October Nine Elder Statesman Steve Gee
July 24, 2012 2:40 pmWhen the 2012 WSOP Main Event final table gets underway in October, Steve Gee aged 57 will be entering the fray as the elder statesman, with the next oldest player being Michael Esposito, 43, followed by Jeremy Ausmus, 32.
Moreover, the Chinese born Californian will be one of only two WSOP winners at the final table, having earned his gold bracelet at the 2010 $1k NL event, after outlasting a 3,042 player fieldĀ to scoop the $472,479 top prize. That cash accounts for most of Steve Gee’s live tournament winnings, which is hardly a surprise considering he is predominantly a cash game player who enjoys entering the occasional low buy-in tournament.
Steve Gee first started playing poker back in the 1970’s and earned a reasonable income before a career change saw him turn his attentions to software development. However, by 2007 Gee started entering cash games at the Commerce and Bellagio, and now a few short years later finds himself with a chance of taking down tournament poker’s most prestigious prize worth a cool $8.5 million.
Nevertheless, Steve Gee faced elimination on Day 7 of the Main Event after being all-in with 8-8 in a three-way pot involving Paul Volpe (A-K) and Danny Wong with 10-10. Fortunately for Gee the board ran 5-6-7-J-4 to make him the straight, and as he explains:
“I had already picked up my bags, put on my jacket and shook hands with everybody, because I knew I was done.. I couldn’t contain myself. I had to jump up and yell. I had just tripled up from 4 million to 12 million. Now I was in the middle of the pack, and I had chips to play with. Then I had a fighting chance.”
The Sacramento resident then went on to build his stack to 16,860,000 and will now enter the final table in 5th placeĀ when the final phase kicks-off once more on October 29th. If he emerges victorious in Las Vegas, Gee will be the oldest player to win the Main Event since Irishman J. J. Furlong took down the tournament in 1999 at the age of 61.