Final Table Lineup Set at WPT London

Englishman Jake Cody seeks his second major tournament title tomorrow.

After four days of poker the final table is set at the WPT London main event – and while the names might not be too familiar to many poker fans, there are some accomplished players still in the mix. 

EPT Deauville champion Jake Cody will have one of the short stacks when play resumes tomorrow, but he also has the most live poker tournament earnings of anyone at the table with $1,215,611. He’ll be joined at the table by Kristoffer Thorsson, who won the 2009 Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam and has $1,138,389 in career winnings. 

Saarisilta Mattsson, Thorsson’s tablemate from that Master Classics final table who has won $787,040 since 2006, will also take a seat at the WPT London final table tomorrow. Meanwhile Bruce Atkinson is the elder statesman of the table, sporting a poker resume that dates all the way back to 1989 and includes 16 cashes in WSOP events. In that time he has won $637,359 – not bad for an Elvis-impersonating old-timer who mostly plays small events.

Even the bubble boy in this tournament sported an accomplished history with the game. Priyan de Mel, who has won $696,185 since 2005, ended the first day of WPT London with the chip lead, but he wound up being the final table bubble boy today when his 6-6 couldn’t best Kristoffer Thorsson’s K-9.

The man with the chip lead heading into the London final table, Italy’s Giovanni Safina, is arguably the least-experienced player remaining in the field, having grabbed almost all of his live poker earnings through a made-for-TV event that he qualified for online. But that means he’ll be pretty comfortable on set with the bright lights and cameras on him – and that might be the biggest advantage of all.

Play resumes for the final time tomorrow at 3 p.m. local time and continues until the WPT has crowned its first champion on English soil.