Seat 1: Saar Wilf (Tel Aviv, Israel) – 4,555,000
Technology entrepreneur Saar Wilf may class himself as a recreational player, but that certainly doesn’t make him a fish. The 36-year-old Israeli has amassed $288,859 in live tournament winnings, which is pretty impressive for someone that claims, “I just play the big tournaments, the ones in places that I feel like visiting. I don’t play much at home.” It certainly doesn’t show.
Wilf finished 32nd at European Poker Tour Berlin last year for €17,500, a tournament that we look back at as one of the toughest of last season. His performance here so far has been more than commendable. Perhaps it’s the freedom with which the self-made man plays, he does say that it would be “fun” to win, but that he’s unlikely to feel the pressure of the money jumps.
In other results, Wilf has nine World Series of Poker cashes including a 16th-place finish in the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2009. He also has one deep run in a World Poker Tour event coming in 2010 where he placed 20th in the Bellagio Cup VI.
He currently rates Tomeu Gomila as the biggest challenge to his title ambitions and said, “He’s the only one that covers me. He’s very active and I’m sure we’ll get in some messy situations tomorrow. I could bust to him.” Wilf may be honest in his assessment, but given that he has direct position on Gomila it may be the Spaniard that has more to fear.
Willf will enter the final table with 4.555 million in chips. That's nearly 2.5 million less than the chip leader Gomila and just a tad more than Raul Mestre in third standing.
Bio courtesy of PokerStars