Name: Andoni Larrabe
Age: 22
Birthplace: Spain
Current place of residence: London
Occupation: Poker Pro
Employer/Company Name: Self-employed
Marital Status: Single
Children (names and ages): 0
Years entered Main Event: 2
WSOP Earnings: $20,068
WSOP Final Tables: 0
Best Previous Main Event Finish: None
WSOP: What does this achievement mean to you?
Larrabe: It means a lot, I guess. It’s just one tournament. I am aware of the luck to get here. At any point, I play the final table, I could go out. You miss a lot, but at the same time, it doesn’t mean as much.
WSOP: It’s been 13 years since we had a Spanish player at the final table. Do you take national pride in what you do in representing Spain?
Larrabe: I’m proud of being the first Spanish guy in this huge crowd, and it’s not like being French or the USA would be the same. It’s always nice to be the first one to do something for your country.
WSOP: You’re also the youngest at this final table. You’re 22, how did you get into poker; have you ever done anything but poker?
Larrabe: Yeah, I have never had a job. I’ve been playing poker for the last 4 years or so; it’s the way I pay everything for myself and the way I spend most of my time.
WSOP: You divide your time in Vegas and London; is that what I heard?
Larrabe: Yeah, the last year I’ve been doing Vegas and London. I play online in London, and I play live in Vegas. I like to switch with those two cities.
WSOP: So you don’t spend much time in Spain anymore?
Larrabe: Not much, honestly. Maybe like two or three times a year I go to visit my family or my friends, but I’m not very attached to Spain either even though I love Spain.
WSOP: What part of Spain are you from?
Larrabe: I am from Basque country.
WSOP: When you return in November, will your family come with you and cheer you on?
Larrabe: Yeah, I guess they will come. If my family didn’t come, I would kill myself. It’s going to be tough with the Brazilian crowds and with Scooby Dooby Doo coming too. I don’t know if I will have a big family come here. I will try to bring as many people as possible, I guess. It’s good to have someone support you.
WSOP: Do you have any plans with the cash you have already earned?
Larrabe: With the cash I already earned, it’s going to be the same as with the million. It’s going to be for travel and partying, obviously you have to do something. It’s going to be the same; it doesn’t change much or with the 10 million.
WSOP: During the down time, are you going to change what you’re doing?
Larrabe: I would like to play more poker obviously to improve my game even more, if it possible before the final table, so I come back strong. But it’s not going to change much, not like I’m going to do any huge thing that I haven’t been doing until now.
WSOP: Do you feel like playing seven days of this you have learned a lot already?
Larrabe: I think I have learned a lot in this tournament. A lot about everything just like what feelings do you have when you are close to a huge final table like this one. What other people think with so much pressure with where they are now, and I can apply that for the future for the final table or future tournaments.
WSOP: What was going through your head on the bubble when you moved all-in with pocket aces and you were waiting for him to call you?
Larrabe: I was waiting so much and he looked like he wasn’t going to call me, and I was like, 'please call.' Even if the king came on the flop with the two out there. I doubled up and I have the strongest hand now for the final table.
WSOP: Once that hand happened, did you feel like your chances of making the final table were pretty good?
Larrabe: Once that happened, I felt like my chances of getting the final table were really, really high unless something really big happened or something very unlucky. I was going to be there because I had enough to compare it with the shortest stacks.
WSOP: How do feel about your November Niners?
Larrabe: I feel they are really, really good players. The couple of players that I didn’t think were good are already out in the last day. It’s a really tough field with these kind of players. I don’t know many of their names right now. I have played with some of them for three or four days in a row and it’s going to be tough.