly at PokerStars using the handle “TenthPlanet” and has focus on multi table tournament play.  He’s proven himself to be as good online as he is at live tables, taking home top prize for numerous high level tournaments.

 

 

Darus Suharto

Chip Standing for Final Table: 6th – 12,520,000 chips or $2,243,695
Total Winnings: $26,389
Tournament Cashes: 1
WSOP Cashes:  1
Wins: 0
Age:  39
Started Playing Poker: 2005
Years in major tournament play: 2
Preferred Game:  No Limit Hold’em
Online Play:  Sponsored by PokerStars
Bluff Magazine/ESPN Ranking:  7846
Hometown:  Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Suharto is this year’s online poker player hero having won an $80 satellite tournament at PokerStars to begin his journey to the Main Event.  After winning the $650 satellite that the previous tournament qualified him for the account had earned his spot to the WSOP’s best known event.  But Suharto was no stranger to online satellites having already won his way to the 2006 WSOP Main Event the same way he did this year.

Suharto isn’t the short stack by a few, but he is basically the least experienced live tournament player at the final table.  Hopefully he can use the calculating skills he gained from accounting to keep him in it until the head’s up play begins.  Regardless, Suharto has definitely played the odds right so far turning $80 into a guarantee of more than $900,000.