Men Lie, Women Lie, Numbers Don't: PPC Final Table Edition

Facts and figures. They make the world go around and, more often than not, tell a story without letting opinions or biases get in the way. Which numbers from the World Series of Poker’s Poker Players Championship final table tell that story and what quick opinions do we have?

7 – It doesn’t matter where Daniel Negreanu sits on the leader board, the Hall of Famer commands the headlines from any position but when he returns for the final table of the Poker Players Championship with the chip lead, there is an extra ounce of excitement around the WSOP’s most prestigious event. Negreanu comes back atop the chip counts and with another shot at a seventh-career bracelet, after falling short a few times earlier this summer, and if he does win, this will likely be the crowning achievement of his already storied poker career.

2013 – While Negreanu is a staple at the World Series of Poker, Isaac Haxton is recording his first WSOP cash since 2013 in this event. That’s not to say that Haxton has been away from the game since his 455^th place finish in the 2013 WSOP Main Event. Haxton has thirteen six-figure scores over the last four years, including an outright win in the $25,000 High Roller at EPT13 Prague in December of last year and a $2,500,000 runner-up finish in the 2014 Aussie Millions $250,000 Challenge.

#1 – Two formerly top-ranked online players made the final table but after Shaun Deeb fell in 7^th place, Paul Volpe, pictured above, was the only former PocketFives #1 to make the final day of the Poker Players Championship. In terms of all-around skill, Volpe may be the best pound for pound player on the planet and when you combine more than $5 million in online earnings and $6 million in live tournament earnings, including two WSOP gold bracelets, it is easy to see how Volpe lives up to his many nicknames.

$70,755 – The first player eliminated today will earn just over $220,000 and that figure, if he is to finish 6^th, will nearly triple Johannes Becker’s career earnings figure before this tournament. The German, pictured below, is a relative unknown on the live tournament circuit, save for a 9^th place result in the 2015 WSOP Europe Main Event, and has just over $70,000 in lifetime earnings to his credit. A career-best score is already guaranteed for Becker but he’ll now try to slay some of the biggest names in poker en route to his first WSOP bracelet.

245 – If it wasn’t for Daniel Negreanu and his 272 career rated Hendon Mob scores, Austria’s Ivo Donev would be the most capped player at the Poker Players Championship. “The Chess Master” has cashed in 245 career events, dating all the way back to 1999 and while he has amassed over $1.6 million in career earnings, and a WSOP bracelet from 2000, he’s never cashed for more than $87,000.

9^th – England’s Elior Sion may not have the resumes to contend with the likes of Negreanu and Volpe but in terms of what have you done for me lately, he has them all out pipped. Sion finished 9^th in the 2016 Poker Players Championship, for a career-best $116,000 score, along with a few other deep World Series of Poker mixed game runs and experience to draw from.