The 2015 WSOP Main Event final table will begin in three weeks. In order of chip stacks, the November Nine are:

Of note…

• The chip leader, Joe McKeehen, has a little over double the chips of the closest competitor
• Only one of the nine, Max Steinberg, has previously won a WSOP bracelet
• 66% of the November Nine players are in their 20s
• Two November Niners are the oldest players ever to make a Main Event final table; 61 year old Neil Blumenfield and 72 year old Pierre Neuville. Prior to this event, Steve Gee, age 57 at the 2012 WSOP, was the oldest poker player to make a prestigious Main Event final table.
• 66% of the November Nine players are from the USA. No other country repeats.

So, who do you think is going to win? Let us know by voting in the poll on the sidebar.

Tuesday marks the 7th day of play for the 2015 WSOP Main Event. The 6,420 field of hopeful bracelet winners has been played down to the final 27. Among those are one of the most popular and outspoken poker players, Daniel Negreanu. He has worked his way into 9th place. If Negreanu goes on to win the Main Event, it would be his 7th win in the WSOP.

Countries: There are 18 poker players from the U.S., 4 from Germany, and 1 from Israel, Canada, Belgium, Italy, and the U.K.

 Here’s the chip counts prior to the start of play on Day 7.

Today is the start of Day 2s for the 2015 WSOP Main Event. I was reviewing the updates to see what had happened on Day 1C, and learned that:

• A record number of entrants started Day 1C – over 3900
• A total of 6,420 players entered the event, down from a 6,683 entrants last year
• 4,389 players remain in this year’s Main Event
• For ten years straight, the WSOP Main Event has drawn over 6300 entrants.
• Phil Ivey is in the field. He arrived at the WSOP about a week ago to play the Hi Rollers’ ONE DROP tournament.
• Phil Hellmuth arrived late (to starting Day 1C) as usual, at dinner time last night, with no frills as in previous years
• Phil Hellmuth and Phil Ivey ended up at the same table. PokerNews has a great photo of them yacking it up.

Fun stat for those of us from Massachusetts:  2.5% of the Top 200 in the remaining field are from Massachusetts.

1. Sean Hegarty – 133,825
2. Jonathan Jaffe – 116,400
3. Theodore Driscoll – 93,975
4. Eugene Roemischer – 93,375
5. Lokesh Garg – 92,850

More coverage and stats at the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

After 39 days of poker event after poker event at the Rio, the 2015 WSOP Main Event started with Day 1A Sunday, July 5. Day 1A drew 741 players, of which 480 remain.

This year there are:

• 3 Day 1s – Sunday (1A), Monday (1B) and Tuesday (1C)
• 2 Day 2s – Wednesday (2A) and Thursday (2B). Players from 1A and 1B play Wed. and players from 1C play Thurs.

Friday, July 10th, all remaining players will play together.

Play starts at 3:00 PM EST each day.

Payout structure provides for paying out the top 1,000 places. Each final tabler is guaranteed at least $1 million IF the total number of 2015 Main Event entrants meets or exceeds the 2014 number (6,683).

The Main Event will not be streamed as ESPN will be filming. ESPN will air the Main Event in a series of programs leading up to the final table play which will occur in November. ESPN usually airs the final table live with a 30-minute delay.

Good luck to all the Main Event runner. Hope to join in the upcoming years!

Congrats to Haixia Zhang who is returning with the final 4 to complete WSOP event #59, a $1500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament. Zhang will be returning as the chip leader with over ½ million more chips than the second place chip holder.

If she wins, she will be the first female to have won the Ladies Championship who then goes on to win a bracelet in an open event.

Keep an eye on Twitter for announcement of when the live stream of the final 4 will begin. The players return at 1:00 PM PST. Live streaming is on a 30-minute delay, so, around 4:30 EST, streaming of event #59 should begin.

Catch up with this event:  Updates of this Event on WSOP.com

Congratulations to Carol Fuchs who won Event #52, the $1,500 Dealer’s Choice event last night! She beat a field of 356 other runners, including Robert Mizrachi, the 2014 winner, who finished 3rd this year.

Carol Fuchs is a Hollywood screnwriter/producer. She is an amateur poker player with one previous WSOP cash (<$4K in 2014) who plays cash games in Los Angeles. According to an article at PokerNews.com, Ms. Fuchs is “…as blown away by this as everybody else is”.

The 2015 WSOP will crown its second female bracelet winner today, when the 10 remaining players of the Ladies NLHE Championship meet this afternoon to play down to a winner.  The 10 include 6 from USA, 3 from Canada and 1 from Russia.

Today is Day 3 of Event#40, the Seniors tournament. Day 3 is supposed to be Final Table day. It is listed on the Live Streaming schedule at least, but, 65 players are returning today, so, I’m guessing there will be a delay. Play starts at 2:00 PM EST. In theory, they’ll play down to the winner… We’ll see. BOLO 4 updates on Twitter.

UPDATE: 6:10 PM EST Down to 25 senior NLHE players

Congratulations to Phil Hellmuth who won his 14th World Series of Poker event, the $10K RAZZ Championship early this morning! Fifty years of living has made Phil Hellmuth stronger and more determined. Once again, he proved that he has it!

I didn’t watch the whole final table, but, each time I checked in, Phil was quiet and focused. Totally into the play.

The action is covered on the WSOP Updates page (make sure you select #17 in the drop down list at the top).