It has been a long wait, since the Final table was set in July. Of the 6,595 entrants only 9 players remained, constituting the 2009 WSOP $10K NLHE Main Event Final Table.
Now the wait is almost over. In just 2 days, the 9 finalists will arrive at the Penn & Teller Theater at the Rio All Suites Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. They will play until two will remain. Then in a heads up match, two days later the champion of the 2009 World Series of Poker will be crowned.
Here are the 9 finalists with their chip count, going into the final table:
Darvin Moon: 58,930,000
Eric Buchman: 34,800,000
Steven Begleiter: 29,885,000
Jeff Shulman: 19,580,000
Joseph Cada: 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel: 12,390,000
Phil Ivey: 9,765,000
Antoine Saout: 9,500,000
James Akenhead: 6,800,000
So, who will be the big winner of this year's World Series of Poker? Darvin Moon has a massive chip lead, going into the final table. With over 20,000,000 chip lead on Buchman, located in second place, it might be tough to catch up with him. However he has no experience with big events, and actually entered the main event through a satellite.
Of the 9 finalists, Phil Ivey is the most experienced player. He is actually the only player in the final table to win a WSOP golden bracelet, 7 golden bracelets, to be exact. This definitely places him as favorable contender for a golden bracelet win. However Ivey’s chip count puts him in a not so favorable position.
Plus, in the past 10 years only 1 WSOP main event winner has already held a golden bracelet when winning the main event – Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, who won the WSOP main event in 2000, after wining a golden bracelet at the same year. This means that having a golden bracelet or other substantial titles have no bearing on a player’s chances to win the main event. So it is really hard to predict who will be the big winner this year.
Playing and of course winning the final table of the WSOP main event is the ultimate achievement of any poker pro in the world. But it is not only respect that the 9 finalist are playing for. They are fighting for some huge cash prizes, totaling in $27M. Participants of the final table will win the following prizes:
1st place: $8.5M
2nd place: $5.2M
3rd place: $3.5M
4th place: $2.5M
5th place: $2M
6th place: $1.6M
7th place: $1.4M
8th place: $1.3M
9th place: $1.25M
Good luck to all players!
