There’s a great line in the movie Major League where some Cleveland Indians fans are discussing the Indians roster when one guy says something to the effect of “I’ve never heard of any of these guys”; well, this is likely how many poker fans feel about the 2012 version of the November Nine (revamped and rebranded as the October Nine) that will play for the World Series of Poker Main Event title in a few months.

While the names at the final table are unrecognizable to all but the most fervent followers of poker, the players themselves all appear to have a lot of skill which could translate into an interesting final table for poker purists, even if the storylines are simply not there. So for those of you wondering just who these nine players are and what they have accomplished in poker here is a quick rundown of the 2012 October Nine.

Here is a look at the three of the biggest stacks heading into October tilt at the Rio: Jesse Sylvia, Russell Thomas, and Andras Koroknai.

* Seat 6: Jesse Sylvia – 43,875,000 chips

Jesse Sylvia is the current Chip-Leader with 22% of the total chips in play and odds-on-favorite t win the 2012 WSOP.

Sylvia is a 26 year-old Massachusetts native who has spent the vast majority of his poker career grinding online poker cash-games. With just a few small cashes in live tournaments on his resume Sylvia has come out of virtually nowhere in the WSOP Main Event, but a solid finish could see him start cutting down on his 60+ hour weeks of grinding.

* Seat 8: Andras Koroknai – 29,375,000 chips

Andras Koroknai is currently second in chips with 15% of the total chips in play. He is also the only player at the final table with a WPT title under his belt.

Koroknai is a 30 year-old Hungarian poker pro, and has the single largest score of any player at the final table, a 2010 win at the WPT LA Poker Classic Main Event where he pocketed over $1.7 million. Koroknai has a bit of a reputation as an angle shooter stemming from two incidents during his 2012 WSOP.

* Seat 1: Russell Thomas – 24,800,000

Thomas is another East Coast poker player, residing in Connecticut where he works as an actuary (so he’s probably very, very, good with numbers!) and plays poker on a semi-professional basis. Thomas has three career cashes prior to his Main Event run, all three coming at the WSOP, including a final table at the 2010 WSOP in a $1,500 NKHE event where he finished in 5th place for $84k.

Tags: Cash Games, Cashes, Cleveland Indians, Cleveland Indians Fans, Followers, Massachusetts Native, Poker Fans, Poker Main Event, Poker Pro, Purists, Rundown, Russell Thomas, Seat 6, stacks, Storylines, Sylvia Russell, World Series of Poker, World Series of Poker Main Event, WPT, WSOP Main Event

This entry was posted on Monday, July 23rd, 2012 at 7:58 pm and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.