Kelly Kim plays online at Full Tilt Poker.

A California native, Kelly's been playing poker since college. But shortly after graduation, poker took a back seat to a career in marketing. Over the course of the years that followed, Kelly came to realize that marketing wasn't the field for him – he was more interested in pursuing poker full-time. In July of 2003, Kelly made this a reality when he took down the Grand Slam of Poker, earning well over $21K. Since that day, he's pursued his passion as a profession.

For the next two years, Kelly was a regular on the Los Angeles tournament scene. He consistently posted cash finishes, including numerous final tables. Then in 2006, Kelly went deep in the WPT LA Poker Classic $9.6K No-Limit Hold ‘em event, earning over $46K for his first major tournament finish. He made his next big tournament score in the 2007 WSOP, where he cashed in two events for better than $20K.

Finally, in July of 2008, he accomplished the greatest feat of his career: Kelly made the final table of the WSOP Main Event, thus becoming a member of the famed November Nine. While he is the short-stack going into the event – he's in 9th place with just over $2.6 million in chips – Kelly possesses the winning attitude that enables true competitors to overcome these trials:

"It'd be different if I had 15 million chips - I know I'm a huge underdog and I know I need to get lucky. I'm a tremendous favorite to finish 9th, but the fact that I'm still alive is enough for me. I'm not going to move in on the first hand, I'm a very good short stack player."

Given his experience and tenacity, Kelly's far from out of it - look for him to make a serious run at claiming poker's most coveted title: the WSOP Main Event champion. Between now and November 9th, you can find Kelly working on his game online at Full Tilt Poker.