Ukranian Makes Final Table of WSOP Main Event

This year's Final Table of the World Series of Poker Main Event will feature quite the story line as a Ukrainian player will be represented.  Ukraine sits on the world's stage as the nation entered into a second year of war following an invasion by Russia.  On top of everything else, the WSOP is set to pay out a record $12,100,000 first-place prize.

Ruslan Prydryk (pictured below) is a Ukrainian poker player with $461,758 in live tournament earnings.  His first recorded live tournament cash came in 2009 during a small-stakes tournament in Czechia where he walked away with $699.

The biggest payout of his career was that same year when he finished in fifth place at EPT Warsaw for his only six-figure score of $104,637.

Prydryk held the 6th largest chip stack coming into the Main Event.

Leading the final nine at the end of Day 8 is Seattle's Adam Walton with 143,800,000 chips.  He previously made it as deep as 42nd place in the Main Event just two years ago.

“I mean honestly, it feels like a dream," he told PokerNews at the end of Day 8. "It feels fake. I went from randomly playing the Main, I had like 12,000 chips in the beginning, and (now) this is happening. It’s been like the time of my life. It’s crazy.”

In all, three players will represent the United States, two from the United Kingdom, and one each from Spain, Italy, Germany and Ukraine.

Seat    Player    Country    Chip Count    Big Blinds
     1    Steven Jones    United States    90,300,000    75
     2    Juan Maceiras    Spain    68,000,000    57
     3    Daniel Holzner    Italy    31,900,000    27
     4    Adam Walton    United States    143,800,000    120
     5    Ruslan Prydryk    Ukraine    50,700,000    42
     6    Dean Hutchison    United Kingdom    41,700,000    35
     7    Toby Lewis    United Kingdom    19,800,000    17
     8    Daniel Weinman    United States    81,700,000    68
     9    Jan-Peter Jachtmann    Germany    74,600,000    62

- Ace King, Gambling911.com