The final table is set at the World Series of Poker Main Event in Las Vegas. After a week-and-a-half of play in the No-limit Texas Hold 'em World Championship, the remaining nine players have a day off today before tomorrow's showdown. Two big-name players still left (and they may not even be big names to most casual fans) are American Lee Watkinson and Russian Alex Kravchenko. Former world champ Scotty Nguyen was eliminated in 11th. The winner gets $8.25 million, and every one at the final table earns at least $525,000.

One of the last Maryland players in the 6,358-player field was Catonsville's Andrew Brokos. The 24-year-old Brokos, who finished 361st and won $34,664, finished in the money for the second straight year. In 2006, he was 279th (in a field of more than 8,700) and pocketed about $38,000.

Like a lot of poker players, there's an interesting back story to Brokos (left). He was a math whiz at Catonsville High and has always been involved in debate. He went to undergraduate school at the University of Chicago, where he majored in philosophy ("which is why I'm unemployed at the moment," he explained).

He works in Boston these days running the Boston Debate League for public school students, an endeavor that pays only a stipend. In fact, Brokos uses his poker winnings to help fund the debate effort. He has been playing about three years and does most of it online. He's known somewhat for his rather cerebral Internet postings on poker and has his own Web site, www.thinkingpoker.net. "I like poker in that it gives me the flexibility to do what I want to do," he said.

However, he has no ambition to make poker a full-time pursuit.

"In the long run, do you really want to say that you dedicated your life to a card game?" Brokos said.

You know, super smart and level-headed don't always necessarily go together. It's refreshing to see when it does.

Photo credit:  Courtesy of thinkingpoker.net.