The final table of this years WSOP has been decided and the players can now look forward to taking a break from the demanding schedule and coming back refreshed in 115 days from now.
Each of the last nine players remaining are guaranteed at least $1.26 million and this figure could be even more as Harrah’s Entertainment Inc, the casino operator and owner of the WSOP, has placed the money in an interest yielding account in the meantime.
The remaining players, however, will now have their sights set on the title of WSOP 2009 Main Event Champion and a place in poker history. The player who came in 10th was Jordan Smith, a 27 year poker player from Texas,who had his pocket aces cracked by a set of 8′s, but still went away with $896,730.
Darvin Moon, the chip leader from Oakland is nicely placed with around 60 million chips and believes his enviable position in the tournament was due to a combination of good hands and close observation of his competitors. He said:
“”Everyone at this table is way better than I am. Something is helping me. I focus on the cards and I am comfortable playing…everybody is big time and a name. And they walk right by you and you say, ‘Wow, here I am playing with these guys. It’s a dream come true.”
Ironically, the highest profile player is also one of the shorter stacks on around $10 million chips. Phil Ivey is widely regarded as the best poker player in the world today and has formidable experience at the WSOP having earned seven World Series of Poker titles so far. Ivey sounded in confident mood and said: “You have no idea, I can taste it now. I’m here and today was a very tough day for me. I lost a lot of tough hands early and I grinded back — now I’m right in the hunt.”
The final table resumes in November and the line up will be as follows:
Seat 1: Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Seat 2: James Akenhead – 6,800,000
Seat 3: Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Seat 7: Joe Cada – 13,215,000
Seat 8: Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
