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July 19, 2010 at 3:51 am | Poker News | | Written by: spenda
The 2010 World Series of Poker is nearing an end, in fact, there are only nine players remaining out of a Main Event which nearly set a new attendance record. With so few left standing one might infer the tournament will be over quickly…not so fast! The past few years the Rio, ESPN, and the WSOP came to the conclusion that delaying the final table until November is the best way to gain maximum exposure for the event and the game of poker. This idea was coined the “November Nine” and has been in place for three years.
Twenty-seven players were on hand last night vying for these prestigious spots that also come with amazing sponsorship possibilities. There were plenty of big names who fell just short including Adam “Roothlus” Levy (12th), Hasan Habib (14th), Matt “mcmatto” Affleck (15th), Benjamin Statz (16th), Scott Clements (18th), William Thorson (22nd), and Johnny Lodden (27th). While a lot of those names may not be all that familiar to the casual poker fan they are certainly big names in the online and live poker world. Any of the above professionals would have been a great addition to the final table and not only raised publicity, but the level of play as well.
Still, the November Nine is full of very good poker players and one world-renowned professional. Much like last year with Phil Ivey leading the way, this year Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi heads to the final table as the overwhelming people’s favorite. Mizrachi is looking to complete what might be the biggest WSOP in history as earlier this year he won the $50,000 Players Championship for $1,559,046. With a $8,944,138 first place prize in the Main Event Mizrachi could very well earn more than $10,000,000 in 2010. Mizrachi was no stranger to huge scores before the 2010 series having won the Borgata Winter Open for $1,173,373 and the LA Poker Classic for $1,859,909 previously.
Still, winning the Main Event will not be easy for Mizarchi. Not only does he enter the final table with the 3rd smallest snack in 7th place but he also has 8 very formidable opponents to deal with. Final table chip leader Jonathan Duhamel holds nearly 66,000,000 of the 219,570,000 chips in play. The young poker professional has already cashed twice as this years WSOP including a 15th place finish in Event #56 for $37,276. The biggest score of his career came at the 2008 EPT Prague where he made just over $42,000. John Dolan finds himself in 2nd place with about 20,000,000 less chips that Duhamel. With one final table already to his name at this year’s series he might be one of the more comfortable players when the Main Event resumes in November. Dolan finished 6th in Event #36 in June for $82,804. The $1,000 event won by Scotty Montgomery was one of the biggest tournaments of the series with over 2,559 players. Say what you want about tournaments, but getting to the final table of both of these events is an extremely impressive feat. After the first two competitors there is a steep drop-off in chip counts and quite a log jam between Joseph Cheong in 3rd and Mizrachi in 7th. Less than 10,000,000 chips separates the 5 players in the middle of the pack which will certainly lead to interesting final table dynamics. The two shortest stacks have under 10,000,000 chips and will have about less than 20 Big Blinds when play resumes. With the difference between 8th and 9th place being more than $230,000 and another $310,000 between 7th and 8th the viewing audience could see quite a bit of stalling from the shorter stacks. The full final-table payouts can be found below:
1. $8,944,138
2. $5,545,855
3. $4,129,979
4. $3,092,497
5. $2,332,960
6. $1,772,939
7. $1,356,708
8. $1,045,738
9. $811,823
The jury is still out on when the actual restart of the final table will be. We do know it is slated for November and will be shown “live” on ESPN. The past two years the tournaments, which promoted as being live, has actually been shown one day delayed to handle editing issues. Either way the tournament will begin on the 9th or 10th and be shown on ESPN the next day. Live poker is not the most riveting spectator sport even with millions of dollars on the line. Still, there are sure to be at least nine people who will not be able to sit still over the next 3.5 months. Be sure to check back here for more updates and in-depth profiles on the players you see below:
1. Jonathan Duhamel t65,975,000
2. John Dolan t46,250,000
3. Joseph Cheong t23,525,000
4. John Racener t19,050,000
5. Matthew Jarvis t16,700,000
6. Filippo Candio t16,400,000
7. Michael Mizrachi t14,450,000
8. Soi Nguyen t9,650,000
9. Jason Senti t7,625,000
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