Maryland professional poker player 24 year old Greg Merson is now officially the winner of the World Series of Poker Main Event 2012. Having seen off 6,598 opponents to take away $8.5 million dollars and the title of ‘King of Poker’ 2012.

 The final session lasted for almost 12 hours and the 4 players left of the ‘October Nine’  were very tight by all accounts but in the end Greg Merson’s king high was enough to outlast Jesse Sylvia’s queen jack suited. The win also makes him the leader of the top poker players in the World, ahead of poker legend Phil Hellmuth.

The unlucky story of the tournament was 21 year amateur old Jake Balsiger who was looking to be the youngest champion ever. He came third after his queen ten was beaten by Greg Merson’s king queen. Not only was he knocked out but he had to go and finish of his assignment on the Supreme Court which is due in today for his course at Arizona State University.

Here is the standings of the October Nine

 1st Greg Merson – $8,531,853
2nd Jesse Sylvia – $5,295,149
3rd Jake Balsiger – $3,799,073
4th Russell Thomas – $2,851,537
5th Jeremy Ausmus – $2,155,313
6th Andras Koroknai – $1,640,902
7th Michael Esposito – $1,258,040
8th Robert Salaburu – $971,360
9th Steven Gee – $754,798

The dedicated reporter Grumps flew out to Las Vegas primarily to celebrate a birthday, but, also to let us know what was happening on the ground during the World Series of Poker 2012. Sadly, the lure of cheap drink and fruit machines seems to have had a bigger pull than writing an article on the leading up to the ‘November Nine’.

Just for the record Jesse Sylvia, Andras Koroknai, Greg Merson, Steve Gee, Robert Salaburu, Jeremy Ausmus, Russell Thomas, Michael Esposito and Jake Balsiger are the people who will battle out for the glory of being the champion. As for Grumps, well he will have some explaining to do and hopefully he will not hide behind his wife for safety.