Greg Merson, Russ Thomas, Rob Salaburu And Steven Gee All Deep In World Series Of Poker Main Event After Making Final Table Last YearMerson Looking To Defend, Others Looking For Another Shot |
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Could this be the year when the poker world sees someone makes back-to-back final tables for the first time since Dan Harrington did so in 2003 and 2004?
Four of the final nine from last year’s main event were deep this year with healthy chip stacks as of around 6 p.m. local time in Las Vegas. Greg Merson, Steven Gee, Russell Thomas and Robert Salaburu were all alive with less than 400 left out of a starting field of 6,352.
Merson won the event last year for a massive $8.5 million. Gee was the first one out, Thomas finished fourth, and Salaburu was eliminated in eighth. Both Gee and Salaburu were devastated by their early exits from poker’s most prestigious tournament.
Gee told Card Player earlier this summer that he has been desperately trying to redeem himself after blundering at the final table in October.
“It’s supposed to be the highlight of my career, but it has been like an albatross on my back,” he said. “In my mind, it was like I lost $8 million. It was also that I was eight players away from being the world champion. How many chances are you going to get to do that?”
Answer: perhaps another the following year.
On Friday, Gee was improbably on Merson’s immediate left, but didn’t appear to be giving the defending champ any trouble. Merson hadn’t cashed in a poker tournament since his victory last fall. On Friday, he and hundreds of others made the money.
Thomas, who played pretty solid at the final last year and was able to pick off a huge bluff by Gee, also had similar feelings as Gee did. “I have been thinking about getting back here since I busted last year,” he said during a break.
Thomas added that he is a much better player than he was last year.
Harrington made back-to-back final tables when the fields were 839 and 2,576, respectively. Johnny Chan went back-to-back in the winner’s circle in the late 1980s. No one has ever made two main event final tables in a row when the tournament was in the 6,000-player range.
In 2009, Peter Eastgate finished 78th in defense of his title.
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