Home / Poker News July 2012 / A Closer Look at the 2012 WSOP Main Event Final Tablists – Part 3
A Closer Look at the 2012 WSOP Main Event Final Tablists – Part 3
Posted by: Randy Williams - Sun, 2012-07-22 09:24
In our series of news dedicated to the October Nine, we’ve thus far failed to cover the players making up the bulk of the field: those with middling stacks. With a little over 13 million chips to his name, Jacob Balsiger is going into the final stretch of the 2012 WSOP Main Event in 7th place. Aged 21, Balsiger is the youngest player at the final table. On account of his age, he didn’t play in a WSOP before this year’s edition. He’s started taking the game more seriously this year. An Arizona State University junior, Balsiger is supposed to study Political Science, but he has admitted that he spends most of his time playing and studying poker. About making it this far in the Big Dance, Balsiger said that he just went with the flow, setting his sights on playing as well as he could and delaying elimination as much as possible. Well thus far he’s done an excellent job surviving. He already has more than $750k guaranteed and he may even end up winning it all, taking home more than $8.5 million.
6th in chips with a stack of 15 million+, Robert Salaburu is as good a pick for WSOP Main Event champion as any of the other October Nine members. Hailing from San Antonio, Salaburu says he’s been playing poker for the last 10 years, online as well as in live events. His live tournament winnings thus far aren’t particularly impressive, but given that he already has more than three quarters of a million dollars locked up in the Main Event, that is about to change soon.
Michael Esposito is one of the veterans of the final table. He has 16.2 million chips to his name and he definitely has the experience to go all the way. Esposito has been playing poker for a while, and his live tournament cash-trail goes back all the way to 2002. His lifetime live tournament winnings were over the $170k mark even before the
2012 WSOP.
