WSOP 2015 Final Table: Meet This Year’s November Nine (Pt1)

The 2015 World Series Of Poker featured 68 events and for the first time ever attracted more than 100,000 entries to create a prize pool worth $210.3 million. As always, the Series culminated in its showcase tournament, the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event, which saw 6,420 hopefuls take to the Rio in Las Vegas hoping for a slice of the $60,348,000 prize pool. Seven days of intense action later and just nine players remain, all of whom are now guaranteed a minimum of $1,001,020 for their hard fought efforts. A huge $7,680,021 payday, however, awaits the ultimate champion, as well as a place in poker’s history books.
The November Nine will now take a four month break until Sunday, November 8th when the final table resumes once again in Nevada, and in the meantime here’s a look at this year’s finalists:
2015 WSOP November Nine:
1: Joseph McKeehen (USA) 63,100,000 (158bb)
2: Zvi Stern (Israel) 29,800,000 (74.5bb)
3: Neil Blumenfield (USA) 22,000,000 (55bb)
4: Pierre Neuville (Belgium) 21,075,000 (53bb)
5: Max Steinberg (USA) 20,200,000 (50.5bb)
6: Thomas Cannuli (USA) 12,250,000 (31bb)
7: Josh Beckley (USA) 11,800,000 (29bb)
8: Patrick Chan (USA) 6,225,000 (16bb)
9: Federico Butteroni (Italy) 6,200,000 (15.5bb)
Joseph McKeehen (USA): 63,100,000 (158bb)
Joe McKeehen, 24, (photo) is a Pennsylvania poker pro with $1,995,070 in live tournament earnings, including a runner-up finish at the 2014 WSOP Monster Stack event for $820,863. He has also amassed an impressive $1,173,693 playing online under the screen name “dude904” before Black Friday hit the US, and commenting on his chances going into the final table, explained:
“If I see you’re nervous, I can pick something up off that, online you can’t do that. I think a lot of people have experience, but since I have a lot of live experience it probably gives me an edge. I’ve definitely picked up reads on people, so I think that’s something where I’ll definitely have an advantage in in the future.”
Zvi Stern (Israel): 29,800,000 (74.5bb)
Zvi Stern, 36, is just the second Israeli to reach a WSOP Main Event final table, the other being poker pro Amir Lehavot in 2013 who eventually finished in 3rd place for $3,727,823. Not much is known about Zvi Stern, though, who had just two live cashes worth $49,595 coming into the Main Event, including this year finishing the $25,000 PCA High Roller 8 Handed in 34th for $44,540.
The second part of this article can be found here: “WSOP 2015 Final Table: Meet This Year’s November Nine (Pt2)”