Seat 1: Philipp Gruissem (Germany) -- 990,000
Philipp Gruissem is the resident high roller of the European Poker Tour. Every time there is a High Roller event being held, Gruissem's making some noise and he's here doing it again in this one.
Gruissem had an outstanding 2011 that all started back in April, just one year ago. Since then, he's racked up over $1.5 million in live tournament winnings and is only going to add to that today.
Things all started when Gruissem took third in last season's EPT Berlin €10,000 High Roller for €67,000. He then went on to finish 28th in the World Series of Poker Main Event for over $240,000, win the EPT Barcelona High Roller for €234,500 and beat Igor Kurganov in the EPT London High Roller to win the title ￡450,200.
Along with those impressive scores, Gruissem took fourth in the EPT San Remo High Roller, third in the EPT Prague High Roller and cashed in the EPT Berlin Main Event. Some would say, this guy is a stud, and we can't really argue.
Gruissem will enter the final table with just under a million in chips at 990,000. He has some tough competition on his left with Kurganov next to him followed by Daniel Negreanu and then the overwhelming chip leader Justin Bonomo, but Gruissem's proven his worth over the past year and will be a handful at this final table.