Calling the San Francisco Bay Area his home, Neil Blumenfield was one of the older players still remaining in the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event entering the final 27.

—

Tournament Poker Edgeis the only poker training site dedicated exclusively to MTTs and features over 1,000 training videos, blogs, articles, podcasts and a dedicated strategy forum for members. Check Tournament Poker Edge out on Twitter.

—

Blumenfield’s biggest claim to fame prior to this deep run in the Championship Event was that he was the first ever State of Nevada Poker Champion. In 2008 at the Grand Sierra Resort in Reno, Blumenfield overcame a 71-player field in the $1,000 buy-in event to take those honors and the $15,930 first place prize.

He also had other success around the Northern California/Nevada area prior to earning his first ever WSOP cash in 2010 in a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament.

This seemed to spur Blumenfield on to play more events, as two years later, he finished in 285th place in the 2012 WSOP Main Event, his best prior finish in this tournament and his previous best ever cash of $38,453.

In 2014, Blumenfield final tabled a Heartland Poker Tour Main Event at the Thunder Valley Casino Resort and, a year later, he cashed in two other tournaments on the HPT schedule at the same casino. Blumenfield also picked up his third WSOP cash in the WSOP Seniors Event in June 2015.

Blumenfield seemed to know that his tournament mortality was on the line. Coming off the dinner break, he was quite active in shoving all-in on one hand to pick up the blinds and antes and, one hand later, forced Thomas Cannuli to give up his hand on the river after moving all-in.

He entered the 2015 WSOP November Nine in third place.