Unless you’ve been living in a fortified bunker you know that today’s the day the World Series of Poker Main Event resumes and we find out which of the November Nine will be our next champion. Well, actually we’ll find that on Monday, because today they play down to heads-up and then resume the match at 10pm Monday night. So, actually, we’ll probably find out who the next World Champion is on Tuesday. And then Tuesday night ESPN shows their Final Table broadcast. Complicated stuff, I know.
And if you don’t want to know what happens or who wins before that broadcast, I advise you return to that fortified bunker and pull that heavy metal door shut. Because in this age of blogs and Twitter and Facebook and texts and the myriad other ways we communicate with one another (talking, even) it’s well-nigh impossible to remove yourself from the grid without deliberate action on your part. So if it’s a nice day in your part of the word, a camping trip might be advisable. Take the car out for a long, long, long drive? Get yourself arrested on a minor (and here I stress MINOR) charge and be a guest of the state for the weekend. These are all ideas for those who want to be on tenterhooks for ESPN’s broadcast.
For those who will be keeping an ear to the ground there are a few options for news. UltimateBet is sponsoring the live coverage over at Bluff Magazine, and Annie Duke and Hollywood Dave will be tableside providing commentary. You can visit the re-launched WSOP.com for a live-viewer and video updates and all sorts of info from the final table. PokerNews will of course be providing hand-for-hand updates and chip counts throughout the day. ESPN’s Andrew Feldman will have a live-blog of the final-table, as will my friend the infamous Dr. Pauly. And then whatever particular poker publication you prefer as well.
So we’re almost ready to go, play begins at noon Vegas time (3pm on the East Coast) and unless you have an elephantine memory you may need a refresher of where we stand. Here’s some info about the situation as play resumes:
Current Level: 33 with 7 minutes and 16 seconds remaining Blinds: 120K/240K with a 30K ante Next Level: 150K/300K with a 40K ante
Chip Count:
Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
Joseph Cada – 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
James Akenhead – 6,800,000
Seating Assignments:
Seat 1: Darvin Moon (Oakland, MD) – 58,930,000
Seat 2: James Akenhead (London, UK) – 6,800,000
Seat 3: Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, NV) – 9,765,000
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel (Coral Springs, FL) – 12,390,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter (Chappaqua, NY) – 29,885,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman (Valley Stream, NY) – 34,800,000
Seat 7: Joseph Cada (Shelby Township, MI)- 13,215,000
Seat 8: Antoine Saout (St. Martin des Champs, France) – 9,500,000
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman (Las Vegas, NV) – 19,580,000
On the one hand I think that that the four-month hiatus for the WSOP Main Event is too doggone long. You build to this crescendo, you have your final nine players in the biggest event in poker…and then you leave it hanging for a quarter of the year. That’s long enough for the media to write tens of thousands of words about the players and the event, but its also enough time for fans to forget who the heck these guys are. When I was in Aruba some of us reporter types were trying to list the members of the November Nine as quickly as possible. It was harder than you’d think, even for folks working in the industry (Antoine Saout was the name that slipped the most minds).
But as the poker world again turns it’s gaze toward the Rio it almost feels like the Main Event wrapped just yesterday. Watching ESPN’s coverage has reminded me of those happy days ensconced on Media Row, wolfing down Jack’s Links Jerky and wondering which of my strung-out colleagues would be the next to snap. And thinking about that moved me to look at some of the photos I took during the Main Event, which seemed to both go on forever and end before we knew it:
After waiting nearly four months we’re just a few days from discovering who is the latest World Champion. Play will start at noon on Saturday, and when they’re down to heads-up they’ll pause again and resume playing at 10pm on Monday, with ESPN’s final-table broadcast airing on Tuesday. The wait is almost, almost over.
The final table of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event is just two weeks away, and as always there’s been quite a bit of discussion about who would be the “best” champion for poker. Which player among the November Nine would do the most to boost poker’s popularity, push the game further into the mainstream, maybe even help trigger a second poker boom. I think that expecting so much from the new World Champion is more than a bit unrealistic–when Jerry Yang won the title in 2007 he gave a poignant and heartfelt speech about his escape fro Laos and his faith that gave me goosebumps. “This is going to play so well with people who don’t follow poker,” I thought at the time. I thought that Yang had the chance to be a transformational figure, a deeply religious family man who loved poker and was going to donate a big chunk of his winnings to charity. You can’t make up a story like that.
The problem was ESPN only showed about five seconds of so of Yang’s speech. His story really didn’t get out into the mainstream, and Yang didn’t play all that many events and so faded from the scene, though he was always a gracious champion and a friendly and accommodating person. Expecting Yang, or Peter Eastgate, or really any person that Lady Luck picks at random and anoints as the Main Event champion to take up poker’s cause and lead us all to the promised land is, as I said, unrealistic.
This year, however, might be a bit different.
Because there is a player among the November Nine with the stature to put poker on his shoulders and carry it with him into the limelight. That player, of course, is Phil Ivey. Already considered by most the best poker player in the world and already having won two bracelets this year, Ivey marched through the Main Event field and made the final table, to the delight of just about everyone involved with poker. My colleagues in the poker media thought that having a famous pro like Ivey at the final table would boost the TV ratings through the roof (and so far ESPN’s numbers for their Main Event coverage have been very good) and would attract the attention of the big media outlets. That also has happened, as this week Ivey appeared on the cover of ESPN the Magazine and was the subject of a long feature story by Chad Millman.
Whether any media companies outside the ESPN umbrella will join in hyping the November Nine and Phil Ivey remains to be seen. Ivey has typically shunned the spotlight, rarely giving interviews and not opening up much to those he does speak to. But that’s changed in the last few months, as he’s done a number of lengthy interviews with various sites and let Millman follow him around during a whirlwind gambling trip. In a chat he did with ESPN readers Millman was asked about Ivey coming out of his shell with the media this is how he replied:
(Ivey’s) answer was that he feels like he’s getting older and has a sense of history for the game and realizes the relevance of him making the final table. So if this is a chance to spread the word about poker, he’s going to take it.
You couldn’t ask for a better attitude from a future World Champion, and hardly a better story that Ivey’s. He started playing in Atlantic City before he could legally enter a casino, using a fake ID that gave his name as “Jerome”. He played so much, was at the tables for so many marathon sessions, that the dealers nicknamed him “No Home Jerome”. Ivey has talked about playing 18 hours a day, going broke, raising a stake to get back into the game, and learning. Now he’s considered the best in the world and lives a life more akin to a rock star than a poker player. It’s a story that you’d think would appeal to a mass audience.
And of course to the poker audience Ivey is a god, already a member of the pantheon with a chance in November to capture the only prize that has so far eluded him–the title of World Champion. Should he win the Main Event Ivey’s resume would truly be staggering. It would be his eighth WSOP bracelet–and his first in Hold-Em. He would become the all-time tournament money leader (which he’ll still become should he finish sixth or better). He’s made 8 WPT final tables and won one WPT title. And all this from a player who’s best known as a cash player. Ivey’s exploits in Bobby’s Room at the Bellagio are the stuff of legend (both urban and real) and, oh yeah, he’s also one of the biggest winners in the super-nosebleed online cash games. And then there’s the exploit that cements his status as an immortal, his heads-up battle with billionaire Andy Beal. Beal played a group of high-stakes pros in the biggest cash game of all time (the subject of Michael Craig’s outstanding book The Professor, the Banker and the Suicide King) and when he returned to Vegas for a second shot he won $10 million off the pros who formed a consortium called The Corporation. Ten million is a huge sum, even for those deep-pocketed pros, and they brought in Ivey to try to turn the tide. Playing heads-up limit Hold-Em, Ivey won a mind-boggling $16 million from Beal and moved the billionaire to give up the game once again.
I honestly don’t know if Phil Ivey winning the Main Event will do much to push poker into the mainstream, I don’t know if Nike will come calling and make him their next signature personality. Ivey is sometimes called “The Tiger Woods of Poker”, though in the past the comparison was a lazy one raised more because they’re both African-American. But if Ivey wins the Main Event he could, like Tiger, become bigger than the game itself. And this is where I think Ivey winning the Main Event could indeed have a lasting effect on the game. Poker players often posssess sizable egos and they aren’t shy about telling people (including themselves) how great they are. There’s a huge crop of young hotshots out there and more come onto the scene every year. For those whose ambition matches their talent and ego, for those who truly want to become the greatest player in the world, they’ll have to try to eclipse Phil Ivey. And that, needless to say, is a daunting task.
In poker there are lots of players who look down on tournaments (or donkaments, as they call them), but it’s harder to do so when the biggest tournament money-winner is Ivey. He’s won bracelets in a variety of games, so mixed-game expertise is a must. And you have to be an absolute monster in both live and online cash games. There aren’t many players who would consciously set themselves up for that sort of challenge, but those who do aspire to that sort of greatness could be the personalities who drive the game forward for decades. Ivey himself is only 33 years old–the scary thing is that he’s likely to get better over time. Phil Hellmuth still has decades left in his career and he often talks about how he’s trying to make history with every tournament he plays. Of course it’s intimidating for a 21-year-old to contemplate winning eleven bracelets with the huge fields we see today, but poker is a game for the long haul, and a player with the proper perspective and the desire to be one of the greats has a path to follow.
I don’t know that I’ll be rooting for Phil Ivey come November. For one thing Ivey represents another online poker site that I’m professionally obligated to do battle with. For another, hasn’t Ivey won enough? There are other players who could use the money more, who might never otherwise enjoy the supernova of attention that will be lavished on the Main Event champion. But if Ivey does win I’ll be very interested to see how it all plays out, how the world at large looks upon this enigmatic superstar. I’d also be interested to know if Ivey wonders about these questions. If he does, maybe he’s human after all.
We’re smack dab in the middle of August, commonly known as the dog days of summer. It’s hot just about everywhere (in the Northern Hemisphere at least) and even the most ambitious among us want nothing more than to find a bit of shade to relax in and something cool to drink. And the poker world is hardly exempt from this period of the doldrums. The World Series of Poker ended a month ago, and the November Nine doesn’t reconvene for almost three months. The World Series of Poker-Europe doesn’t start for 30 days, and that’s all the way across the Pond. And the 2009 Aruba Poker Classic is six weeks away, close enough to get excited about but far enough away to seem, well, far away. Heck, there isn’t any potential poker legislation news to report because Congress takes August off. If only we could get them to take the other eleven months off…but I digress.
Fortunately for those of us looking for something to distract from the punishing heat ESPN begins it’s marathon coverage of the Main Event tonight. The Worldwide Leader will broadcast 24 hours of Main Event coverage leading up to it’s broadcast of the final table, and yesterday it was announced that ESPN will be televising the WSOP for the next seven years. So that’s something to look forward to, just as the shows that start tomorrow give us a chance to look back at the not-so-distant past (warning, spoilers in the photos below):
Though even as we look back at the Main Event and watch the drama unfold on ESPN, it’s hard not to think about the upcoming Aruba Poker Classic. Because…it’s Aruba:
So you may have heard about a certain little boxing match that happened a few of weeks ago called “Rumble near the Rio”. This came about when Pokernews approached me with the proposal that I box their presenter, Melissa Castello. Now I have never boxed before in my life, but it has always been something that I’ve wanted to try, and as I never like to turn down a challenge, I readily accepted. It then occured to me that maybe I should do some research into Melissa and her background, as knowing me it’ll turn out she was once an MMA champion or the like. The research unveiled the fact that yes, she had fought before. Fought significantly. Apparently she’d been quite the scrapper a few years back and had been in bar fights with bottles and broken noses and god knows what else. However, by the time this had come to light the PR ball had gotten rolling and turned the fun boxing match into quite the monster with press conferences, huge blow up posters boasting our vital stats and official boxing licences! Whatever cold feet I may have tried to get were basically nowhere near enough to stop the relentless march of the match, so I resigned myself to probably getting beaten. Even more so when I heard that Melissa had been training every day with a personal boxing coach and I only managed to squeeze in three training sessions due to playing poker each day.
The day of the fight was awesome. Pokernews had set everything up really well and a surprisingly large crowd turned up to watch and cheer on each side. I’d heard rumours of betting but it took a little while until the news filtered back to me that I was apparently the favourite despite the fact she’d been training way more! I was in the blue corner and before I knew it we were touching gloves and the bell was ringing for the first round. It started really well for me, I was able to land some decent punches without her really making any contact on me at all. By the second round we were already exhausted, a minute and a half of trying to beat someone up when you’ve never done it before is exhausting! The second round went by and Melissa fought back really well and it was a close call, but the third round was a definite win for me again so I felt pretty confident when they took us into the middle and announced the winner . I even got a medal! The best bit however is the 100% undefeated boxing record I now have to my name… can’t argue with those stats. Ahem…
For most of the players in this year’s Main Event physically getting there was NOT half the fun. Getting to the Rio itself is no big deal, but then the blistering sun punishes you while walking across the parking lot, and then you have to deal with the anxious crowds in the halls. But for most the real journey doesn’t begin until security throws open the Amazon Room doors and let’s everyone inside.
Of course Phil Hellmuth doesn’t run with the pack. Once again this year he made a grand entrance into the Main Event, and this year he (and everyone else responsible for pulling this off) went far beyond anything we’ve seen before. Phil was borne to the front of the Rio in a sedan chair, and then escorted by 11 Gladiators and 100 Muses to his seat at the feature table. Well, rather than describe it why not just show what it looked like:
As we all waited in the broiling sun for Phil to appear I found myself looking at the ladies dressed as “gladiators” and found myself wondering “How the heck did they do that?” And by that I mean the extensive body-paint that each gladiator was wearing. The straps on the shoulders and the UB logos on their backs–they’re painted on. Speaking as someone with zero artistic ability my mind tried (and failed) to figure out how they did it. Each model looked identical, and I knew they had to paint them all that morning. How’d they pull it off?
Well, wonder no more, as there’s a behind-the-scenes video of the models being prepared before Phil’s grand entrance (and video of his arrival as well). Kinda neat to see it all from begining to end…still can’t believe that a lot of the decorations were painted freehand. I couldn’t have managed that in a million years. Anyway, enjoy:
Entering the Amazon Room dressed as Caesar, with 111 young women in tow. How, exactly, do you top that for 2010? Do you even try? Or do you go for something totally different. Some of my fellow wags on media row discussed what Phil might try next year for his entrance, here’s a few of the ideas that were bandied about:
A jet-pack. This was actually the most frequently-raised option, that Phil might streak down the Strip in a Space-Age jet pack before banking left and soaring over I-15 to the Rio. Or, maybe, even swooping through the open doors and streaking down the hallway, hovering over the Feature Table before gently alighting upon his seat. Now THAT would be an entrance, though with a jet-pack there would be the very real possibily of a hilarious tragic accident. Phil bonking into a palm tree or knocking over a gaggle of fans like so many duckpins would not be an auspicious start to the Main Event.
Sky-dive into the Main Event. Phil jumps out of an airplane with, say, 11 (or more, depending how the 2010 Series goes) precision jumpers. Black-and-gold smoke billowing from his boots, Phil would gently touch down at the Rio and, still at a trot, detach himself from his chute and race to his seat still dressed in his custom-made jump gear. The problem with this idea is that landing at a precise location ain’t that easy, and what with all the power lines criss-crossing Vegas a near-miss could be a real problem. Also the searing Vegas sun baking the asphalt probably creates some wicked thermals, and I can just see Phil floating above the Rio, borne aloft by powerful updrafts, carried by the breeze until he’s finally able to touch down in coyote/tumbleweed country. Which could lead to hilarious uncomfortable circumstances.
Phil the Ninja. Instead of a Hollywood production leading to his Main Event arrival, Phil infiltrates the tournament by stealth. Dressed head-to-toe in black Neoprene and suspended from the Amazon Room rafters hours before play begins, Phil suddenly appears out of nowhere, throwing a handful of flash-powder on the table and descending Mission Impossible style via a filament-thin zipline. Once in his seat he pulls out a razor-sharp katana and cuts the deck in two with a glittering blade. THIS idea I like, it reinvents the whole big entrance idea and inspires a different sort of awe. It would add an aura of mystery, as everyone knows Phil ALWAYS makes a big entrance and, yet, no one seems have a clue what it might be. And no one manages to figure it out before…they’re dead. Figuratively speaking, of course.
So these are just a few ideas, please feel free to contribute your own in the comments. Now’s the time to brainstorm, because there’s only about 49 weeks until the 2010 Main Event kicks off.
You can be excused for thinking that once the November Nine was set and the WSOP went on hiatus till autumn that poker would enjoy a bit of downtime. Bu that wasn’t the case–the Poker Players Alliance declared July 19-25 “National Poker Week” and took the fight to legalize online poker to Washington, D.C. Thirty of the PPA’s state directors and seven poker players (UltimateBet’s Annie Duke, Howard Lederer, Andy Bloch, Greg Raymer, Dennis Phillips, Linda Johnson and Jan Fisher) went to the seats of power in America and spoke directly to members of Congress to make the case for online poker.
And it would seem that elected officials are a bit more inclined to listen to the case for online poker. As Annie Duke said in an interview:
It’s definitely different than a year and a half ago. Then, it was a lot of education and telling people what the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act is. Now, I think people are much more familiar with the legislation’s problems. They realize that it’s a piece of legislation that doesn’t work. It’s fortuitous timing with the health care reform because you get to talk about how it’s going to get paid for. When you point out that internet gambling can bring in a conservative estimate of $3 billion per year, they listen.
The events of the week generated quite a bit of interest in your traditional poker news sources, and as several of my poker-media friends were in Washington it was quite amusing to hear about them putting on power suits and trying to tie a Windsor knot for the first time in a decade before marching on the Capitol. But in addition to poker-centric outlets National Poker Week got a lot of play in the mainstream media as well. To start with, PPA Chairman Alphonse D’Amato went on the Howard Stern show and, after chatting with Stern about why he’s so passionate about poker, Howard announced on the air that he’d become a member of the PPA. After the show D’Amato had this to say about Stern signing on:
“I can’t think of a more fitting way to kick off National Poker Week than having my friend, Howard Stern, become a member of the PPA. I thank him for having me on his show this morning and for supporting the PPA’s efforts to protect the freedom of American citizens to play the great game of poker at the time and place of their choosing – a freedom Congress voted to take away… With Howard Stern as a member of the PPA, it shows Congress and the public that protecting Internet poker is about more than just poker – it’s about protecting Internet freedom and personal responsibility.”
But that wasn’t the only time that National Poker Week earned the attention of a major news outlet. On Wednesday PPA Executive Director John Pappas appeared on CNBC, and here’s how host Mark Haines introduced the segment:
“Washington is cracking down on fun! I guess that’s nothing new…”
Pappas appeared opposite Les Bernal, who fronts for an organization called “Stop Predatory Gambling”. As if someone out there is advocating predatory gambling, sheesh. Pappas did some rhetorical ju-jitsu to start with, saying that we need online gaming legalized so that children aren’t preyed upon by unscrupulous operators and adults can play on sites that are regulated and safe. Which left Bernal in a bit of a predicament because his argument is that online poker should NOT be legalized and regulated because that’s the best way to protect the children. That argument didn’t make sense before and Bernal didn’t make it any better during this interview. Bernal also seemed to think that poker players wager money against the house, not against other players, and then he made the bizarre claim that some USB study showed that the online poker business model is “unsustainable…that short-term they made money but long-term they did not”. Uh, what? I searched the Google for that study but found nothing, but to refute Mr. Bernal’s claim I would like to introduce him to…UltimateBet, which is celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary this year. And every year more and more people around the world play online poker. Bizarre. If you’d like to see the bizarreness first hand here’s the segment, with Pappas scoring a decisive TKO:
Greg Raymer did a chat on with the readers of the Washington Post (he had a great line when asked when we could expect a repeal of the UIGEA–”Predicting this stuff is always tough, as politicians are difficult animals to deal with. Animal trainers have it much easier.”). And there was a piece on Newsweek’s site as well. But while generating a lot of media buzz is a good thing, it doesn’t necessarily translate into legislative success. There’s still no guarantee that Congress is going to repeal the UIGEA and legalize online poker, but as you can see the balance of the discussion has definitely swung in our direction. Now it’s the opponents of online poker who are being grilled about why they think law-abiding Americans shouldn’t be allowed to play, it’s Washington who wants to keep Americans from having fun. Members of Congress who perhaps were content with opposing online poker to placate a small number of vocal social conservatives now have to deal with the 1.2 million-member Poker Players Alliance and fed-up constituants who have had enough with the federal government dictating how they can and cannot spend their time and money. Dan Michalski at Pokerati published some numbers from National Poker Week to show how the PPA was able to mobilize it’s membership:
Poker-related letters sent to members of Congress in July 2009: > 150,000
Poker-related letters sent to Congress in 2008: 77,000
Issues other than health care reform that have generated more letters to Congress in 2009 (including war in Iraq, recession, and gas prices): 0
Meetings scheduled between PPA representatives and Congressional offices in a two-day period: 110
At the end of National Poker Week there was a $100 charity tournament to raise money for the USO and wounded veterans. Around 180 people played, including 31 wounded veterans and seven members of Congress. It was a rebuy tournament and many of the professional poker players there rushed around the room re-buying for the soldiers who’d busted out (Annie apparently out-rebought her brother Howard by a 15-10 score). The tournament raised around $35,000 for the USO, people had a great time, and a veteran named Bret Chevalier won the tournament and a trip to Las Vegas. Many of the soldiers who played in the event won their seats in tournaments held at Walter Reed Hospital. Wounded soldiers playing poker in the hospital…a charity tournament to raise money to help them…folks sitting around a poker table having a great time…and there are people who think this is wrong? That the federal government should BAN it? It beggars belief.
But though the passage of the UIGEA was not a shining example of democracy in action, we at least have the opportunity to fight for a repeal of that bad law. Poker players can band together, lobby Congress, and get poker legalized as it should be. Unlike, say, in Russia, where Vladimir Putin the Russian government shut down casinos across the nation this week. At first it was thought that poker, which was classified as a sport in Russia, would be exempted. Ah, nyet–all the poker rooms in Russia were ordered shuttered as well. The government says that this was done because of the pervasive influence of organized crime in the thousands of casinos scattered throughout the country, though one wonders if the Russian Mafia will have any compunctions about opening (even deeper) underground casinos and cardrooms.
The Russian government decreed that gambling will only be permitted in four zones…one of which is in Siberia, while another is near the North Korean border. Those places sound…lovely. And these areas have none of the infrastructure in place to host casinos, the roads, airports, power stations, whatever you need for a major tourist attraction. It’s estimated that 400,000 people were put out of work by this decree, some of whom probably would’ve worked the first stop on this year’s European Poker Tour, which was to be begin August 18th in Moscow. But no more–yesterday it was announced that the tournament has been moved to Kiev, Ukraine.
So perhaps this is an argument that can be used here in the United States–you want to ban poker? That’s what they do in Russia. Jingoistic to be sure, but to get online poker legalized it’ll probably take every arrow in the quiver. The House bill Representative Barney Frank has introduced won’t come up for discussion again until the Congress returns from vacation in September, and then it faces a very crowded legislative docket. In case you haven’t heard there’s talk about national health insurance, the economy still teeters and totters, there are wars in Iraq and Afghanistan…legalizing online poker is still way down on the list of priorities. But National Poker Week no doubt did a lot to keep it ON that list, and in these difficult times one would hope that Congress will take a more reasonable and pragmatic look at legalizing the game we love.
I’ve been home for 48 hours and the “real world” is finally starting to feel more real and less surreal. Doing laundry, scrambling an egg, grocery shopping…these mundane chores are an absolute delight after seven weeks in Vegas. Of course, even though the Rio is no longer the center of the poker universe, the World Series of Poker isn’t over yet. It’s just gone on hiatus until November 7th, when the November Nine returns to the Rio to determine the next World Champion.
And that’s the weird thing about leaving Vegas now that the final table of the Main Event is delayed–you don’t know who wins. Who takes home the lion’s share of the money. Who enjoys the ultimate triumph and who sufferes the ultimate heartbreak. You know, the good stuff.
So I’m not quite ready to leave Vegas behind, not quite ready to put the World Series in the rear-view mirror. Because the November Nine will be coming up sooner than you think. And when it does Joseph Cada will be right there, sitting at the final table and trying to take his place among poker’s immortals.
There is a story in the Detroit News today about Joseph Cada, who is the youngest member of the November Nine. Here’s what it looked like on the front page:
There’s a line from the article I thought was a bit amusing. Here’s Joe’s mother, Anne Cada:
“We had 15 people all huddled around the computer getting updates,” she said Thursday. “There was a delay in what’s going on there and the updates on the computer and all the sudden I got a call from Joe and all he said was ‘I made it.’ The place just erupted with the loudest ovation.”
I found it amusing because some of my friends were writing the updates that Joe’s mom was reading, and as I watched the crowd going nuts after Darvin Moon eliminated Jordan Smith in tenth place I took this shot of Joe, who was probably talking to his mon:
We thought, based on stack sizes, the blinds, the rapidly escalating payouts, that it would take a very, very long time to get down from 27 to nine. Last year we didn’t finish until 4:30AM. The year before it took even longer to get to the final table. And with more chips on the table and a slower structure, we all thought we’d be playing until, oh, dawn.
We thought wrong.
We have reached the final table of the 2009 Main Event and the second November Nine is set. As has been the case all day and all night, it was Darvin Moon who was the catalyst. Already the huge chipleader, Moon called a raise by Jordan Smith with pocket eights and flopped top set. All the money went in after the flop and that’s when Smith saw that his pocket Aces had been cracked wide open. The 5h on the turn gave Smith a gutshot draw, but the 10h fell on the river and pandemonium broke out among the already raucous crowd.
Here’s the lineup for the November Nine (chipcounts are still being verified by PokerNews):
Seat 1: Darvin Moon
Seat 2: James Akenhead
Seat 3: Phil Ivey
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter
Seat 6: Eric Buchman
Seat 7: Joe Cada
Seat 8: Antoine Saout
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman
And for those who have complained that the last few Main Event final tables lacked star power, I direct your attention to Seat 3, where Phil Ivey resides. Ivey may get the lion’s share of the attention over the next four months as he goes for his third bracelet of 2009 and his first World Championship, but there are eight other stories we’ll be hearing until the fall. And Darvin Moon, with something in the neighborhood of 60 million chips, will be one of the most talked-about players in poker.
Much, much more on this tomorrow and in the coming days. Heck, in the coming months. It’ seems impossible to believe but it’s true–the 2009 World Series of Poker is on hiatus until November.
. I even got a medal! The best bit however is the 100% undefeated boxing record I now have to my name… can’t argue with those stats. Ahem…
