News / Chris Edwards / 17 July 2008 / Leave a comment

Chip Count: 26,295,000

On the 9th of November, nine players will return to the Rio to play in the World Series Of Poker Main Event final table. Out of the final nine the chip leader will be Dennis Phillips from St Louis, Missouri. He is 53 years of age and is currently single. He works as an account manager for a trucking firm in St Louis and has no plans on giving up the job.

He showed further devotion to his work when he refused some lucrative sponsorship deals in favor of continuing to wear the company's branded shirt. He later found a deal that allowed him to wear both his sponsors logo and his company's on his shirts and a small sponsors logo on his favorite red hat which is signed by many famous poker players.

Dennis took the game up around 4 years ago as a hobby and only has two major tournament cashes to his name, both in WSOP circuit preliminary events last year in Tunica. One was a 7th place for $2,192 and one for 9th for $2,386. With winnings adding up to less than half the buy-in to the Main Event, it is no surprise that Dennis won his entry to the main event after winning a $200 satellite at his local Harrah's casino, beating 2006 final table player Dan Nassif heads up.

Although he has some modest major tournament winnings, he has regularly made the money in his local tournament scene where he is quite well known. Dennis got a call from a friend of his who said that in one of the St Louis card rooms the tournament clock monitor had been changed to follow his progress and whenever he won a hand, the room erupted with cheers. When asked if he is ready for the impending poker celebrity status he replied 'No. I don't know how you can get ready for it. I'll handle it and take it day by day but you cant be ready for this.'

At one point Dennis faced elimination from the main event after dwindling his stack down to 22,000 but turned it into 200,000 in a matter of hours. After then he says it was plain sailing and he started knocking out players left and right and accumulating a ton of chips. Asked if he wanted to carry on instead of waiting till November, he said: 'I was the chip leader and was on a rush, no I did not want it to end.'

Dennis's confident, modest approach to the game has earned him a place at one of most prestigious final tables of all time. Asked about what he's going to do with his guaranteed $900,000 he joked: 'Im going to get the $9m. Im just here to have fun and play poker.'