WSOP 2015 Main Event - November Nine Led by Joseph McKeehan

8 years ago
Joe McKeehan
15:07
15 Jul

Total of 6,402 players started the journey called Main Event days ago. As of today, only nine remain in the hunt for the coveted bracelet, while the other 6,393 have had their dreams postponed for another year at least. Names of the nine people who will return in November to battle it out for millions in prizes are now known.

How it went down

Yesterday it all started with 27 players, all with their hopes still high. After all, even those with short stacks could find a couple of double-ups to get them right back in there. But as the time progressed, while some were able to find a much needed double-up, others were finding their way to the rail.

James Magner was the first player eliminated from the play and others were to follow in the hours to come. Fedor 'CrownUpGuy' Holz needed some help if he was to make a run for it, but poker gods were not on his side and he was sent packing in 25th. Then fell Chris Brand, Blake Bohn and a few others, bringing the tournament down to just two tables of nine.

With only eighteen players remaining, the dream of a final table seat was within a reach, but with that, the pressure was growing as well. One of two remaining German players, Kilian Kramer, was the first to relinquish his seat with 18 players left, followed by a group of Americans namely David Peters, Dave Stefanski, Tom Kearney, Justin Schwartz and Matt Guan.

With these exits, the final table was really looming. Twelve hopefuls and only nine seat at the coveted final table. Then, UK player George McDonald was sent to the rail, bringing everybody still in one step closer to the goal.

One of the players still in was the man that the entire poker world had eyes fixated on - Daniel 'Kid Poker' Negreanu. Daniel has achieved pretty much all there is to achieve in poker, has six bracelets to his name and came close to final tabling the Main Event once but came short, finishing in 11th place.

Despite all the positive thinking, the history would repeat for Dnegs, as he was the one sent to the rail next. Negreanu got his money in a pretty much coinflip situation on the flop but failed to hold all the way through the river which completed his opponent's straight and to dismay of many poker fans, Daniel's Main Event journey was over.

With this exit, players finally merged to one table, ten of them together to play until one more is eliminated. That one would be the last German player standing as Alexander Turyansky was eliminated as the official final table bubble, claiming $$756,897 for his valiant efforts.

The November Nine

Man leading the pack into the biggest final table of the year is one Joe McKeehan with 63 million in chips. While McKeehan had some bumps along the road, he mostly sit with a good stack and went on a heater yesterday to secure a massive chip lead heading into the final table. He was also the one who crushed Negreanu's hopes.

Sitting in quite distant second is Israeli Zvi Stern, who bagged 29.8 million at the end of the play. Previous to this event, Stern had only about $50k in live cashes and is already guaranteed at least a million, which is the minimum that any of the November Nine members will take home.

American Neil Blumenfield managed to bag even 22,000,000 which put him on the third spots in the chip counts, but only slightly ahead of the 72-year old Belgian Pierre Neuville with 21 million. With this, Neuville broke the WSOP record as the oldest player to make the Main Event final table and should he win, he will eclipse the record as the oldest winner, currently held by Johnny Moss who was 67 when he claimed the title in 1974.

Max Steinberg is the only bracelet holder to make the final table. With a lot of experience under his belt, Steinberg will without any doubt represent a serious threat in November and his stack of 20 million is more than enough to put him right on the map.

Making up for the second half of the table are all American players, apart from the short stacked Italian Federico Butteroni. Thomas Cannuli bagged 12.2 million, Joshua Backley will return to a stack of 11.8 million, while both Patrick Chan and the afore mentioned Italian have 6.2 million apiece.

These nine will return on November 8th to compete for a prestigious bracelet and a $7.6 million first place. The runner up will take home $4,469,171, so it will be quite a heads up match once it gets down to it.

Let the waiting game begin.

Photo: foxwoodspoker


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Ivan Potocki is the editor in chief and one of the lead news writers for PokerTube. His natural flair and enthusiasm for journalism combined with a deep poker knowledge make him an exciting contributor for PokerTube.The experience garnered playing poker professionally for several years and the knowl...Read more

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