Seat 1: Bernard Lee (401,000)
Bernard Lee is from Wayland, Massachusetts and holds nearly $1.5 million in career tournament winnings prior to this event. Making this final table, Lee is guaranteed at least $48,615 in prize money and that puts him over $1.5 million in career winnings. Winning the event would make him part of the $2-million club.
Back in February 2010, Lee was named as the official spokesperson for World Poker Tour-branded Poker Room at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Mashantucket, Connecticut. When this announcement came, Lee was he first professional player to be sponsored by a major casino.
It’s fitting that Lee became the spokesperson for the casino he calls his home turf. Lee has won three major titles at Foxwoods. In November 2006, Lee won the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the World Poker Finals for $368,919. He then won the $2,000 No-Limit Hold’em event the following year at the World Poker Finals for $239,143. He third Foxwoods title came in October 2008 when he won the $600 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout at the World Poker Finals for just under $23,000.
Those wins are what Lee became most famous for in the poker world. Back in 2005, Lee had an extremely deep run in the World Series of Poker Main Event. He finished 13th out of 5,619 entrants for $400,000. He had another solid WSOP Main Event run this past summer, finishing 410th in the large field of 7,319 players to take home over $30,000. That finish came shortly after he placed 21st in a $1,5000 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Series for over $21,000. In total, Lee has four WSOP cashes.
On the WSOP Circuit tour, Lee has five cashes to make this one his sixth. In 2008, he final tabled the Council Bluffs Championship Event and got 4th. In 2010, he placed 11th in the Harrah’s St. Louis Championship Event in April. On this season’s tour, Lee took 10th in the first stop in Council Bluffs.
Outside of being a professional poker player and the official spokesperson for Foxwoods, Lee is the co-host for ESPN.com’s Inside Deal. The show offers an in-depth look at the poker world, featuring the biggest poker news going around and the biggest players in the game. Along with that, Lee hosts a poker radio show in New England called “The Bernard Lee Poker Show” and is a successful writer. He wrote a regular column for the Boston Herald newspaper and has also authored books. Needles to say, the Harvard University graduate has done quite well for himself in the poker industry.