After 12 full days of poker, the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event has narrowed its field of 6,865 players down to the final nine. While the field may not have the big names of years’ past, it does have some of the best young, up and coming poker players in the game. John Hewitt was the unlucky bubble boy, who finished in 10th place, but these are the remaining nine players and their chip stacks.
The most well-known name heading into the final table is Ben Lamb. Lamb has already won his first gold bracelet at the 2011 WSOP, and also has a 2nd place finish, an 8th place finish, and a 12th place finish as well. Lamb is also the current leader in the Player of the Year race.
One player with an interesting story comes from Eoghan O’Dea. Poker runs in O’Dea’s family, as his father, Donnacha, has made two final tables of his own at World Series of Poker Main Event’s. Donnacha is also currently a member of the European Poker Player’s Hall of Fame. O’Dea has been near the top of the leaderboard in terms of chips throughout the final day of the 2011 Main Event.
Matt Giannetti is another interesting name at the top of the leaderboard. Giannetti was one of the early potential bubble boy’s once it was down to ten-handed play, but he made some good reads and big moves. Giannetti had a huge double up when his pocket Jacks held up against the King-nine off suit of Ben Lamb. From that point, Giannetti turned into the aggressor and build his chip stack to place himself in the top 3.
The World Series of Poker Main Event is the most popular poker tournament in the world, and draws in some of the best poker players from all over. The prize pool for the huge event drew in a total of $64,531,000, and will award the first place winner an incredible $8.7 million. The 2011 World Series of Poker, which was the 42nd annual, broke multiple records, and featured 58 different events. The World Series of Poker is televised on ESPN, and this year was the first year that they switched to “live broadcasting” of the event. The live broadcasting featured coverage of two main tables, with full analysis from some of the best players in the game, such as Phil Hellmuth, Antonio Esfandiari, and Scotty Nguyen.
The November Nine will continue play to determine the winner of the gold bracelet on November 5th, and it will run over a 3 day span until a winner is decided on November 7th.