Seat 2: Alexey Rybin, Russia – 2,698,000 | bwin WPT Merit Cyprus Classic

Alexey Rybin has led this tournament from start to finish. He was one of the last people to enter the event on Day 1A, when he joined the fray in Level 6, and he stole the chip lead after eliminating his countryman, and fellow final table member, Sergey Rybachenko in the very last hand of the night. Rybin would continue to hold that chip lead through Days 2, 3 and 4 and is now aiming to do something that very few have, and that’s go wire-to-wire as the chip leader. The 33 year old from Moscow, classes himself as a businessman, but does participate in high stakes cash games. Rybin was a part of the recent PartyPoker Big Game where he won around $20k in profit before being evicted by an audience vote. Rybin has $483,503 in live tournament earnings and his best score to date is a fifth place finish at EPT San Remo, back in 2010, where he earned $366,833 in the event won by Liv Boeree.

He will start the final table as most people’s favorite for the title.

Bio and photo courtesy of the WPT