Seat 1: Russell Thomas -- 24,800,000
Russell Thomas had $126,796 in live tournament earnings prior to this World Series of Poker Main Event run. The bulk of that money came from two large WSOP scores in 2010 and 2011. The first of the two was in the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em — Six-Handed event where he took fifth place for $84,256. The second was a 248th-place finish in the 2011 Main Event for $40,654.
Leading up to the final table, Thomas reached out to Jason Somerville for coaching. The two worked together on a short documentary series that chronicles Thomas' training leading up to the Octo-Nine. You can find all of those episodes here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5.
Thomas is 24 years old and from Hartford, Connecticut, although he grew up in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Before Black Friday, Thomas took a job as actuary for Aetna Insurance, so he isn't considered a professional poker player, although that may change with this score. When asked if Thomas would continue his professional life depending on what happens in October, he said the following:
"I am going to take a leave of absence for sure until October. If I got out in ninth place I would definitely go back to my job, because I don’t think $750,000 is enough and because I don’t have a 100 percent of myself anyways. But If I got third or something I would quit for sure and just play poker."
And despite being an actuary and regularly working with numbers, Thomas doesn't think it relates to poker as much as people think:
"Well, to be an actuary you have to pass a bunch of exams. One of them was called probability. So I have studied probability pretty intensively. The math helps, but it doesn’t correlate as much as people think. Playing poker makes you better at poker."
Thomas will enter the final table fourth in chips with an above-average stack of 24.8 million. He has a good chance to make a deep run, but not as good as his former roommate Jesse Sylvia, who starts the final table with a big chip lead. Those two shared a residence before, and we'll see if they can share two of the three final spots on Tuesday.