Jorryt van Hoof Leads the Final Three in the Main Event

If the last night was a big one for poker, tonight is without any doubt – a huge one. Nine players took their seats in the Rio last night to battle it out for the Main Event champion’s title and now only three remain. In couple hours time, one of these three will walk away $10,000,000 richer!

Final three players returning to play tonight are Jorryt van Hoof, professional player hailing from the Netherlands, Swede Martin Jacobson and the Norwegian Felix Stephensen. Van Hoof will return with a significant chip lead and the stack of 89,625,000. Jacobson, who started the play 8th in chips returns with the second biggest stack of 64,750,000 while Stephensen is the short stack but still with 46,100,000.

Thanks for all ur support, what an amazing day!! Now lets get some sleep! #teameurope#wsop
— Felix Stephensen (@FelixStephensen) November 11, 2014

As expected, yesterday was a long day of poker as players spent nearly full 12 hours in their seats with only few short breaks. Play was very cautious to begin with, as players were testing each other, as no one wanted to be the first to bust and earn nothing extra for their November Nine performance.

Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. pic.twitter.com/H9r9F1yPAi
— Martin Jacobson (@Martin_Jacobson) November 10, 2014

History Repeats for Newhouse

One man who was particularly keen to avoid this fate was Mark Newhouse, a man who made history by making back to back Main Event final tables. His last year’s performance finished in somewhat disappointing ninth place finish and this year he was coming back more experienced, having more chips to play with and armed with patience.

However, it was exactly him who left the Pen and Teller Theater the first after deciding to turn his hand into a bold bluff on the river and getting called by William Tonking who held a superior hand. Tough break for Newhouse for sure, but nobody has ever said that poker wasn’t a cruel game.

With his exit, rest of the final table knew that their appearance in the Rio would end with some extra cash in their pockets, although pay jumps were rather small in comparison to the $10,000,000 first place.

Playing Down to Three

Although we had to wait more than three hours for the first exit, the next one followed relatively soon, and it was the first Brazilian to ever make the Main Event final table who was sent to the rail. Bruno ‘Foster’ Politano certainly had the best support of the crowd (if Brazilians know one thing, that’s to make a spectacle), but Lady Luck was not on his side. He couldn’t turn the things around with his short stack and busted in 8th, pocketing $947,172.

“It’s time to party!” — @brunofoster#VamoFosterapic.twitter.com/DkUFWzuHPD
— Pamela Maldonado (@pamelam35) November 11, 2014

The prize money has entered the seven figure territory after the Brazilian made his way to his cheering section. Seventh place was paying out $1,236,084 and that money went to Dan Sindelar. He ran his short stack with pocket Jacks into a3 of van Hoof, and despite of finding himself in the great shape, the flop brought an Ace to give van Hoof a decisive lead that held through the river.

Next up, Spaniard Andoni Larrabe. Defending the colors of his country on the Main Event final table for the first time since Carlos Mortensen in 2001, Larrabe couldn’t repeat the success of his fellow countryman. He ran his kq into pocket Kings of Billy Pappas to lose about half of his stack and then proceeded to lose the rest to Van Hoof. Sixth place finish was good for $1,622,471.

Next one to go would receive more than $2 million ($2,143,794 to be exact) and the only player who could probably be safe was van Hoof who built a huge stack. Others were all packed rather tightly together. However, it was William Pappaconstantinou, better known as Billy Pappas who claimed the fifth place finish. The professional foosball player surprised everybody with his rather unorthodox moves which, in all fairness, sometimes seemed rather random – but Pappas was clearly showing no fear.

Pappas lost the majority of his stack to Jacobson and was eliminated soon after, but he wasn’t disappointed. In his exit interview, he described the whole experience as ‘amazing’ and although he would (naturally) love to have won, he said that he wouldn’t change anything. Great run for the amateur!

It was planned to play down to three players, so the long night was finally coming to a conclusion. Just one more player had to bust before the remaining three would get some well deserved rest. As it turned out, that player was William Tonking.

Tonking ran his pocket Deuces into pocket Tens of Jacobson who, despite of coming in with a short stack, managed to climb the ranks, showing once again that there was much more than luck to winning in poker. Flop brought a lot of help for Tonking, giving him a flush draw, turn also opened the possibility of a gutshot straight, but despite of a good sweat, river bricked, sending him to the rail, with $2,849,794 for his efforts.

The remaining three players continued to battle it out for another half an hour and then tournament officials called it a day. In just a few hours, these three will be back in their seats to fight for the $10,000,000 in cold, hard cash and their place in the poker history!

The first one to bust will receive ‘only’ $3,807,753, so we could see some cautious play to begin with once again.

Make sure to tune up and follow us (at)pokertube on Twitter as we will be giving away some nice PokerTube stuff tonight to make your night even better!