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Evagoras Evagorou became the first player from Cyprus to reach the WSOP Main Event final table, and he goes into the last nine as the short stack. He comes into the final table with 22.5 million chips, or 15 big blinds, from a field of 9,208 in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em world championship. Every player remaining is already guaranteed at least $1 million, and the winner will take home $10 million.

According to Poker.org, Evagorou had to go back to work before the finale. He said he is an optician with a business in Nicosia that he has run for 22 years, and after Day 8 he returned to Cyprus and was working again before heading back to Las Vegas.

He also said he picked up poker online while spending time abroad and returned in 2004 to help build the live game on the island. In his words, he was organizing games and tournaments with friends in the Greek community, and he later played mostly cash games while he kept the local scene moving forward.

That background fits the way he describes his own game. Evagorou said he is especially strong in deep tournaments and deep cash games, and that he stays calm, patient, and comfortable speaking with other players on TV tables.

PokerNews tracked the run through the later stages of the event. Evagorou entered Day 6 with 2,260,000 chips, tripled to 7,475,000 by the end of the day, and then finished Day 7 fourth in chips among the 21 players left.

After a rough Day 8, he entered the unofficial final table with 13 big blinds. He then doubled through Malcolm Trayner on the first hand and held on to make the official final nine.

Card Player said he survived multiple close calls and three all-in spots on Day 8 to get there. PokerNews added that this $1 million payday is already a career best for him, and that a win or even second place would put him first on Cyprus’s all-time money list.

The final table returns Monday, with Evagorou still sitting at the bottom of the counts and the title still on the line.