N I N E F O R N O V E M B E R : WSOP Plays Down to Nine Finalists
Meet the Men Who Will Play for the Championship in November by Lou Krieger by Staff filed under World Series of Poker

On July 16 nine remaining survivors from the massive field of 6,494 who entered the 2009 World Series of Poker’s main event bagged their chips for safekeeping over the next three and a half months. These nine players will return to Las Vegas in November to compete for a top prize of more than $8.5 million and poker’s coveted WSOP champion’s gold bracelet.

Each of the 27 players who started play on Day 8 was guaranteed $352,832 in prize money. After nearly 66 total hours of tournament play, each of nine remaining finishers—popularly known as the November Nine—is guaranteed at least $1,263,602 in prize money. The exact distribution will be determined in November, when they return to the Rio to play for the championship.

When November rolls around there’ll be a bright moon shining on the Rio in the person of Darvin Moon, a logger from Oakland, MD, who will return as chip leader with 58,930,000 in chips, a lead of more than 24 million over his nearest competitor. Moon seized the chip lead three days earlier and has a big, almost commanding lead going into November.

But it won’t be easy, and there’ll be some big timber for this logger to topple. Lurking in seventh place—although relatively short stacked with 9.75 million in chips, only 16 percent of Moon’s stack—is the always dangerous Phil Ivey, and if you called him the best poker player in the world, you wouldn’t get much of an argument from anyone. Jeff Shulman, another experienced tournament player, is in fourth place with 19,580,000.

When play resumes play on November 7, players will compete for additional money in the prize pool, plus interest on the withheld funds. The prize money payouts are as follows:

1st place . . . . . . . . . . .$8,546,435

2nd place . . . . . . . . . .$5,182,601

3rd place . . . . . . . . . . .$3,479,485

4th place . . . . . . . . . . .$2,502,787

5th place . . . . . . . . . . .$1,953,395

6th place . . . . . . . . . . .$1,587,133

7th place . . . . . . . . . . .$1,404,002

8th place . . . . . . . . . . .$1,300,228

9th place . . . . . . . . . . .$1,263,602

Play on the final day went much faster than expected and lasted only about 11 hours. The November Nine bubble, which was tenth place, went to Jordan Smith (College Station, TX), who already won a gold bracelet at this year’s WSOP. Smith collected $896,730 for his efforts.

Eleventh place went to Jamie Robbins (San Diego, CA), a professional poker player who received $896,730.

Billy Kopp (Erlanger, KY), a student at the University of Kentucky, who was second in chips at the start of day, was eliminated in twelfth place and earned $896,730.

Thirteenth place went to James Calderero (Venice, FL), who collected $633,022. Ben Lamb (Las Vegas, NV), a 24-year-old poker pro, was eliminated in fourteenth place. He won $633,022. Nick Maimone (Charlotte, NC), a 22-year old full-time poker pro who graduated with a degree in economics from Furman University, earned $633,022 for his fifteenth place finish.

The 2009 WSOP main event ranks as the third largest live poker tournament in history. Only the 2006 and 2008 main event championships drew larger numbers. If the Rio had greater seating capacity—Day 1-D sold out—this year’s tournament would have surpassed last year’s attendance figures.

This year’s main event prize pool totals $61,043,600—at least for now. Since interest is added to payouts for the November Nine, the final figure will actually be slightly higher.

This year the World Series of Poker crossed the $1,000,000,000 threshold in total prize money awarded. During its 40-year history, the WSOP has paid out $1,041,265,271. More than $700,000,000 has been paid out just in the last five years alone.

ESPN will carry coverage of the final table on Tuesday, November 10 at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT.

Lastly, not to belittle the efforts of those players who did not make it to the final table, here are some of the biggest cashers right under the final nine:

10. Jordan Smith . . . . . $896,730

11. Jamie Robbins . . . $896,730

12. William Kopp . . . . $896,730

13. James Calderaro . . $633,022

14. Ben Lamb . . . . . . . $633,022

15. Nick Maimone . . . $633,022

16. Ludovic Lacay . . . $500,557

17. Ian Tavelli . . . . . . . $500,557

18. Andrew H Lichtenberger $500,557

19. Tommy Vedes . . . . $352,832

20. George Caragiorgas $352,832

21. Jonathon Tamayo . $352,832

22. Warren Zackey . . . $352,832

23. Marco Mattes . . . . $352,832

24. Antonio Esfandiari $352,832

25. Francois Balmigere $352,832

26. Jesse Haabak . . . . $352,832

27. Leo Margets . . . . . $352,832