Around 3:30am ET on Tuesday morning, the final table was determined in the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. Female poker players were the last two eliminations leading up to the 2012 WSOP October Nine, ensuring that a 17-year streak of no females making the final table of poker’s biggest tournament would continue. The action resumes on October 29th from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

In our last feature article, bracelet winner Greg Merson, known as gregy20723, was seeking to become the first dual bracelet winner of 2012. He was also steamrolling the Main Event’s final table, according to ESPN’s Andrew Feldman.

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The other major story besides Merson’s quest to book a second bracelet was the possibility that a woman would make the final table of the Main Event for the first time since 1995. That year, Barbara Enright finished in fifth place, the only time there has been estrogen in the final nine. In fact, two women made the top 11 this year, but went out back-to-back in 11th place and 10th place, sucking the wind out of a major storyline.

Norway’s Elisabeth Hille(pictured) finished in 11th place in the 2012 WSOP Main Event. She 3bet all-in for her tournament life with a suited A-Q and PocketFives member Andras Koroknai, who is simply known as Kory on our site, looked her up with pocket sevens for a race.

The flop of 3-4-J with two spades provided little aid to Hille, who watched as a king hit on the turn to give her additional outs to a straight. However, the river was a three and, according to coverage on PokerNews, “Koroknai’s rail went berserk. Once the cheering died down, the entire mothership began clapping for Hille as she exited through the tunnel.”

The field was then re-seated for the unofficial 10-handed final table. On the 11th hand of 10-handed play, Gaelle Baumann, representing the France poker community, doubled up with pocket kings through Merson’s J-9. The hand was not without drama, as Merson hit a jack on the flop and picked up a gutshot on the turn, but there was no upset in store, as the river was a lowly deuce and Baumann doubled to 4.6 million.

Four hands later, the last female standing in the 2012 WSOP Main Event (Baumann, pictured) was eliminated after open-shoving for 5.2 million in chips pre-flop with A-9 offsuit. Koroknai delivered his second straight elimination after waking up with A-J and the board ran out 3-Q-Q-8-K. Baumann’s rail applauded her efforts, sent her away in song, and just like that, our Octo-Nine, as WSOP officials have been calling it, was set.

Merson will move past Phil Ivey on the 2012 WSOP Player of the Year leaderboard even if he busts in ninth place in October. According to a WSOP press release, the final nine will reconvene on Monday, October 29th and play down to three finalists. Then, the final three will take to the felt on Tuesday, October 30th to determine a winner.

The average age of the nine remaining players in the Main Event is 31 years old. Jake Balsigeris the baby of the group at 21, while Steven Geeis two-and-a-half times his age at 56. The chip leader entering October’s finale is Jesse Sylvia, who calls Massachusetts home:

1. Jesse Sylvia – West Tisbury, MA (43,875,000 in chips)
2. Andras Koroknai – Debrecen, Hungary (29,375,000 in chips)
3. Greg Merson – Laurel, MD (28,725,000 in chips)
4. Russell Thomas – Hartford, CT (24,800,000 in chips)
5. Steven Gee – Sacramento, CA (16,860,000 in chips)
6. Michael Esposito – Seaford, NY (16,260,000 in chips)
7. Robert Salaburu – San Antonio, TX (15,155,000 in chips)
8. Jacob Balsiger – Tempe, AZ (13,115,000 in chips)
9. Jeremy Ausmus – Las Vegas, NV (9,805,000 in chips)

Sylvia has about 14 million in chips more than Koroknai. Over the last three years, the chip leader entering the final table has won exactly once (Jonathan Duhamel, 2010). Darvin Moon and Martin Staszko, who were the chip leaders in 2009 and 2011, respectively, both finished as the runner-up.

Stay tuned to PocketFives for the latest WSOP news.