After 3 months of waiting, a new world champion of poker has emerged and his name is not Phil Ivey. When the November 9 converged in Las Vegas last weekend, many expected Ivey to storm back from being a short stack, and though he lasted for several hours, it just wasn’t meant to be for the poker icon as he just was never able to break the $16 million mark. The other well-known pro, founder of Card Player magazine Jeff Shulman, also failed to make the final two despite playing a solid tight style throughout.

Instead, when the dust had settled, the final two competitors were online heads up cash game specialist Joe Cada and a previously unknown mountain man, Darvin Moon who, no matter what happens will be talked about for years to come.

Cada’s Play at the Final Table

Both finalists made it to the final two in very different ways. Cada was aggressive from the very beginning, experiencing major swings. In fact, at one point fairly early on, he had only 2.5 big blinds left and his J4 enabled him to double up. Meanwhile, Moon arrived to the final table as chip leader with $58 million in chips and reached heads up with $58 million. Both players were extremely fortunate to say the least as they both benefited from remarkable suckouts that will never be forgotten.

For Cada, on three separate occasions he moved all in against opponents holding large pairs while he held pocket 2’s, 3’s and 4’s and each time he managed to flop sets to suckout and win enormous pots.

Moon’s play at the Final Table

For Moon, he was one of the most unorthodox, to say the least, players to emerge in quite for time as he consistently made gigantic bets to keep the pressure on while making some extraordinarily questionable laydowns. For example, he eliminated Ivey by running down Ivey’s AK with his rivered Queen while holding AQ. Meanwhile, he made a horrendous fold to Steven Begleiter about 5 plus hours into play. Moon raised preflop and Begleiter came back over the top and after contemplating for a short time, Moon made the call. The flop was 2-3-4 with two spades and Begleiter made a $5 million continuation bet. Moon re-raised to $15 million and Begleiter quicker moved all in for just $6 million more into the $40+ million pot. Inexplicably, Moon folded his hand to the stunned amazement of everyone in the room and likely everyone following on the internet or television. There simply was no way Moon could fold his cards in that spot, even if they happened to be blank.

Regardless of the manner in which they got to being heads up for the championship, there they were, and it took all of 88 hands to crown Cada as the winner and new champion, at 21, the youngest main event winner yet. With the chip stacks virtually even, Cada moved all in with pocket 9’s and Moon called off his remaining chips, a whopping $70 million in total, holding just the Qd-Jd. The pocket 9’s held up, and Moon was eliminated.

Though the feat of making in this far was a superb achievement for both, it is highly unlikely that the poker world will ever see Darvin Moon remotely come close to matching what he did at this year’s World Series.

The World Series of Poker will have a stable home for the next 10 years, and that home is ESPN. Not the actual event itself; that still presumably will be remaining at the Rio for the foreseeable future. The actual television coverage rather, will be staying at ESPN as the Worldwide Leader in Sports announced that they have extended the partnership with Harrah’s entertainment through 2018.

Under the extension, each year, ESPN will air 32 hours of World Series coverage. The bulk of this year’s coverage is of the main event itself with 75% of the shows covering the headliner. However, future years will feature other events as well. In addition, though premiere episodes will be broadcast on the main ESPN channel, reruns will be shown on ESPN2, ESPNClassic and ESPN International. In addition, the World Series of Poker will also be featured on ESPN’s website.

Excited about the announcement, Jeffrey Pollack, President of Harrah’s Interactive Entertainment and Commissioner of the World Series of Poker, said.

“This long-term agreement ensures that our content will continue to reach sports fans around the world through a wide variety of platforms.”

ESPN reps seemed to be just as thrilled also issuing a statement that read: “We are very excited to continue our relationship with Harrah’s to deliver the largest, richest, and most prestigious gaming event in the world to fans across a variety of our platforms. Poker continues to be a solid ratings performer for us and allows us to continue offering diverse programming to our viewers.”

It seems that even though the state of poker in individual states is in a constant state of flux, it is still in demand by the viewing public and sports fans in general.

After several grueling days of competition, and nearly 6,500 eliminations, the Main Event of the 2009 World Series of Poker is finally down to its eagerly anticipated November 9.  Though several top name pros were able to make deep runs, including former champs Peter Eastgate and Joe Hachem, in addition to household names such as Antonio Esfandiari, the only well-known left is the one considered by many to be the best of them all.  That distinction belongs to none other than the great Phil Ivey, poker pro at Full Tilt Poker. After winning 2 bracelets in earlier events this year, Ivey was able to thrive in the massive main event field and goes to the final table alive and kicking, albeit with the 3rd fewest chips at the table, and nearly $50 Million behind the chip leader, Darvin Moon.  However, no one is ready to count out the poker icon just yet.

Here is a snapshot of where the tournament will pick up when the final table regroups in November.
Blinds: 120,000-240,000 with a 30,000 ante
Players Remaining: 9 out of 6,494

The November Nine – 2009 WSOP

Remaining Players at the 2009 WSOP – Chip Counts

1. Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
2. Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
3. Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
4. Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
5. Joe Cada – 13,215,000
6. Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
7. Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
8. Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
9. James Akenhead – 6,800,000

Seat Assignments for the November 9

The seat assignments for the final table have already been set.  Here is a look at where everyone will be seated along with their current chip counts.

Seat 1: Darvin Moon — 58,930,000
Seat 2: James Akenhead — 6,800,000
Seat 3: Phil Ivey — 9,765,000
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel — 12,390,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter — 29,885,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman — 34,800,000
Seat 7: Joseph Cada — 13,215,000
Seat 8: Antoine Saout — 9,500,000
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman — 19,580,000

Phil Ivey, already a 7-time bracelet winner and already 4th on the all-time money earners list is still expected to give it a good run.  With more accomplishments and experience that all of the other remaining players left in the tournament, Ivey seems poised to add to his already expansive resume.  The other notable player left is cardplayer.com’s own Jeff Shulman, who is 4th in chips.  Reached for an interview just after play ended, Ivey seemed proud of what he has already done by stating, “So far I’ve just made the final table, but this tops the list.  It’s definitely up there.”

This is already the best performance Ivey has had in the main event though he has had deep runs in the past, albeit in smaller fields.  In 2002, he finished 23rd, in 2003 he finished 10th and in 2005, he came in 20th.

Although he is the most revered player left, Ivey made it quite clear that he intends to stay away from the current massive chip leader Moon.  Moon, however, does have a great deal of respect for Ivey who half-jokingly said of Ivey, “If he even looks at me, I’m mucking.”

So the stage is set, and the one most recognizable player left would seem to be the one best prepared for the media scrutiny sure to follow the final table participants.  It will be great theater to see how this fairy tale will end. Get ready for the November 9 in a few months!

The road to crowning a world champion of poker is a long and winding one, but we are inching closer and closer to having it happen.  Play began on day 5 with 407 players remaining from the sold out field and play went quickly as scores of players were eliminated in a continuation of the fast play that ensued once the money bubble burst on day 4.

Going into day 5, the goal was to play two 5-hour levels or down to 175 players.  It was apparent rather early on that the session would not last as long as originally thought as players were not at all reluctant to call other players’ all in moves.  With the high stakes involved, by the end of the day, there were just 185 left.

Many notables still remain in the field including defending champion Peter Eastgate, and former champ Joe Hachem. Other past champions were not as fortunate as Dan Harrington and Bobby Baldwin were knocked out on day 5.  In a bit of a surprise, 2009’s 3rd place finisher, Dennis Phillips is still in the mix as well.  This year’s run looks like it will prevent him from attending the Major League Baseball All-Star game in his hometown of St. Louis.  In addition to those players,  Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Joe Sebok, Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, and  Phil Ivey are all still in the hunt.

The current chip leader is amateur Warren Zackey from South Africa who has 4.87 million in chips.

For the next level, play is expected to continue to about 64 players.

And so the countdown begins.  After the elimination of thousands of players during the first 3 days of play, Day 4 concluded well after the money bubble had burst.  The top 648 players in this year’s WSOP made the money with the minimum prize being $21,365, slightly more than double the entrance fee.  The players played hand for hand for approximately 2 hours until a player from Los Angeles named Kia Hamadami busted out in 649th place.  Fortunately for Hamadami, by being the bubble boy, he “won” entry into the 2010 main event from sponsor Jack Link’s Beef Jerky.

Notable Players Knocked Out

The action was hot and heavy after everyone was assured of some money and play was stopped early after the field was whittled down to 407 remaining.  Many notable players were eliminated shortly after making the money including Phil Hellmuth who had his aces cracked by a made river straight, ending his championship dreams in 436th place.  In addition to Hellmuth, Greg “FBT” Mueller, Hevad Khan, Jesper Hougaard, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, Paul Wasicka, Alexander Kostritsyn, and Chris “Jesus” Ferguson also were knocked out.

Leading the way of the remaining players with $1.8 million in chips was Matt “mcmatto” Affleck who played most of the day with Mike Sexton and Lou Diamond Phillips.  Sexton was knocked out in 420th place.  At the beginning of the day, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier was the chip leader but lost the lead but still has $1.25 million left.

Many recognizable players remain in the hunt including former world champ Joe Hachem, Dennis Phillips, Theo Tran, Joe Sebok, Kenny Tran, David Benyamine, Kara Scott, Vitaly Lunkin, J.C.  Tran, Antonio Esfandiari, and last year’s champ, Peter Eastgate.

Below is a chip count of the top 25 chip leaders:
1. Matt Affleck – 1,819,000
2. Ludovic Lacay – 1,608,000
3. Tom Lutz – 1,600,000
4. James Akenhead – 1,572,000
5. Charlie Elias – 1,540,000
6. Miika Puumalainen – 1,492,000
7. Jordan Morgan – 1,489,000
8. Bernhard Perner – 1,426,000
9. Blair Hinkle – 1,399,000
10. Benjamin Jensen – 1,394,000
11. Billy Kopp – 1,385,000
12. Eracles Panayiotou – 1,299,000
13. Chuck Clark – 1,295,000
14. Abraham Mourshaki – 1,294,000
15. Phil Ivey – 1,276,000
16. Bertrand Grospelier – 1,253,000
17. Kevin Schaffel – 1,206,000
18. Keith Lehr – 1,190,000
19. Ben Lamb – 1,183,000
20. Patterson Tyler – 1,168,000
21. Rifat Palevic – 1,152,000
22. Joe Ward – 1,129,000
23. Nick Maimone – 1,104,000
24. Kasper Cordes – 1,095,000
25. Manuel Labandeira – 1,087,000

Yes, Phil Ivey is still hanging near the top. Can he win a 3rd bracelet this year? Not many would bet against him at this point.

Perhaps Jose Canseco is trying to take this poker thing a bit more seriously.  It seems that the former baseball star and admitted steroid cheat, who has spent much of his time in Las Vegas during the World Series of Poker this year, has entered the third annual Dream Team Poker Tournament with will be held on July 12 and 13.

Canseco’s teammates in this event, on a team call “On Tilt”, are Shane McDowell and Josh Clark.  At press time, there are already over 100 teams scheduled to participate in the event which features a $560 per person price tag.

Basically, the way the tournament works is that prizes will be awarded for the top teams and individuals ad it is expected that over 300 players will be taking part.  The already confirmed lineup includes Daniel Negreanu and Team Poker VT, 2007 WSOP Main Event Champion Jerry Yang, and Team Bodog, which includes Evelyn Ng, Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo, and David Williams.

Last year’s Dream Team event was held at Caesars Palace and had 148 teams involved.  Surprisingly, the winning team in 2008 was none other than team ACED which was led by former world champion Jamie Gold. The team took down top honors of $59,000 for recording the top team finish while Team BikerHaven.net representative, Danny Nelson took down $24,000 for the individual title.

As last year attracted such poker stars as Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Todd Brunson, Paul Wasicka, and Mike Matusow, it is expected that 2009 will be more of the same. Other players slated to enter the third Dream Team Poker tournament include Barry Greenstein and Joe Sebok (Team PokerRoad), Gavin Smith (Team Zurvive), Pamela Brunson (Team Pushers), Liz Liu (Team Chili Poker), and Barbara Enright, Paul Darden, and David Levi, who will make up Team Bookmaker Poker.

Let’s just hope Canseco is on his best behavior this time.

The main event of the World Series of Poker always attracts many big celebrities. For the most part, they all go quietly with none in recent memory making any big runs of note. That appears to have changed in this 2009 edition as former Seinfeld star, Jason Alexander, finished day 1A 7th overall in chips. Though still extremely early, this has already been the best day for Alexander at any of his world series’ experiences.