2015 WSOP Final Table: Just Six Players Remain

After almost four months of waiting, the November Nine finally returned to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Sunday, 8th November. Five hours of action later, and their numbers was reduced to just six competitors who, following an overnight break, will play down to a final three later today.
At the start of play, Joe McKeehen (photo) was the chip leader on a 63,100,000 stack, with a second place Zvi Stern a long way back on 29,800,000 in chips. By the end of the day, both players still occupied first and second spots respectively, but while Zvi Stern saw his stack grow to 32,400,000, for Joe McKeehen that figure was an impressive 94,450,000, courtesy of having eliminated all three players during the proceedings.
First to hit the rail was Patrick Chan, who started the day second lowest in chips and two hands later opted to call McKeehen’s (A-4) all-in button shove, holding K-Q. The board then ran out 10-6-5-3-9 to send him to the rail in 9th place for a $1,001,020 payday. In the process, Patrick Chan also earned the dubious honor of playing the least amount of hands by any player at a November Nine final table.
Next was the turn of the day’s smallest stack, Federico Butteroni, who allowed his 15.5bb stack to dwindle to just 6bb when on hand 35 he was all-in holding A-J, but up against the A-K of McKeehen.The 10-6-3-9-7 board sealed his fate, and so the Italian player had to settle for a $1,097,056 payday for his 8th place finish.
Completing the eliminations on the day was 72 year-old Belgium player, Pierre Neuville, who started the day on the 4th biggest stack at the table, worth 21,075,000, only to see that total shrink to just 3 million chips by hand 75. That’s when he decided to shove his remaining chips preflop holding Ac-Jc, only to be called by McKeehen with Jh-6h. The Qd-10d-3h-Qh-10h board then sealed his fate, and so Neuville exited in 7th place for $1,203,293.
When the remaining players return to the Rio at 4:30 p.m. local time later today, they will line up as follows:
1 Joe McKeehen 91,450,000
2 Ofer Zvi Stern 32,400,000
3 Neil Blumenfield 31,500,000
4 Max Steinberg 16,000,000
5 Joshua Beckley 10,875,000
6 Thomas Cannuli 10,425,000