Israeli high-rolls way into world poker tourney final table

An Israeli will be one of nine card sharks competing for an $8.3-million pot in November, after making the final table of the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas early Tuesday.

And with nearly $30 million in chips, Amir Lehavot is sitting pretty in second place.

Though he moved to the US from Israel at 16, Lehavot, who now hails from South Florida, still plays under the Israeli flag; he has asked the competition organizers to play Hatikvah, Israel’s national anthem, should he win, according to SouthFlorida.com.

With the 2nd-place finish, Lehavot becomes the second Israeli to ever make the final table in the Texas Hold’em no-limit main event, after Tomer Benvenisti competed for a bracelet in 2003.

The final nine players will come back to the table on November 4 to compete for $18.3 million in prize money. Lehavot, who has won over $800,000 — according to the World Series of Poker website — will walk away with at least $733,000.

Sacramentan J.C. Tran holds the chip lead and Ryan Riess, of East Lansing, Michigan, finished third.

Also coming back in the fall are tattoo artist Marc McLaughlin of Brossard, Quebec, and Columbia University student David Benefield of Fort Worth, Texas.

The rest of the finalists are self-identified poker pros, including Sylvain Loosli of Toulon, France; Michiel Brummelhuis, of Amsterdam; and Marc Newhouse, of Chapel Hill, N.C.

The 10th player, Carlos Mortensen, was eliminated Tuesday morning after 14 hours of play as the final day of the week-long tournament drew to a close.

The $10,000 buy-in tournament began July 6 with 6,352 entrants, slightly fewer than last year.

High-spirited, not entirely sober fans cheered on the weary group of card sharks in the dead of night early Tuesday as the gamblers entered the final stretch of the contest under the blue and red lights of an ESPN set crafted within the Rio hotel-casino off the Las Vegas Strip.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.