Yorky Pud

Almost every poker player on the planet dreams of reaching the final table of a World Series of Poker tournament then going on to win it, scooping a life-changing sum of money and a coveted gold bracelet. Most never realise this dream but one of our own has done just that as a Betfair Poker regular, Harald “MJAAAAAUUU” Olsen, has made it to the final nine of Event #54.

This particular tournament is the largest so far of this year's WSOP, with a staggering 4,576 players paying the $1,000 entry fee in exchange for 3,000 tournament chips. Our hero did not win his seat into this event, instead he bought in himself after splitting half of his action with his girlfriend, and fellow Betfair Poker regular, “Elsnikus.” It looks like it could be a great decision on both of their parts as Olsen, who will go into the final table of nine representing Team Betfair, is guaranteed to walk away with no less than $53,333 and he has a realistic chance of taking down the tournament, a result that would net him and his girlfriend a combined $648,880!

Olsen will return to his seat the the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino at 1430 Las Vegas time and will do so armed with 1,025,000 chips, placing him seventh from the nine final table members. Although he is one of the shorter stacks there are only 650,000 chips difference between him and third placed Josh Evans and with blinds now 30,000/60,000/5,000a that is only 11 big blinds.

Standing in between Olsen and his quest for glory is a mixture of professional players and rank amateurs. The best known face at the table is Max Lykov, an extremely talented Russian pro who has had a great 2011 so far. Since the start of the year Lykov has more than $950,000 helped massively by his third place finish in the $25,000 PCA High Roller event ($369,490) and more recently his fourth place finish at EPT San Remo (€290,000).

Although relatively unknown on the live tournament circuit, Olsen will have to also navigate his way around Dror Michaelo who finished fifth in a $1,500 event earlier in the series and Josh Evans who almost won his first bracelet in another $1,500 event but ultimately finished as runner-up to Andy Frankenberger. Should Olsen go on an win this event he will do so by disappointing a number of British supports as Warren Wooldridge has made it through the monster field to take a place at the final table. Wooldridge is primarily a cash game player, one who is a regular in the famous Vic games that Neil Channing, Nik Persaud and Victoria Coren are regulars and Coren was present on the rail, along with Peepshow star David Mitchell, to cheer the Blackbelt Poker CEO on from the rail.

Unless the tournament director decided to let the players redraw their seats before the final table resumes, they will be seated as follows:

Seat 1: Ren Ho Zhang: 785,000
Seat 2: Dror Michaelo: 1,980,000
Seat 3: Max Lykov: 3,875,000
Seat 4: Sebastein Roy: 1,400,000
Seat 5: Stanislav Alekhin: 820,000
Seat 6: Josh Evans: 1,670,000
Seat 7: Douglas Mackinnon: 1,160,000
Seat 8: Harald Olsen: 1,025,000
Seat 9: Warren Wooldridge: 1,030,000