Will Jones is a 22-year-old professional poker player hailing from Hobart in Tasmania. Unlike many of the world's new generation poker players, Jones prefers to hone his skills in live cash games rather than on the virtual felt and has spent much of his time successfully grinding high stakes cash games in both Las Vegas and Macau.
While this is guaranteed to be Jones' largest tournament score to date, he was part of the Tasmanian team that won the State of Origin event at Crown Casino earlier in the week. A quiet persona disguises Jones' aggressive style and with 730,000 in chips to start the final table, he'll be a genuine contender for the title.
Van Marcus is a 28-year-old professional poker player from Melbourne, Australia. Perhaps the player at the final table with the most global notoriety, Marcus has been playing poker for 10 years. In 2008, Marcus won the PokerStars.netAPPT Manila Main Event, collecting just over USD $160,000 in prize money. Marcus has three WSOP final tables under his belt, and career tournament earnings of more than $1.2 million. Marcus considers himself an online pro and noted that Tom Dwan and Phil Galfond have influenced his approach to the game.
The APPT Melbourne Main Event final table will be a family affair for Van, as his great uncle Steve Bouya will be sitting across the table in the six seat. When Van’s not playing cards, he enjoys traveling, watching movies and partying. Marcus will begin the final table with the second-shortest stack.
Eddie Mascadri lives in Brisbane, Australia and has been playing poker for about four years. Mascadri is a hobby player with just one live result on his tournament resume: a 17th-place finish at the 2010 APPT Auckland Main Event (NZD $7,200).
The 42-year-old works as a courier in Brisbane and enjoys soccer and Aussie Rules football in his spare time. Mascadri is a regular at his local pub poker game and hopes to return home to Brisbane later this week with a $330,000 story to tell. He’ll have his work cut out for him at the final table, however, starting the day as the short-stack with 335,000 in chips.
