A Look At The World Series of Poker November NineA Young, International Final Table Set For November |
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Put this on your website. Grab the code!The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event now has it’s final nine competitors, but they’ll have to wait over 100 days before coming back to the Las Vegas to determine a champion.
The November Nine will return to play out the final table between November 5-7 at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio, all with their eyes on the bracelet and the $8,711,956 first-place prize. The top eight will earn walk away with seven figures.
This year’s finalists represent a truly international event. A total of 85 different countries had a representative in the Main Event and seven nations remain at the final table.
This is also one of the youngest final tables in history, with an average age of 28. Seven members of the November Nine are 26 years old or younger.
Here is a closer look at the November Nine.
Matt Giannetti — Seat 1
Chips: 24,750,000
Matt Giannetti is a 26-year-old professional from New York who attended the University of Texas in Austin prior to playing full time in Las Vegas. For years he was a high-stakes online cash game player under the name “hazards21.”
Giannetti had $550,000 in tournament earnings and two WSOP final table appearances prior to making the November Nine. After spending much of the final table bubble as the short stack, Giannetti mounted a comeback and now enters November in third place overall.
Badih Bounahra — Seat 2
Chips: 19,700,000
At 49-years-old, Badih Bounahra is easily the oldest player at a final table full of young pros. Bounahra was born in Lebanon, but now calls Belize City his home.
Though he is not a professional, Bounahra does have some poker experience, making a couple of final tables at in some Bellagio preliminary events and cashing three times in three different years at the Aruba Poker Classic. He has nearly $60,000 in tournament earnings and currently resides in sixth place.
Eoghan O’Dea — Seat 3
Chips: 33,925,000
Eoghan O’Dea will enter the final table as one of the favorites thanks to his tournament experience, his second-place chip stack and his father’s legacy as one of Ireland’s best players.
Eoghan’s father Donnacha O’Dea previously made the WSOP Main Event final table twice, finishing ninth in 1991 and sixth in 1983. They are now the only father and son duo to both make the final table. The 26-year-old has $739,634 in tournament earnings, but is already guaranteed to double that amount.
Phil Collins — Seat 4
Chips: 23,875,000
There is a good chance that 26-year-old Phil Collins will have the loudest rail at the WSOP Main Event final table. During the bubble, Collins’ friends flooded the stands with a boombox that played Phil Collins songs on a loop as they sang along.
Collins has an impressive online poker record playing under the name “USCphildo,” a moniker he chose while attending the University of South Carolina. He has nearly $1.7 million in tournament earnings and enters the final table in fourth place overall.
Anton Makiievskyi — Seat 5
Chips: 13,825,000
Anton Makiievskyi is a pro from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine. The 21-year-old is making his first WSOP appearance during a year in which four of his countrymen won their first career bracelets.
This will be Makiievskyi’s first career cash due to his age. Should he manage to overcome his eighth-place chip stack, he’ll overtake Joe Cada as the youngest player to ever win the Main Event.
Sam Holden — Seat 6
Chips: 12,375,000
When the final table bubble began, Sam Holden was in solid shape with a slightly above-average stack. But after numerous double ups from the short stacks, the 22-year-old now finds himself as the low man.
The pro from Sussex has just one lone cash on his resume, a 12th place finish in a UKIPT event. He’ll undoubtedly be happy with his guaranteed $782,115, but with a few rounds of blinds in his stack, he’ll be looking for more.
Pius Heinz — Seat 7
Chips: 16,425,000
The German representative entering the final table is Pius Heinz, who is a part-time professional and student. This was the 22-year-old’s first WSOP appearance, but the live broadcast of the Main Event proved that he wasn’t afraid to mix up his play and gamble when he felt it was necessary.
The Cologne native becomes Germany’s first ever final tablist, but will have his work cut out for him in seventh place overall. Earlier this summer, Heinz made the final table of a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event and his $83,286 in winnings make up the entirety of his career earnings.
Ben Lamb — Seat 8
Chips: 20,875,000
Though he faltered a bit during the WSOP Main Event final table bubble, Ben Lamb is undoubtedly one of the favorites entering the final table.
The Tulsa, Oklahoma native is enjoying one of the best performances in WSOP history and as a result, currently resides in first place in the WSOP Player of the Year race. He not only picked up his first bracelet, but also finished second, eighth and 12th in his other four cashes which included a final table appearance in the $50,000 Players Championship.
Martin Staszko — Seat 9
Chips: 40,175,000
Very quietly, the Czech Republic’s Martin Staszko enters the final table in first place. Staszko made a few questionable calls during day 7, but never really got out of line during the final table bubble. As a result, he was able to chip up safely without many showdowns.
He is the second oldest player at the final table at 35 years of age. Staszko has $83,001 in career earnings.
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