WSOP 2013 Main Event November Niner Sylvain Loosli
A virtual unknown in among major live poker tournaments, Sylvain Loosli is one of the most intriguing members of this year’s elite November Nine. Finishing with the sixth largest stack of the 2013 WSOP Main Event going into the final table, the native Frenchman has secured his largest cash to date, guaranteeing at least $733,224 come this November. With just $3,371 in live tournament winnings recorded, Loosli couldn’t be happier to be in this position.
Despite his lack of experience in live tournament play, Loosli is no amateur. Although he discovered poker in 2006, it took him quite some time to put any real focus on his game, becoming a pro just 2-1/2 years ago. The 26-year old business school graduate spends the bulk of his time playing cash games at his favorite online poker rooms, namely PokerStars.fr and Winamax. He has worked his way up over the last seven years to the higher stakes of $25/$50, where he’s amassed more than $1 million in overall winnings.
Sylvain Lossli was born and raised in Toulon, France. Shortly after turning pro, he moved to London, England where he boards with two recognized poker pros; fellow Frenchman and former Winamax Team Pro Guillaume de la Gorce, and Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier. Loosli has surely gained some beneficial knowledge from his adept roommates, particularly Grospellier, whose superior live poker tournament performances alone have netted him nearly $10 million in profits ($9,938,869), not to mention millions more in combined online poker cash game winnings.
Loosli’s sole live tournament cash came in January of 2011 when he took part in the PokerStars EPT Deauville NL Holdem event of Season 7. Loosli was among 298 players who posted the EUR 2,200 buy-in, finishing in 24th place for EUR 2,350 (USD $3,371), a profit of just EUR 150. However, two years later, it was apparent that Sylvain’s skills at the cash tables came in to effect in the 2013 WSOP Main Event as he managed to keep his stack above average throughout much of the competition, leading him into a seat among the November Nine.
The Frenchman will enter the November Nine four months from now with the sixth largest (or fourth smallest, from a pessimistic point of view) chip stack at the table, 19,600,000; about 1 million less than the chip leader JC Tran. This marks the first WSOP Main Event since 2009 that a Frenchman claimed a seat in the final table, where Antoine Saout finished in 5th place. Undoubtedly Loosli hopes to best Saout’s performance and bring home the very first WSOP Championship bracelet awarded to a French poker player.
The 2013 WSOP Main Event November Nine has shaped up as follows, listed by chip stacks:
- JC Tran –38,000,000
- Amir Lehavot –29,700,000
- Marc-Etienne McLaughlin – 26,525,000
- Jay Farber – 25,975,000
- Ryan Riess – 25,875,000
- Sylvain Loosli – 19,600,000
- Michiel Brummelhuis – 11,275,000
- Mark Newhouse – 7,350,000
- David Benefield – 6,375,000
And finally, the calculated payouts for the 2013 WSOP Main Event November Nine will be as follows:
- 1st place: $8,359,531
- 2nd place: $5,173,170
- 3rd place: $3,727,023
- 4th place: $2,791,983
- 5th place: $2,106,526
- 6th place: $1,600,792
- 7th place: $1,225,224
- 8th place: $944,593
- 9th place: $733,224
Hyping a ‘risk game’ as an opportunity? Feels more like a naive trap.