World Series of Poker November Nine profile: Filippo Candio

In this series I will take a look at the backgrounds and resumes’ of the nine poker players who managed to weave their way through, and outlast 7,310 opponents, and make it to the final table of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event.

The final table for the 2010 WSOP will reconvene on November 9^th  where the remaining nine players will play down to just two, who will then return the following day, November 10^th, to declare the 2010 WSOP Champion.

The nine remaining players are:

1. Jonathan Duhamel - 65,975,000 chips
2. John Dolan - 46,250,000 chips
3. Joseph Cheong - 23,525,000 chips
4. John Racener - 19,050,000 chips
5. Matthew Jarvis - 16,700,000 chips
6. Filippo Candio - 16,400,000 chips
7. Mike Mizrachi - 14,450,000 chips
8. Soi Nguyen - 9,650,000 chips
9. Jason Senti - 7,625,000 chips

In this installment I’ll take a close look at the lone European remaining in the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event, Filippo Candio. Candio is the first Italian to ever make the World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table.

The Italian poker pro Candio is one of the top ranked Italian poker players, and even though he is a relatively unknown commodity in the poker world, he has quite a few strong showings in live poker tournaments, mostly around Italy, including a 1^st place in the 2009 Italian Championships in San Remo, Italy that gave him a $185,271 boost to his bankroll. Going into the Main Event Candio had $248,805 in career tournament earnings.

Judging from the interviews he gave during and after the Main Event, Candio doesn’t seem to be lacking in confidence, but the rumor is he will hire a poker coach during the long layoff - perhaps one of his fellow countrymen like Dario Minieri will be up to the task?

Up until recently Candio was a member of Team PokerStars, but throughout the Main Event he was sporting Full Tilt Poker patches -Candio is still listed as a team PokerStars Pro, and the reasoning for the split has yet to come to light. Wicked Chops Poker claimed that “one of the online poker sites [I'm assuming PokerStars] wouldn’t sponsor him… which is never a good sign” in one of their blog posts. So, this could be an interesting side-story to follow, a la the 2006 Jamie Gold fiasco regarding his backers. Although most sites seem to have incomplete information on his poker accomplishments and back-story –which I find very troubling-and do not seem particularly enamored with the 26 year-old Italian.