2013 WSOP Final Table Gets Underway In Las Vegas Today

Nearly four months of waiting is almost over as the 2013 WSOP Main Event final table is set to get underway today at 5:30 p.m Las Vegas time (8 p.m. ET) on Monday, November 4th, at the Penn & Teller Theater in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino.
The No-Limit Hold’em World Championship started back on July 7th in Las Vegas with 6,352 hopefuls putting up the $10k entry fee to create a prize pool worth nearly $60 million. In total, 648 places got paid with 10th place finisher and 2001 Main Event winner Carlos Mortensen collecting $573,204 for falling just short of another final table appearance.
From the overall prize pool, $26,667,430 or 44% of the overall tally is still up for grabs. Consequently, the least any one of the ‘November Nine’ can now expect to receive is a $733,224 paycheck, with a huge $8,359,531 payday reserved for the eventual winner. So far each of the finalists have played around 70 hours spread over nine days and two more days of action is all that now stands between them and an honoured place in the WSOP history books.
The $10k World Championship will resume with blinds starting at 200k/400k with a 50k ante, with five of the final nine players hailing from the US. Entering the final table as chip leader is two-times WSOP bracelet winner JC Tran (38m), with clear daylight between himself and Israeli Amir Lehavot in second spot on a 29.7m stack. Also competing at the final table is Marc McLaughlin (Canada) with 26.525m, Jay Farber with 25.975m, Ryan Reiss with 25.875m, Sylvain Loosli (France) with 19.6m, Michiel Brummelhuis (Netherlands) with 11.275m, Mark Newhouse with 7.35m, and a short-stacked David Benefield with 6.375m.
Nevertheless, the 27-year-old online legend David “Raptor ”Benefield was also the short-stack with 27 players on Day 7, and when he returns to the final table will have the advantage of having four of the big stacks to his right, including table leader JC Tran to his immediate right.
Today, Monday, November 4th will see the “November Nine” reduced to either two or three players, depending on the time, who will then return the following day to decide the title. Don’t forget to catch all the virtually live action (15-minute delay) on ESPN today at 5:45pm PT. and on Tuesday at 6:00pm PT.