2010 WSOP coverage on ESPN begins tomorrow (Tuesday, the 27th) at 8:00pm EST. The two-hour episode will feature the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. One hundred and sixteen of the world’s elite poker players came together to test their skills in 8 different games.

Can’t watch? Spoiler–> Results of the Poker Players Championship. Don’t click if you don’t want to know.

Fun Facts:

1. Two of the Mizrachi brothers made the final table: Robert and Michael.
2. Eight of the players at the final table were from the US. The other player was from Russia. (John Juanda, David “Bakes” Baker, Daniel Alaei, Mikael Thuritz, David Oppenheim, Nick Schulman, and Vladimir Shchemelev (RU)

First prize = $1.5M. Lon McEachern and Norman Chad = the announcers.

Suffering from post-WSOP blues. Feeling let down after 8 busy and exciting weeks of logging in to wsop.com and all the reporting websites and twitter…

SCREECH…fingernails across the chalk board…nothing to check up on today.

The 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table will be played at the Rio in Las Vegas, November 6 – 9, 2010. The players finishing in the top 8 positions will earn at least $1M. 

Most notable change from last year is that last year, a player earned at least $1M just by virtue of making the final table. This year a player has to finish in 1st through 8th place in order to earn $1M, and, the player finishing in 9th place will earn only $800K (almost $200K less than last year – even though the total prize money ($68,798,600) is more than last year). Psychology behind that?

The payouts, first to ninth place is:

1. $8,944,138 
2. $5,545,855 
3. $4,129,979 
4. $3,092,497 
5. $2,332,960
6. $1,772,939
7. $1,356,708 
8. $1,045,738 
9. $811,823

Here’s a reminder of the players and their chip stacks – 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table Players  aka the 2010 November Nine.

Who do you think will win? Take a second to vote –>

The November Nine were decided early in the morning Sunday, July18, 2010.

1. Jonathan Duhamel (CA), 65,975,000 (Start of day 7th ~10.5M)
2. John Dolan (US), 46,250,000 (Start of day 24th ~2.2M)
3. Joseph Cheong (US), 23,525,000 (Start of day 1st ~24.5M)
4. John Racener (US), 19,050,000 (Start of day 8th ~10.5M)
5. Matthew Jarvis (CA), 16,700,000 (Start of day 5th ~13.3M)
6. Filippo Candio (IT), 16,400,000 (Start of day 9th ~10.0M)
7. Michael Mizrachi (US, 14,450,000 (Start of day 16th ~6.3M)
8. Soi Nguyen (US), 9,650,000 (Start of day 2nd ~23.1M)
9. Jason Senti (US), 7,625,000 (Start of day 4th ~3.6M)

Dolan came all the way from 24th place to second. Amazing! Mizrachi held on tight to improve from 16th to 7th.

Interesting that there are 8 players from North America (6 from the U.S., 2 from Canada) and one from Europe (1 from Italy).

Chip counts and placement for the other final 18 players

27 runners remain in the 2010 WSOP Main Event. Today is an exciting day, because they will play down to 9 – the 2010 November Nine!  Once there are 9 players remaining, play will stop. We’ll have 3 months off, and play will resume in November – and I will be there to watch the final table!

2010 WSOP Main Event Day 8 players:

Interesting note made at the WSOP website: Last year the November Nine were comprised of the top 12 players entering Day 8 (today).

1. Joseph Cheong , 24,490,000
2. Cuong Nguyen, 23,100,000
3. Pascal LeFrancois, 15,780,000
4. Jason Senti, 13,550,000
5. Matthew Jarvis, 13,300,000
6. Matt Affleck, 12,515,000
7. Jonathan Duhamel, 10,520,000
8. John Racener, 10,470,000
9. Filippo Candio, 10,020,000
10. Benjamin Statz, 9,885,000
11. Robert Pisano, 8,060,000
12. Michiel Sijpkens, 7,765,000
13. Duy Le, 7,255,000
14. Scott Clements, 7,250,000
15. David Baker, 6,825,000
16. Michael Mizrachi, 6,300,000
17. Brandon Steven, 6,045,000
18. Adam Levy, 4,745,000
19. William Thorson, 3,680,000
20. Redmond Lee, 3,315,000
21. Mads Wissing, 3,070,000
22. Ronnie Bardah, 2,525,000
23. Matthew Bucaric, 2,270,000
24. John Dolan, 2,175,000
25. Patrick Eskandar, 1,655,000
26. Johnny Lodden, 1,560,000
27. Hasan Habib, 1,510,000

Where we at for the 2010 WSOP Main Event?

• Day 8, Level 30
• Players remaining = 27
• We are in the money (747 paid)
• Pre-Action Day 8 chip counts above
• Action starts = Noon today
• PLAYING DOWN TO 9 TODAY!

Two days ago I had a dream of seeing Johnny Chan and Scotty Nguyen at the 2010 WSOP Main Event final table. Scotty busted late on Day 5, so, yesterday, that dream was re-shaped into “Johnny Chan Makes the 2010 WSOP Main Event Final table.” I could live with that.  Today, my hopes are crushed.

For the last three days, the poll (in the right margin) has been “Will Johnny Chan make it to the November Nine?”. Of course, that was chosen as the poll because I believed that he was a shoe-in since he was placing in the top 20 for several days in a row.

Yesterday, he started play in 9th place with 2,559,000 chips; over a million more chips than average. About an hour into the day’s play, Chan suffered a crushing blow when his KhKc were dominated by another player’s AsAc. Nothing came on the board to improve either hand and Chan was down to 800,000 in chips.

A little over an hour later, Chan got JsJd and pushed All In (550,000 chips), only to be facing another player’s – you got it – AsAc! Same hand as the first blow.

Chan went out in 159th place, earning $57,102.

Where we at for the 2010 WSOP Main Event?

• Day 7, Level 25
• Players remaining = 78
• We are in the money (747 paid)
• Pre-Action Day 7 chip counts - 2010 WSOP Main Event current chip counts
• Action starts = Noon today
• PLAYING DOWN TO 27 TODAY!

Good luck to fellow citizen of Massachusetts, Ronnie Bardah of Stoneham!

Alas, the last hopes for the 2009 November Nine to shine in the 2010 WSOP Main Event were dashed on Day 5 (Wednesday, the 14th), when the final remaining November Niner, Eric Buchman busted out in 549th place.

Buchman had started the day in 351st place, short stacked with 250,000 in chips. Prop bets aside, Buchman earned $24,709 for his 2010 WSOP Main Event efforts…plus a boat load of respect from fellow November Niners and poker pros alike. He beat out 6770 other runners!

Congratulations Eric!

So let’s review…

Here’s the results for the 2009 November Nine playing in the 2010 WSOP Main Event:

• Eric Buchman – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 5
• Joseph Cada – Started day 1C; Eliminated Day 3
• Steven Begleiter – Started day 1C; Eliminated Day ?
• Kevin Schaffel – Started day 1A; Eliminated Day ?
• Darvin Moon – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Jeff Shulman – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Antoine Saout – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Phil Ivey – Started day 1D; Eliminated early Day 2B
• James Akenhead – Started day 1A; Eliminated Day 2A

Where we at with the Main Event?

• Day 6, Level 21
• Players remaining = 205
• We are in the money (747 paid)
• Pre-Action Day 6 chip counts - 2010 WSOP Main Event current chip counts
• Action starts = Noon today

Struggling with a below average stack of 250,000 chips, Eric Buchman is the sole remaining 2009 November Niner competing in the 2010 WSOP Main Event. Buchman has made it to Day 5 which begins today (Wednesday) at Noon.  Starting the day in 351st position, Buchman will be competing against 573  other runners to become the 2010 Main Event champ.

• Day 5, Level 17
• We are in the money (747 paid)
• Pre-Action Day 5 chip counts - 2010 WSOP Main Event current chip counts
• Action starts = Noon today

Woot! Woot!  –> Johnny Chan still in the running with an above average stack of 1,159,000 chips. Gooooooooo Johnny!
 

There will be a brand new 2010 WSOP Main Event champion this year as Cada was eliminated during day 3 action.  Johnny Chan continues to be one of the chip leaders in 9th place with 636K in chips.

Day 4 begins at Noon Tuesday. Approx. 1,240 runners remain. Chip leader, James Carroll has 803K in chips.

The 2009 WSOP November Nine in order of 2010 current standings…

• Eric Buchman – Started day 1D; Made it to Day 4; (91st) 244,400 chips
• Joseph Cada – Started day 1C (301); Eliminated Day 3
• Steven Begleiter – Started day 1C; Eliminated Day ?
• Kevin Schaffel – Started day 1A; Eliminated Day ?
• Darvin Moon – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Jeff Shulman – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Antoine Saout – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Phil Ivey – Started day 1D; Eliminated early Day 2B
• James Akenhead – Started day 1A; Eliminated Day 2A

Can’t find the posts announcing Begleiter’s and Schaffel’s eliminations, but, cannot find them on the Day 3 chip count, either. Schaffel, I know was good through level 4 of Day 1A with 32,500 in chips.

Do you know when Begleiter and Schaffel were eliminated? Please post the link in Comments, thanks.

Wondering how the 2009 WSOP November Nine did on their journeys to the 2010 WSOP Final Table? Not as well as the 2008 November Nine did last year!  All but 2 have been eliminated. Buchman and Cada remain – and are in great position given that there are over 2500 runners left.

The 2009 WSOP November Nine in order of 2010 current standings…

• Eric Buchman – Started day 1D; Made it to Day 3; (222nd) 147,000 chips
• Joseph Cada – Started day 1C (301); Made it to Day 3; (324th) 122,400 chips
• Steven Begleiter – Started day 1C; Eliminated Day ?
• Kevin Schaffel – Started day 1A; Eliminated Day ?
• Darvin Moon – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Jeff Shulman – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Antoine Saout – Started day 1D; Eliminated Day 2B
• Phil Ivey – Started day 1D; Eliminated early Day 2B
• James Akenhead – Started day 1A; Eliminated Day 2A

Can’t find the posts announcing Begleiter’s and Schaffel’s eliminations, but, cannot find them on the Day 3 chip count, either. Schaffel, I know was good through level 4 of Day 1A with 32,500 in chips.

Do you know when Begleiter and Schaffel were eliminated? Please post the link in Comments, thanks.