 Two weeks ago, 7,319 poker players took their seats in the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event. Among the many hopefuls were 18 former world champions, nearly 150 gold bracelet winners, in addition to professional and amateur poker players from 92 different nations and territories, all united by one common dream.
That dream, winning the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event championship, can and will come true for only one. Indeed, there can be only one world champion.
After 78 grueling hours of poker played over eight days, nine players remain.
After a break of 111 days, the November Nine will resume Nov. 6 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas to play at the final table for $8.94 million and poker's richest title.
The winner will be determined in a heads-up session between the final two players starting Nov. 8.
The final table seating chart of the nine players with their hometown and chip count:
Seat 1: Jason Senti, 25, St. Louis Park, Minn.; 7.625 million.
Seat 2: Joseph Cheong, 24, La Mirada, Calif.; 23.525 million.
Seat 3: John Dolan, 24, Bonita Springs, Fla.; 46.25 million.
Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel, 22, Boucherville, Quebec; 65.975 million.
Seat 5: Michael Mizrachi, 29, Hollywood, Fla.; 14.45 million.
Seat 6: Matthew Jarvis, 25, Surrey, British Columbia; 16.7 million.
Seat 7: John Racener, 24, Port Richey, Fla.; 19.05 million.
Seat 8: Filippo Candio, 26, Cagliari, Italy; 16.4 million.
Seat 9: Soi Nguyen, 37, Santa Ana, Calif.; 9.65 million.
Mizrachi won the $50,000 Players Championship during the first week of June.
The final table payouts:
•1st: $8,944,138
•2nd: $5,545,855
•3rd: $4,129,979
•4th: $3,092,497
•5th: $2,332,960
•6th: $1,772,939
•7th: $1,356,708
•8th: $1,045,738
•9th: $811,823
The Main Event started July 5 with 7,319 players, each contributing $10,000 for a shot at poker fame, glory and millions. The entries and total prize pool of $68.8 million made this year's main event the second-largest in series history after 2006.
___________________
by Nolan Dalla
 Johnny Chan among the Day Six Bust Outs
The 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event championship continued today with the play and conclusion of Day Six. This was the sixth full day of competition for all players who remain alive in the tournament. The Main Event actually began 11 days ago as the second largest live poker tournament in history, with 7,319 entrants.
Day Six began with 205 players. After 4 1/2 levels of play lasting nine hours, only 78 players survived. The surviving players, consisting of nine tables, will return Thursday for Day Seven.
The end of Day Six chip leader is Theo Jorgensen from Copenhagen, Denmark. He currently has 9,300,000 in chips, which is an advantage over several players grouped around the 7,000,000 to 7,500,000 mark.
Among those who did not fare as well on Day Six was back-to-back world champion Johnny Chan, who was eliminated in 156th place. Chan experienced a nightmare scenario early in the day when he was dealt pocket kings. The big hand came at the worst possible time, since another big stack belonging to Robert Pisano was dealt pocket aces. Chan lost the hand and became short-stacked for the first time in the tournament. He was eliminated about an hour later. Other notable names who played Day Six, but will not return for Day Seven include: Jesper Hougaard (Copenhagen, Denmark), J.P. Kelly (Aylesbury, UK), Jimmy Tran (Houston, TX), Robert Mizrachi (Las Vegas, NV), Tomer Berda (Arsus, Israel), Phil Galfond (New York, NY), Russell Rosenblum (Las Vegas, NV), Todd Witteles (Las Vegas, NV) and Matt Keikoan (San Rafael, CA).
Breeze Zuckerman, from Moorpark, CA was also eliminated. She was the last female in this year's Main Event. Zuckerman finished 121st.
The next stage of play is expected to trim the 78 remaining competitors down to 27 survivors, or three full tables. That session will be followed by the final day of competition at this summer's series, which plays from 27 players down to the final nine. On July 17th the final table players will ultimately be determined, which is otherwise known as the "November Nine".
___________________
by Nolan Dalla
 The 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event continued on Saturday with the play and conclusion of Day 2-B. This session included the second of two flights of players who survived past the initial round of competition. The first round of competition consisted of four starting days, classified as 1-A through 1-D.
Day 2-B began with 2,734 players. After four levels of play (8 hours), only 1,357 players survived. The remaining players will combine with Day 2-A survivors. Day Three is to be played on Monday, July 12th. There will be 2,557 players when play commences, which also means for the first time in the tournament all players will be competing together at the Rio.
The end of Day 2-B chip leader is David Assouline, from Hampstead, Quebec (Canada). He has 387,800 in chips, which leads all players at this point in the championship. Assouline has never been in this spot before. His sole recorded cash in a live tournament took place in a 500 Euro buy-in event in France where he won about $4,000. Assouline has never cashed at the WSOP, to date.
Also of note were the fine performances of former gold bracelet winner Vanessa Selbst (Brooklyn, NY), who finished the day ranked in eleventh place. Former world champions who survived included Robert Varkonyi and Dan Harrington.
Among those who did not fare as well on Day 2-B were Doyle Brunson and Phil Ivey. In fact, this was a brutal day for last year's November Nine players. Four of the nine players from last year's final table busted out on this day, with Phil Ivey, Darvin Moon, Antoine Saout, and Jeff Shulman walking the plank.
The Main Event continues through July 17th when the final table players will ultimately be determined, otherwise known as the "November Nine."
___________________
by Nolan Dalla
 Poker's version of the All-Star game concluded late tonight, with four-time World Series of Poker gold bracelet winner Huck Seed winning the equivalent of a championship victory and a Most Valuable Player award. Seed overcame one of the toughest fields ever assembled in any poker competition and collected a whopping $500,000 first-prize freeroll in the 2010 Tournament of Champions (TOC).
Seed won his victory in a tournament that was played, off and on, over a week's time, the most grueling stage of which was the marathon 16-hour final day, which was played over the Fourth of July holiday.
Seed is best known for winning the 1996 WSOP Main Event championship. He holds a total of four WSOP titles. His last gold bracelet win came in 2003. However, Seed has since won the NBC Heads-Up poker championship held at Caesars Palace Las Vegas, and finished high in a number of other major events, as well.
Following his victory at the Rio in Las Vegas, Seed was both gracious and thankful for the opportunity to compete among such a stellar field of fellow superstars. "I felt like this was a team thing, me and everyone who voted for me," Seed said. "There were a lot of great players in this event. It was fun to compete. It was like a reunion of the old school players."
Indeed, this year's TOC brought together many of the world's best and most popular poker players in an event that was designed to be a made-for-TV spectacle. The tournament was filmed for later broadcast by ESPN. Many of the 27 total seats were determined by a public vote. More than 350,000 votes were cast prior to the start of the tournament. In all, 20 seats were filled by popular vote. Other seats were automatically filled by the reigning WSOP and WSOP Europe Main Event champions, as well as by three former TOC winners.
Oddly enough, Huck Seed ranked 13th in the voting out of the 20 players who made the final cut. But there was nothing superstitious about his methodical approach to the tournament, during which he overcame several chip disadvantages en route to an ultimately satisfying victory.
The end of Day One chip leader was Mike Matusow. The end of Day Two chip leader was Daniel Negreanu. But Seed ended up with all the chips at the conclusion of Day Three, raking in half of the $1 million prize pool, posted by Harrah's and the WSOP.
"I'm not much of a self-promoter," Seed said when questioned about his typical low-key approach to the game. "I just love to play poker. Sometimes, when you love to do something it shows and it produces results."
The runner up was Howard "the Professor" Lederer, a two-time WSOP gold bracelet winner. Lederer battled Seed and the third-place finisher Johnny Chan for nearly 90 minutes before losing on the final hand of the night to Seed's pair of aces. Lederer collected a nice consolation prize amounting to $250,000.
"I'm thrilled with the way I played, but I'm very disappointed I did not win," Lederer said afterward. "Huck is underrated in terms of poker history. He's playing as well as anyone in the world right now, that's not named Ivey."
Others who cashed included: Johnny Chan (3rd for $100,000), Joe Hachem (4th for $25,000), Barry Greenstein (5th for $25,000), Daniel Negreanu (6th for $25,000), Jennifer Harman (7th for $25,000), Annie Duke (8th for $25,000), and T.J. Cloutier (9th for $25,000).
The idea for holding a Tournament of Champions originated in the late 1990s. But it was not until 2004 that the WSOP first held a TOC, which was won by Annie Duke. The following year, Mike Matusow won the championship. In 2006, Mike Sexton won the TOC. The tournament then took a two-year hiatus before returning to this year's WSOP schedule.
___________________
by Nolan Dalla
|
|
|
