2007 WSOP Chip Leader Philp Hilm

Nine players have made it to the WSOP final table that commences today, five of them will become millionaires, and one of them will win not only a cash prize of more than 8 million dollars, but the highly coveted 2007 World Series of Poker bracelet.

Leading the pack going into the final table is Philip Hilm, with $23,070,000 in WSOP tournament chips. Bodog odds makers are offering 14 to 5 odds on this player winning the WSOP.

Philip is a 31 year old professional poker player who was born in Denmark and currently lives in Cambridge, England.

Philip has cashed in one prior WSOP event, the 2005 36th annual World Series of Poker Short Handed No Limit Holdem Event (2005 event 6) where he placed 33rd for a total cash of $6,930. The buy in for the 2005 Short Handed No Limit Event was $2500.00.

Hilm earned a degree in economics from the Copenhagen Business School.

Himl began his career as a professional poker player during the ladder half of 2003 when a personal friend (a pro backgammon player) introduced him to the world of online poker. Hilm's new business had recently went under, and he was paying the bills by selling supermarkets coffee machines.

Hilm spent about a month studying and reading about poker, playing on the internet and learning the game. Eventually, Hilm was earning more money playing poker than he was selling coffee machines, this made quitting the day job and going pro a pretty simple choice.

In addition to his 2005 WSOP cash finish, Philip has achieved two cashes in the European Poker Tour, a 4th place win in the 2006 Scandinavian Open during 2006, and a 15th place cash at the Monte Carlo Grand Final in 2007. In addition to these feats,

Philip is the PokerStars.com team captain of the Polish team, who took his team to Victory, beating out the United States and Canada in the 2006 Scandinavian Open.