Jesse Sylvia will enter the 2012 World Series of Poker main event final table as the chip leader, with his 43,875,000 representing approximately 22% of the chips in play. The 26-year old American’s biggest previous score was a runner-up finish in a Caesar’s Palace $225 buy-in event for $15,000. Now, he’s a favorite to capture the $8.5 million first-place prize and the title of 2012 WSOP main event champion.
Sylvia’s late-game rise to the lead got started when he won a massive coin flip when his K
Q
overcame Robert Saluburu’s pocket jacks to double his stack to 17 million, and he continued to build from there.
“It’s very exciting to have the chip lead. A lot can still happen, and a lot will happen, but it leaves me room for bad stuff to happen and I can still recover, which is all I can ask for in a tournament,” said Sylvia. “The structure has been more than amazing, and I have stack right now where, some things can wrong and I’ll still be able to push my edges. I think I have a big edge, so I’m going to go ahead and keep doing that.”
The West Tisbury, Massachusetts native has been a professional live cash game player for a number of years. In 2010 he rented a place in Las Vegas during the World Series with a few online poker players, including fellow October Niner Russell Thomas, who Sylvia credits as being a huge formative influence on his poker game.
With a nearly $7.8 million difference between finishing ninth and winning, Sylvia decided to seek out the coaching of two-time gold bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst to help develop his tournament game and give himself the best shot to convert his chip lead into a win.
Selbst finished 73rd in this event herself, and along the way was able to spend a number of hours at the table with Sylvia and some of his final table opponents.
“We played together a little bit on day 6, and we met there,” said Selbst. “He is going into the final table with the chip lead, and I’ve had a number of times when I have had the chiplead going into the final table I have had good results based on that, so I think he was interested to hear my thoughts and work with me.”
With his experience as a cash game player, his coaching from Selbst and the chip lead, Sylvia is definitely going to be a force to be reckoned with at this final table.
