Germany's Wilfried Harig was not a household name prior to the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. He had cashed in four WSOP events during his career, including 35th in a $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha tournament for a shade under $17,000. Harig is not a stranger to the big stage either, winning a €2,000 Pot Limit Omaha side event at a European Poker Tour stop in Berlin for €34,780.

With almost $4,000,000 in tracked online tournament cashes in his PocketFives profile, Paul paulgees81 Volpe is no stranger to the poker community. Before Black Friday hit the online poker industry in April 2011, Volpe was #1 in the world in the PocketFives Online Poker Rankings. His biggest online cash came in January 2011, when he won the PokerStars Sunday Million for almost $254,000.

Jesse Sylvia, hailing from West Tisbury, Massachusetts, had the run of his life during the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. Prior to this deep run, Sylvia had a single cash in the WSOP in 2011, which was good for almost $3,000 and came in a $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Six-Max event. He's top dog entering the 2012 WSOP October Nine with 43.8 million in chips.

Elisabeth Hille, representing the Norway poker community, put on an impressive show during the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. While she has no previous cashes in live tournaments, Hille was in position to become only the second woman to reach the final table in WSOP Main Event history, joining Barbara Enright, who did so in 1995. However, she finished in 11th place for $590,000.

The run of Robert Corcione in the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event was his first cash in any WSOP tournament, as he finished in 21st place for $294,000. The Massachusetts native, however, has more than $100,000 in live cashes, including wins at Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun for approximately $21,000 and $28,000, respectively. His biggest cash came in 2007 for finishing third in a tournament ...

Female poker player Gaelle Baumann, who hails from France, had moderate success during the 2012 World Series of Poker prior to the Main Event. She finished 15th in the Ladies Championship for $7,716 and cashed for $5,265 in a $2,500 No Limit Hold'em event. She was the Final Table Bubble Girl of the 2012 WSOP Main Event.

Robert Salaburu, a poker player from San Antonio Texas, recorded his first World Series of Poker cash in the 2012 Main Event after failing to cash in seven previous tournaments, including the 2011 Main Event. Although unknown to most of the poker world prior to his success in the 2012 WSOP Main Event, he had several noticeable scores in 2011, including winning an event during the North American ...