A 29-year-old Las Vegas nightclub host who hails from Santa Barbara will battle 1-on-1 for $8.36 million in tonight’s finale of the 2013 World Series of Poker. Jay Farber, a Santa Barbara High School graduate and former business student at Santa Barbara City College, cut his teeth in the poker world playing at the Chumash Casino in Santa Ynez.
Farber will face off against Ryan Riess in what’s called a “heads-up” (1-on-1) match-up. The two have outlasted 6,350 other players who paid $10,000 to enter the no-limit Texas hold ’em tournament, the main event of the World Series of Poker.
The winner will take home $8.36 million; the runner-up will get $5.17 million. Watch the showdown tonight at 5:45 p.m. on ESPN.