2010 WSOP: And Now There Are Nine

It took two weeks, but the WSOP’s main event has finally been whittled down to nine remaining players: the November Nine, the Novembrists, the final nine, the final table—call them what you will—but just nine remain from a field of 7,319 starters, and one of them will be world champ this November.

David Baker had his seventh cash of the 2010 Series when he was knocked out in 17th place with a flush draw that never materialized. Benjamin Statz then departed sixteenth, just before the dinner break. After dinner they returned to a knockout that might have been the main event’s most memorable hand, a massive confrontation between Matt Affleck and Jonathan Duhamel, who began things with a raise to 550,000. Affleck three-bet to 1.55 million. Duhamel re-raised to 3.925 million. Affleck called, and 8 million chips were in pot before the flop.

Duhamel checked the Td-9c-7h flop. Affleck fired out 5 million chips and Duhamel called. When the Qd fell on the turn, Affleck shoved his last 11.6 million into the pot and Duhamel was put to a decision for most of his stack. He finally called, and a 42 million pot was in play.

Affleck showed down As-Ac but Duhamel tabled Jh-Jc, giving him a pair plus an open-ended straight draw. The 8d on the river completed Duhamel’s straight and catapulted him into the chip lead, cracking Affleck’s aces in the process and sending him packing in 15th place.

Duhamel then eliminated Adam “Roothlus” Levy in 12th place. Pascal LeFrancois’ bid for his second bracelet of 2010 was short-circuited by Joseph Cheong, when his pocket kings topped LeFrancois’ Qs-Js.

More than six hours passed before Brandon Steven raced his Ac-Ks against Matthew Jarvis’ Qc-Qs. The board produced five blanks and the poker world was presented with nine players (shown below along with their chip counts) who will compete for the world championship in early November.

Jason Senti. . . . . . . . (7,625,000)
Joseph Cheong. . . . (23,525,000)
John Dolan. . . . . . . . (46,250,000)
Jonathan Duhamel. (65,975,000)
Michael Mizrachi . .  .(14,450,000)
Matthew Jarvis. . . . . (16,700,000)
John Racener. . . . . .(19,050,000)
Filippo Candio. . . . . (16,400,000)
Soi Nguyen. . . . . . . . (9,650,000)

The best known of the nine is Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi, who already won $1.5 million when he captured the $50,000 buy-in poker players championship. Mizrachi also made the final table of the $10,000 limit hold’em championship and finished sixth in the $10,000 7-card stud world championship. It would be an unprecedented achievement if he were to win the main event too. ESPN’s WSOP coverage begins with a one-hour season preview show that features a look back at last season and a look ahead to this year’s WSOP, Tuesday, July 20, at 8 p.m. ET.

Lon McEachern and Norm Chad return as cohosts and past champions Dan Harrington, Scotty Nguyen, Chris Ferguson and Chris Moneymaker will weigh in on how play has changed throughout the years, while young guns Tom Dwan, Scott Seiver, and Isaac Haxton, give their thoughts on age in poker and live versus online play. You can visit http://espnmediazone.com and click on the World Series of Poker digital media kit for the latest schedules, news, photos, video and audio clips.

Somewhat lost in the hoopla surrounding the WSOP’s main event is the fact that Huck Seed took home $500,000 when he won this year’s Tournament of Champions last week. Seed, a four-time bracelet winner, beat Howard Lederer and survived a star-studded field to win the event.

The Tournament of Champions player list was established in part by the public voting for their favorite bracelet winners. The top 20 qualified, along with prior WSOP Tournament of Champion winners and all WSOP main event winners, and two sponsor exemption.

It was a multi-day event with a rather lengthy 16-hour final session. When they were heads-up, Lederer held a chip lead of 468,000 to 342,000 for Seed, who at one point was just one card from defeat and all-in when he made a straight on the river to double through Lederer and move into the lead.

Lederer moved all-in with Q-8 on the final hand, and Seed called with A-2. The board was7-6-6-9-A giving Seed the title of “Champion of Champions” along with a half-million dollar check.