After Nguyen was busted, the remaining 8 of the November Nine took a break. Break lasted more than 30 minutes.

Chip Counts after first break were:

• Matthew Jarvis – 10.125M
• Filippo Candio – 15.050M
• Jason Senti –  17.500M
• Michael Mizrachi – 18.050M
• John Racener – 24.175M
• Joseph Cheong – 29.675M
• John Dolan – 39.525M
• Jonathan Duhamel – 65.575M

First hand back went to Jarvis. Nothing special. He raised to 1.175M and all folded. The next hand, Candio went all in after being reraised by Duhamel. Duhamel called and the other players folded. Candio’s AA beat Duhamel’s AKo.

A lot of the hands never made it to show down. One interesting hand was between Cheong and Dolan. Jarvis had opened with a 1.425M bet. Cheong, on the button, reraised to 3.525M. Dolan, in the small blind, called after thinking a while. Duhamel in the Big Blind folded as did Jarvis when it got around to him again. Dolan checked the flop. Cheong checked as well. Both checked on the Turn. On the River, Cheong bet 8.5M. Dolan took his time considering his options. After two or three minutes of silence, he called. Cheong turned over Ac10c to make him the nut flush.  

    
Cheong’s Nut Flush

The best rollercoaster hand was between Mizrachi and Jarvis. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out for Jarvis who was busted, leaving the tournament in 8th place. BUT it was a stunner that brought the crowd to its feet!  Duhamel opened for 1.4M. Mizrachi called. Jarvis shoved All In for about 14M. Duhamel folded, and Mizrachi called after some consideration.

Mizrachi had AdQd. Jarvis turned over 9c9h.

• Flop…
• 
• Puts Mizrachi ahead with a set of Queens
   
• Turn:
• 
• Puts Jarvis ahead with a boat: Nines full of Queens
   
• River:
• 
• Puts Mizrachi ahead with a boat of Queens full of Aces! Jarvis was busted in eighth place.

Starting chips counts…

• Jason Senti – 7,625,000
• Soi Nguyen – 9,650,000
• Michael Mizrachi – 14,450,000
• Filippo Candio1 – 16,400,000
• Matthew Jarvis – 16,700,000
• John Racener – 19,050,000
• Joseph Cheong – 23,525,000
• John Dolan – 46,250,000
• Jonathan Duhamel – 65,975,000

Action started with blinds at 250K/500K with 50K ante.

During approx. 9 hours of play between 12:30 p.m. – 12:30 a.m. PST, I blasted 47 tweets (@PokaPaloma). There was lots of action. Very focused players with very little chatter. The All Ins, three-bets and four-bets kept spectators interested and hooting-n-hollering throughout the day and night.

I shot off the first tweet about 7 minutes into the final table during the second hand of the day. Action folded around to the button, November Niner Jason Senti who came to the final table short stacked with 7.625M. Senti went All In for the first time. The blinds folded, and Senti took it down. We would witness a lot more All Ins from Senti throughout the day; the second coming within 10 minutes (two hands) of the first, and, it appears that his first All In gave everyone else permission. Kind of like getting the first dent on a new car. Once that is over, you don’t worry so much, and just drive along. Once the first All In was heard at this Final Table, it became the mantra and was echoed many many times which made for exciting spectating.

One of the most uncomfortable hands of the day came right away – the third hand. Jarvis and Cheong ended up heads up. The look of concentration and tension on each of their faces was tough to watch. Jarvis had opened with a bet of 1.175M. Cheung (on the button) raised it to 2.675M. Other players folded around back to Jarvis who called, and, Cheong and Jarvis were heads up. They both checked the flop. Jarvis bet 3M on the Turn. Cheong called. Jarvis bet 4.275M on the River. Cheong thought for a few seconds and announced, “All In“. Jarvis, still deliberate and composed, but in obvious discomfort, tanked for a minute or two, then folded. 

    
Third Hand of the 2010 WSOP Main Event Final Table

I think it was so uncomfortable because it was extremely early for big play like that. Later in the afternoon, after the players get “warmed up”, you would expect it, but not 14 minutes into Final Table action. Jarvis lost 7.8M on that hand. Cheong bounced to about 33.5M.

The first casualty of the day was Soi Nguyen. Soi was busted after about 100 minutes of play. He went All In from the button with AdKc. Senti looked him up with a pair of Queens, and flopped a set with Qh 3s 10c. Turn was 9s. River was Ks. Nguyen’s pair of Kings was no match for Senti’s set, and he was eliminated in 9th place after playing 3 hands.

More comments in an upcoming post…Largest Hand played in WSOP HISTORY!

Current Standings…

1. Jonathan Duhamel 188,950,000
2. John Racener 30,750,000
3. Joseph Cheong $4,130,049
4. Filippo Candio $3,092,545
5. Michael Mizrachi $2,332,992
6. John Dolan $1,772,959
7. Jason Senti $1,356,720
8. Matthew Jarvis $1,045,743
9. Soi Nguyen $811,823

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.

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

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 –>

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

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!

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!

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

• 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!