Foosball Champ Pappaconstantinou Reaches 2014 WSOP Final Table

The 2014 WSOP Main Event is now on hold until November 10th, when the remaining nine contenders will return to Las Vegas and compete for tournament poker’s ultimate accolade, as well as a massive $10 million top prize.
This year’s November Nine may not feature a high-profile name as in previous years, which have included such pros as Phil Ivey (2009), Michael Mizrachi (2010), and J.C. Tran (2013), but the talented group does include one of the biggest names in WSOP history, William Pappaconstantinou. By that I mean literally one of the biggest, although if he does go on to win the Main Event his 24 digits will still lag behind fellow Greek origin US pro Athanasios Polychronopoulos, whose twenty-six letter full name makes it the longest of any World Series of Poker bracelet winner.
Unlike his November Nine compadres, William Pappaconstantinou is an amateur poker player, but away from the felts the 29-year-old, who also goes by the name of Billy Pappas, is a household name when it comes to the game of foosball, or table-top football. In fact, the foosball legend has been crowned the world foosball champion no  less than nine times since turning pro aged 12. Pappaconstantinou’s chosen sport has also taken him to various locations all across the globe, and later on this month he will travel to Germany for an upcoming foosball championship event.
In terms of poker, however, Pappaconstantinou is a hobbyist who has still managed to accrue $104,635 from live tournaments, a figure that has since risen by a further $733,363, the minimum he can expect to collect even if he was the first player to exit the final table a few months from now. Nonetheless, “Billy Pappas” successfully managed to navigate past a field of 6,683 player on his way to finishing 6th place overall, and with plenty of chips in his stack to potentially take him all the way.
William Pappaconstantinou would be a popular choice for champion, too, especially at Rockingham Park charity poker room in New Hampshire, where he works as a poker dealer. As John Putis, the poker room manager, commented:
“Oh my god, it’s a surprise to everybody. I think all of the dealers, the managers, all of us, are surprised and so incredibly happy for him. He’s just a great kid, a real down-to-earth person.”
Nevertheless, Pappaconstantinou will certainly have his work cut out  if he is to get the better of his final table competitors and take down the WSOP title.
“The pressure is a little bit more here, and the money is huge. In foosball, I get to control the game and do what I do. If I lose the game it’s my fault. If I lose here it’s still my fault, but I don’t get to control it as much. These guys here are all better than me; in foosball, I am usually the better one at the table.”
The most Pappaconstantinou has ever won playing foosball is $8,000, and you can see some of the skills he needed to take down a tournament in this youtube clip here.