WSOP November Nine All Set

The 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event has been paused until November 6 after the 27 surviving players were whittled down to the final table of nine.

When the decision to pause the tournament for four months was first announced a couple of years ago it was met with mixed feelings. Some only saw the negative qualities such as it detracting away from the history of the tournament or the fact it takes the momentum away from the final tablists. But others saw some positives including allowing the WSOP to gain extra publicity and the players who made the final table receive great deals from poker sites wanting them to endorse their product. Regardless of your views the “November Nine” as the gimmick has been called has been a success so it looks as if it is here to stay.

Each of the nine remaining players are guaranteed to take home no less than $811,823 but all of them will have at least one eye on the $8,944,138 first prize, and of course the coveted WSOP bracelet that comes with winning the Main Event.

The biggest story of the November Nine is that Michael Mizrachi, the player who won the inaugural $50,000 Poker Player’s Championship and with it his first bracelet, has also made the final table of the Main Event. He already has over $8.8m in live tournament winnings and a win or runner-up finish will see him overtake Phil Ivey as the number one in the all-time money listings.

The rest of the final table of nine are relatively unknowns with many of them playing online poker professionally. The only other player at the final table with at least $1m in live tournament winnings is Tampa based poker pro John Racener, all the rest have won around $600,000 between them.

All but one player, Cuong “Soi” Nguyen have listed their profession as a professional poker player which adds substance to the claim that poker is a game of skill but the non-poker playing public love an underdog story and would prefer a rank amateur to win poker’s biggest prize.

When the players return to The Rio on November 6 they will be seated as follows:

Seat 1 – Jason Senti – 7,625,000 chips

Seat 2 – Joseph Cheong – 23,525,000

Seat 3 – John Dolan – 46,250,000

Seat 4 – Johnathan Duhamel – 65,975,000

Seat 5 – Michael Mizrachi – 14,450,000

Seat 6 – Matthew Jarvis – 16,700,000

Seat 7 – John Racener – 19,050,000

Seat 8 – Filippo Candio – 16,400,000

Seat 9 – Soi Nguyen – 9,650,000