William Pappaconstantinou is about to join the World Series of Poker event and will be one of the pro players to sit on the finalists table. Even if he does not become the finalist, he already has a personal record to be proud of.
His family name is the longest one of the players, who have ever participated in a WSOP final table. That is one of the reasons he has a more famous nickname he is usually referred to in the media – Billy Pappas. The 29-year-old player from Massachusetts explains that this nickname saves a lot of time for a lot of people.
His humble character can be felt by how he thinks of himself – the only amateur player at the upcoming WSOP main event, despite having over 17 million chips. The nine finalists are often called ‘November Nine’.
Another interesting fact about Billy Pappas is that he has another passion, a table sport called foosball. He is considered to be one of the best players in the world and has been travelling to international events, earning great amounts of money. He has earned more money from foosball than from professional poker ($16,000).
Therefore, the WSOP Main Event is something huge for his poker career and he said that he would give his best to win it. He commented that many of his friends jokingly had warned him that a ‘distant cousin’ may contact him if he wins big at the WSOP. Most of his friends had been surprised to find out he played poker good enough to qualify for the November Nine. Currently, he has been sponsored by Draft Kings and is awaiting a few other sponsors to make their offers.
He shares that he is also interested in roulette and blackjack, with craps being his favourite. He doesn’t describe himself as a constant bidder on sports, but he does bet on sports every once in a while.
Billy Pappas shared that he didn’t think he was doing his best to prepare yet, but he planned to watch all former WSOP events, wrote down the strategies and moves that had worked before as well as researched into each of his opponents. When asked who might have been the strongest finalist of the Nine, he explained that all are pretty good and he couldn’t rank them yet, but he was sure that none of them felt threatened by him, which may have been both a good and a bad thing.
He gave an example with last year’s WSOP final table where the best player with most chips – J.C. Tran, who did not win at the end which led to the conclusion that it is everyone’s game. Billy Pappas is confident that he can win and if he does, he plans to buy his mother a house. She has supported him in anything he does and is the most important person for him.
