The 2009 World Series of Poker is down to it's last final table of the summer. Of the 6,494 players who started the Main Event, only nine remain. Those final nine, known as "The November Nine", now have until November 7th to prepare for the final table.
The final nine consist of a wide variety of players, young amatuers to seasoned veterans of the game. The final nine players and their chip counts are listed below.
Darvin Moon (Oakland, MD) – 58,930,000
Eric Buchman (Valley Stream, NY) – 34,380,000
Steve Begleiter (Chappaqua, NY) – 29,885,000
Jeff Shulman (Las Vegas, NV) – 19,580,000
Joe Cada (Shelby Township, MI) – 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel (Coral Springs, FL) – 12,390,000
Phil Ivey (Las Vegas, NV) – 9,765,000
Antione Saout (Paris, France) – 9,500,000
James Ankenhead (London, England) – 6,800,000
All 27 players who started play on Day 8 were already guaranteed $352,832 in prize money. Now, after 13 days and nearly 66 total hours of tournament play, all finishers are guaranteed at least $1,263,602 in prize money. The total payouts for the final table 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
The November Nine bubble, which was 10th place, went to Jordan Smith of College Station, TX. He won a gold bracelet at this year’s WSOP. Smith collected $896,730.
ESPN has been broadcasting its WSOP coverage since 2003. This year, four events will be featured. These events include the $40,000 buy-in 40th Anniversary No-Limit Hold’em Championship, the World Champions Invitational, the third-annual Ante-Up for Africa charity tournament, and the Main Event. The 2009 WSOP broadcasts will begin on July 28th.