Chris Moneymaker is no stranger to the World Series of Poker's Main Event final table. An iconic poker player, Moneymaker is at least partly behind the fact that the game has achieved such a high level of popularity. Despite the fact that this is shaping up to be a memorable event, he says that he doesn't expect to watch too much of this year's final table, but will probably tune in to catch the end.
Joe McKeehen is also no stranger to poker, having won a Hasbro-sponsored "Risk" world championship at only 10 years old. He went on to graduate with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Arcadia University in 2013. McKeehen spent most of his four-month break increasing his bankroll by $90,125, coming first in the Wynn Fall Classic main event. Sitting comfortably at the top nine people heap, McKeehen has more than two times his nearest competitor's number of chips.
For a game full of young men, Blumenfield is a bit of an anomaly. He and Pierre Neuville can boast that they are the oldest competitors to have reached the final table in the modern era. The U. C. Berkeley graduate has a bachelor's degree in political science and a master's degree in methodology and comparative communism.
He said that it was a computer science and statistics course that was life-changing for him. This course led him to co-found Elastic Intelligence, a company that went on to sell to Intuit in June 2013. He left this tech company just before the main event started in July. Blumenfield says he had had enough of tech work and is now ready to play more tournaments.