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In many cases, professional poker players exist for years just on the margin of fame, waiting for that big score that will make them a star and, more importantly, earn them the respect of the pro poker community. That moment seems to have finally arrived for Tristan “Creive” Wade, an up-and-coming player from Boynton Beach, Florida.

Despite his relative lack of fame, Wade has been highly successful in the professional poker world since he picked up the game eight years ago. Although he’s racked up over $300k in live poker tournament profits and solidified a name for himself in the high stakes online scene, Wade has never achieved a single win over $100k. Moreover, he’s never made it to a final table at the WSOP.

At least one of those things is changing, as Wade has secured a seat at the final table of the $1,500 buy-in NLHE event at the World Series of Poker. For Wade, this spells redemption. Historically, he’s had no problem breaking the money bubble at the biggest live poker tournaments, but his luck has always run out before making a WSOP final table.

Wade said that the timing of the WSOP was perfect this year, seeing as his online game was just beginning to peak. Prior to Black Friday, he was bed-ridden for two months due to ACL surgery, a perfect opportunity to grind the high stakes online scene.

Wade’s credentials are certainly impressive: he graduated from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor’s degree in psychology (a veritable ace in the hole in a poker game), and he became an instructor for DeepStacks University around two years ago. If you’d like to keep track of Wade’s progress in the WSOP and beyond, you can check out his blog at www.tristancre8ive.blogspot.com.