History Repeats for Mark Newhouse in WSOP Main Event

Mark Newhouse entered WSOP history by making back-to-back Main Event final tables, the first player to do so since the November Nine concept was introduced. Last year, he finished in 9th place, meaning that he left Las Vegas without any extra money, as ninth place money was already paid to all the final table players.

This year, Newhouse was looking to go at least a bit further and was in good shape to do it chip-wise. However, there are no guarantees in poker and in a cruel turn of fate, history repeated itself for Newhouse as he was, once again, the first to depart. It will be a hand that we will hear a lot about in the days and months to come as opinions differ. Newhouse, who was holding pocket Tens in a three-bet pot against William Tonking, called a continuation bet on a J-high flop. Tonking check-called on 4 on the turn and once again checked when another Jack fell on the river.

This was a decisive moment as Newhouse decided to move all his chips in the middle against Tonking, who had him covered. Tonking took some time before finally announcing a call while holding pocket Queens and it was curtains for Newhouse. Twitter immediately exploded with different comments debating whether it was a good play or not and discussing Newhouse’s achievement.

It's better to make the big unsuccessful bluff like Mark Newhouse did, than spending the rest of your life wondering it it would have worked
— Barry Greenstein (@barrygreenstein) November 11, 2014

Must be so brutal for @mark_hizzle but this is an all-time great accomplishment and while others laugh he'll just make 750k each year
— Scott Seiver (@scott_seiver) November 11, 2014

Hellacious check call on turn from Tonking, Newhouse's turn bet may be worse. River shove... I just don't know about that one #WSOP
— Dan O'Brien (@DanOBrienPoker) November 11, 2014

As for Newhouse, even after this brutal finish, he still had enough composure for an exit interview, and although he looked upset, he talked calmly about the entire hand. He said it was now time to get back to reality, return to the grind, and continue with his poker efforts. Despite his calm appearance, it must be disappointing to bust from a final table that pays $10,000,000 to the winner. But keeping things in perspective is important in these situations and trying not to be too disappointed by relative failure – since it is still a huge achievement to make back-to-back final tables in such big fields.

At this point there are five players still in battling it out for the title with Jorryt van Hoof holding a dominant lead. Felix Stephensen is in a distant second, followed by Billy Pappas, William Tonking and Martin Jacobson, all with similar stacks.

The Brazilian Bruno Politano exited in 8th, cashing for $947,077, Dan Sindelar was sent out in 7th, earning $1,235,862, while Spaniard Andoni Larrabe couldn’t go further than 6th, good for $1,622,471. The remaining five have been playing for eleven hours straight, but are not showing any signs of wanting to leave their seats. Considering the money at stake, they probably wouldn’t mind going on for another two or three days!