Seat 1: Billy Pappaconstantinou
Monday, 10 November 2014
Seat 1: Billy Pappaconstantinou
Age: 29
From: Greece
Pre 2014 Main-Event Career Earnings: $104,635
Chips: 17,500,000 (6/9)Sat in Seat 1, Billy Pappaconstantinou is testament to the sheer randomness that can sometimes occur in the Main Event. Working as a poker dealer in his daily life, this is the first WSOP event that Billy has ever played, having been persuaded into it by a friend (who stumped up his buy-in). “I'm not a poker player, to be honest,” he said frankly to the press, after admitting he had no idea who any of the other players are. That's not to say he's a total novice, however – he has a flurry of small to medium tournament cashes, with a career best of 5th in a WSOP Circuit tournament for $52k.
Arguably he is in one of the worst positions coming to the table; starting play 6th in chips, it might be in his best interests to wait for some other short stacks to bust before doing anything risky. Unfortunately for him, it's unlikely he'll be able to steal many easy blinds from the button to keep himself afloat, given that both of the two big stacks are to his direct left. In addition to this, Billy doesn't plan to hire a coach, or even research his opponents, claiming he'd rather not know “how much better than me they are”. Bizarrely enough, Billy is also a big name in the competitive foosball world, where he has won nine world titles since turning pro at the tender age of 12. We don't reckon the odds are very good for Billy to triumph here, but then this is poker, and stranger things have definitely happened, so who knows.