With almost something like a quarter to a third of the chips at the final table, I like his chances.

Ivey made it, the final 9 has been set:

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 22:52:41 Jordan Smith Eliminated in 10th Place ($896,730) Eric Buchman opened for 650,000, Darvin Moon flat-called from the button and Jordan Smith reraised to 2.6 million from the small blind. Buchman folded and Moon called. The flop was 8c, 4d, 2d . Smith checked, Moon bet 4,000,000, Smith moved all in and Moon called. Smith Ah Ad Moon 8h 8d The turn was the 5h, Smith picking up an inside straight draw to a wheel. The river, though, was the 10h and Moon took down the pot with his set of eights, eliminating Smith and setting the 2009 "November Nine." Moon has an estimated 59,770,000 chips. We'll post the remainder of the final table chip counts as soon as they're verified.

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Wed, 15 Jul 2009 23:04:50 Meet Your November Nine What a day of poker! If you asked anyone in the media when we got here this morning if we thought the tournament would be down to its final nine players -- the November Nine -- before 11pm, we would have laughed and challenged you to put your whole bankroll on it. Yet here we are, just shy of 11pm, with the final nine players bagging and tagging for the night. But that's getting slightly ahead of the action. We started today at noon with 27 players. Leo Margets, the sole woman in the field, was the first elimination just twenty minutes into the day. That seemed to set the tone for play, as players got their chips into the middle with glee. Before we finished the first level of play, three more players were eliminated, including the good-for-television Antonio Esfandiari. All through the day, players continued to be eliminated at a rapid pace. We thought there would be mini-bubbles at 19 left, 16 left, and 13 left. In fact there were no such bubbles. The big stacks did their jobs today, as Darvin Moon, Steven Begleiter and Billy Kopp all applied relentless pressure on the short stacks. It was unfortunate for Kopp that he ran a small flush into a bigger flush and went busto in 12th place, a classic elimination that is sure to haunt Kopp for a long time. Of course there's one other player whom everyone was watching today. Some consider him to be the greatest player in the world; all were hoping he'd make the final table. Phil Ivey started off trending dangerously downwards, but he seemed to recognize what many other players did not -- the stacks were still relatively deep and the levels were still two-hours long. No need to panic. Ivey didn't panic, and as a result he secured a spot in the November Nine. When Jordan Smith said "Good night, Moon" and exited in tenth place, the November Nine were determined. Here they are!

Darvin Moon
James Akenhead
Phil Ivey
Kevin Schaffel
Steven Begleiter
Eric Buchman
Joe Cada
Antoine Saout
Jeff Shulman

Moon will be the chip leader for the next four months. Many will argue that this is the most talented Main Event final table to have been assembled in years. They'll have almost four months to argue back and forth over which player they think has the best shot. The final table festivities will take place from November 7 - 10. It has been our great pleasure to be your source of live updates during the 2009 WSOP. We hope you'll join us throughout the rest of the year as we cover major poker tournaments around the globe. Please stop back in November for what is sure to be an exciting conclusion to the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. Good night!

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm pretttty sure i called out jcada99 prior to the start of the tourney obvvvvv the best player left

What makes you think he tells jokes while playing?

This is a very good point. Although his friends and fans will trumpet a win by Ivey as "good for poker," I seriously doubt it.

Ivey doesn't care about televised poker, having repeatedly shrugged off invites to various programs (High Stakes Poker season 5 being one of the more recent).

He's truly a great player, and certainly deserves this shot at the biggest title in all of poker in November. But he isn't concerned about any of us or about what might happen to the "poker economy" (beyond what he receives from Full Tilt). It's just a job to him. He works very hard, but it's just work. He displays no real passion for the game, because he doesn't love poker. Maybe once he did, but those days are long gone. It's a challenge for him, and he wants to win, to be sure. But whether he wins or loses in November, it will not be that big of a deal to him, aside from the prize money. If he loses, he will still be a multi-millionaire many times over. And if he wins, he will still shrug off most supposed "responsibilities" of the ME champion, beyond what he can get paid for.

I just can't root for a mercenary, sorry.

Poll time

I think that's rediculous - Ivey will do wonders for the game. Even if he never shows his face again, a win for him here would be great for poker.

Ivey! Ivey! Ivey!

Wow, you seem to know Phil pretty well. He must feel fortunate to have someone with such insight into how he feels about things.

A mercenary? Isn't that exactly what we need, and what "real" pros like Ivey are all about? The money, the title? I get that you can't root for one, but the ME needs a top pro to lay down the law for once instead of some donkey moron idiot like Yang or Gold to take the title again. And there are ZERO "responsibilities" of a ME champion minus picking up your cash - you can go buy a small island and disappear if you want. Who gives a crap what people want, you just won the f*cking ME.

Watching Ivey play is like watching paint dry! There is no way his being at the table is going to bring new players (fresh money) to the game. Hopefully one of the nine is the next Moneymaker.

That's why poker players love him and casual poker TV watchers don't get him. And I think he's more like Daniel Larusso from Karate Kid...he actually does the painting instead of "being" the drying paint - up...down...up...down...up...down...see? Exciting, right? I'll bet you want to know the next move.



lol...couldn't help myself

The fact that Ivey made the FT will make this year's ME winner (if it's not Ivey) more legit. It's not just a bunch of luckboxes this year, the winner will have to beat a table that includes one of the top players in the world (if not THE top player in the world)

This is great for poker.

Agreed. I hope Ivey wins, but many of the players in the field are excellent pros already or internet pros, so it's a win for poker. I just hope someone doesn't try to donk off their chips repeatedly and win the whole thing, that's all. A good player will bring a good crowd - if an idiot wins, everyone and their dog will believe they should enter the ME next year. Possibly not a bad thing, but not my preference (not like I would enter it myself or anything though).

When play resumes in November what blind level will they start at and how much time is left in that level?

I saw that the seats were assigned, but I can't recall if it said who starts in the BB.

I believe there will be about half an hour left at the 120,000/240,000/30,000 level.

Thanks for the info, but is there an official word on this? I can't find it on wsop.com.

http://www.pokernews.com/wsop/2009/e...day8/page5.htm

22 hours 42 minutes ago
Round: 33 Blinds: 120000/240000 Ante: 30000

21 hours 2 minutes ago |
Shuffle Up and Deal!

With 41:55 remaining on the clock in Level 33, cards are back in the air.

20 hours 24 minutes ago |

Jordan Smith Eliminated in 10th Place ($896,730)

So more like under 10 minutes at 120,000/240,000/30,000

Thanks Kevmath, I appreciate it.

As best as I can determine, here are the top (in-the-money) women finishers in the Main Event of the 2009 World Series of Poker:

Rank Name

27 Leonor Margets
75 Nichoel Peppe
203 Estelle Denis
238 Kara Scott
288 Rebecca Campbell
369 Marla Schwartz
404 Emma Grace
502 Sarah Hale
592 Kristy Gazes
607 Christina Renz
619 Melanie Banfield

Kara Scott had another fine run this year, finishing in 238th place. Last year, she finished in 104th.

This was compiled from: $10,000 World Championship No Limit Hold'em. If I have made errors or omissions, then by all means feel free to submit corrections to the list above.

P.S.--I apologize for my earlier thread hijack (re Phil Ivey).

In the spirit of things, some other women who through the years, were in the overall top 100 finishers of the WSOP ME:

Rank Name

5 Barbara Enright
10 Annie Duke
15 Tiffany Williamson
17 Tiffany Michelle

(If I missed anyone, feel free to post them)

Ivey's got a lot of work to do if he wants to win... less than 50 BBs, M ~25?

I would assume that a lot of the big stacks might try to pick on him also given his celebrity status.

I think it's safe to say blinds will be 150,000/300,000/40,000 since there are only a few minutes left at the 120,000/240,000/30,000 level. Ivey will definitely have a way to go with half the average stack, but he'll still have 32BBs (M just over 12) when the next level starts, so luckily he won't be in "all in" mode yet. I think it's also safe to say I'm kind of rooting for Ivey.

A friend has given me odds of 10/1 that Ivey wins. I laughed in his face as i put 100 on him. Defo +EV

Sorry if this has been asked before.

Three other guys and I will probably be in Vegas during the Final Table time frame. Would it be possible for us to watch the FT live? Is viewing by invitation only (friends/family)? Reservation? Curious... as if it is possible to ensure we can watch Ivey play, it may alter our traveling plans...

Thanks!
-G

I emailed Harrah's about the time left in the current level and the BTN/SB/BB situation and got this reply back:

"They are in level 33 with approximately 24 minutes left and Darvin Moon will be the button."

Structure: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/to...83&groupid=607

Payouts: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/to...=7283&grid=607

Seats - Chips:
Darvin Moon - 58,930,000
James Akenhead - 6,800,000
Phil Ivey - 9,765,000
Kevin Schaffel - 12,390,000
Steven Begleiter - 29,885,000
Eric Buchman - 34,800,000
Joe Cada - 13,215,000
Antoine Saout - 9,500,000
Jeff Shulman - 19,580,000