The November Nine Get Ready for the 2009 WSOP Final Event!
When the World Series of Poker 2009 began, there were nearly 6,500 participants in competition for the title and the bracelet. Over a 12 day period, these players were eliminated from the competition leaving only a final 9 who were triumphant and are now ready to compete in the November 7th finals for 2009’s Word Series of Poker!
The grand prize for this year’s WSOP Championship is a mouth-watering $8 Million, and the final players, coined the November Nine will make sure that the competition heats up!
A Mix of Pros and Amateurs at the Final Table
The final WSOP Table will boast and interesting combination of players with varying levels of experience. Despite the large number of professional poker players who were among the initial participants, a few amateurs are leading the way in chip totals from the earlier games. Among the November Nine are 4 players who are new to the series, and in many cases, the offline world of Poker in general.
In fact, the chip leader, Darvin Moon is a logger by trade and was surprised to snag a seat to play in the WSOP at all, but now finds himself in a precarious place in the final table with 58,930,000 chips to his name going into the final stretch of the competition. Also amongst the amateur rankings of the November Nine are Steven Begleiter, a financial businessman; 21 year-old Joseph Cada, the youngest in the competition; and Antoine Saout from France who has had no previous experience playing in the live Poker game.
Mixed in amongst the amateurs are professionals that could certainly step up the competition, which could lead to a disappointment for those rooting for the amateurs. The November Nine also consists of Phil Ivey, a name that’s well known in the Poker world for his past winnings of 7 World Series of Poker Championships where he took home the bracelets and approximately $10 million in winnings total.
Also playing are James Akenhead, a popular professional player from the UK; Kevin Schaffel, with his 51 years of age the oldest player with a history of wins; Jeff Shulman, player and editor of Card Player Magazine; and Eric Buchman, a younger player with a small fortune in Poker winnings.