A great deal has been made over the impact that Russian players have had on the World Series of Poker this year.  In fact I remember myself doing a post on this subject which can be seen here.  In short, quite a few Russians made some major cashes during the WSOP including Ivan Demidov who is primed to make a huge cash when he plays at the final table of the Main Event in November. 

But Demidov wasn’t quite satisfied with just one final table in the WSOP as he decided to try and go for another one in London during the World Series of Poker Europe.  Amazingly, Demidov was able to weave his way through the WSOPE Main Event field and find himself in third place going into the final table.  He is currently behind John Juanda and Stanislav Alekhin with 1,006,000 chips.  Alekhin is second with 1,278,000 chips while the well known Juanda has 1,349,000.

Juanda isn’t the only player that’s well known at the final table though as poker star Daniel Negreanu is still alive and well in fourth place right behind Demidov with 1,002,000 chips.  Being so close to the top of the final table leaderboard, many people think that Negreanu has a good chance of winning the WSOPE Main Event.  But there are plenty of other solid players near Negreanu too such as Scott Fischman who’s got 732,000 chips.

Of course there’s Demidov too who will have the rare opportunity to win both a WSOP and WSOPE title (although this has only been going on for two years now).  I’ll definitely be watching to see how he does in his bid.  Here’s a rundown of the whole final table:

John Juanda £1,349,000
Stanislav Alekhin £1,278,000
Ivan Demidov £1,006,000
Daniel Negreanu £1,002,000
Robin Keston £849,000
Scott Fischman £732,000
Toni Hiltunen £386,000
Bengt Sonnert £385,000
Chris Elliott £281,000