WSOP Main Event - Day 8

On Monday, July 5, the 2010 WSOP Main Event officially kicked-off in the Amazon Room with the Pavillion listening out nearby. Greg Raymer took on the "shuffle up and deal" honours, but was eliminated within the opening level. 27 players were less unfortunate, skipping through the poker mindfield and emerging from a 7,319 thick field to participate in the eighth and final day. 12 days on, and these gladiators of the felt were just one session of poker away from a seat in the November Nine.

For the final day, the players were sectioned off into one corner of the room, with the feature and secondary tables joined by an outer table that sat directly behind the stage, but attracted a similar crowd nonetheless. Redmond Lee was on the secondary table, seated across the felt from fan favourite Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi, whilst menacing Swede William Thorson lurked to his immediate left. Out of the three tables, this was the least foreboding with John Racener the initial captain with 10,470,000. Overnight chip leaders Joseph Cheong (24,490,000) and Soi Nguyen (23,100,000) - who each held over 10 percent of the chips in play - sat on the feature and outer tables respectively.

After 2010 commissioner Ty Stewart had addressed the players, and MMA fighter Kevin 'The Monster' Randleman announced those immortal words, the starting whistle blew and we were off, just one more day away from finding poker's next batch of millionaires. As with last year, the UK had just the sole survivor with Redmond Lee looking to turn a guaranteed $317,161 payday into something more substantial, plus the opportunity to return in four months time to battle it out for the gold bracelet. Sitting in 20th place with 3,315,000, he was by no means in a perfect spot, but could certainly put himself in contention with a timely double through.

It wasn't the best of starts for the 24-year old Brit. On the very first hand of the day, Redmond opened for 310,000 in late position only to be reraised to 650,000 by Michael Mizrachi in the small blind. After a brief pause, Redmond relinquished his hand and was shown pocket kings for his troubles, which I sensed may have been ahead. Despite this immediate setback, Redmond kept plugging away, and remained as plucky as he had done for the entire tournament. Not too long after, Brandon Steve raised to 425,000 in the cut-off and Redmond pushed for two million one seat along. Steve seemed tempted by the pot odds, but ultimately lay the hand down to enable Redmond to fight another day.

Sadly, that 'another day' would ultimately evade Redmond as his WSOP venture came to an end when he was eliminated in 21st place. After a period of inactivity - mainly due to the constrictions of his stack in relation to the blinds - Redmond shoved for 2,445,000 with pocket fours, but was looked up by Michiel Sijpkens who turned pocket tens onto the felt. A 7s-6d-Jd-Ac-Qd board later and Redmond was gone, understandably dejected to have not gone further, but consoled by the tax-free $317,161 he'd be taking back across the Atlantic.

As the day progressed, it was beginning to seem like a lack-lustre final table line-up was on the cards, made up entirely of unknown Internet kids looking like clones of one another with their logo-ed baseball caps and hoodies. At the start of Day 6, I outlined in my blog what I thought would be the perfect November Nine, yet two days on, only one of my selections remained in Michael Mizrachi.

The big guns hit the deck almost immediately, the ever-popular Johnny Lodden the first scalp in 27th. With Matt Affleck raising it up under the gun with Ac-Th, Lodden pushed all in for 1,470,000 on the button with 8h-8d, but was unable to survive on an ensuing Ks-Qs-2s-Tc-7s board. A couple of hours later, he was joined by fellow Scandinavian William Thorson, the Swede squeezing for 5,000,000 with Jd-Td but being picked off by caller John Racener who'd been trapping with Ks-Kd. The 2h-6d-Ad-2s-5c board teased, but ultimately changed nothing, and the Nordic ambush of this year's WSOP Main Event came to an end.

One seasoned pro who could potentially bring a touch of 'big name' familiarity to the final table was the underrated Scott Clements. With two bracelets and over four million in tournament winnings, Clements, along with Mizrachi, seemed capable of bringing the November Nine to a slightly wider audience, but his tournament came to an abrupt end when he exited in 18th for $396,967.

Michael Mizrachi lit the first spark raising it up to 485,000 in the hijack enabling Clements to push all in from the button for 4,905,000 with Ad-Qs. However, and to both players' chagrin, Matthew Jarvis reshoved from the big blind. After Mizrachi made the hesistant fold, Jarvis tabled As-Kc which dodged the three ladies on a subsequent Ac-7h-5c-6h-8s board. As I returned from the toilet, I spotted a lonely Clements approaching from the other direction along the Rio corridor. A passer by asked if he was still in. Clements shook his head. The random then asked another question, but no answer was forthcoming, Clements clearly devastated to have come close-but-no-cigar and certainly not in the mood to divulge the details with a stranger so soon after his demise. Even for a man of Clements' calibre and experience, this latest elimination would take a while to sink in.

After David Baker and Benjamin Statz fell in 17th and 16th respectively, the rail of the secondary feature table bore witness to the pot of the tournament. In what had started out as a preflop raising war with Jonathan Duhamel four-betting to 3,925,000 after an initial open of 550,000, and Matt Affleck, who had three-bet to 1,500,000, making the call, the two players saw a Td-9c-7h flop where Affleck led for 5,000,000. Duahmel called to see a Qd hit the turn. After his opponent had checked, Affleck moved all in for 11,600,000 and following five minutes of deliberation, Duhamel made what appeared to be a very reluctant call with Jh-Jc, only to find that he was indeed behind against Ac-As. But, the Poker Gods were smiling on Duhamel, as the river came a devastating 8d to send the crowd into a wild frenzy, and send Affleck hurtling to the rail. As the 42 million pot went sailing across the felt, Affleck could but drop his head into his cap and fight back the tears which threatened to fall any second. He was crushed, and so were his chances of making the November Nine.

As the next three players rattled off, and then bracelet winner Pascal LeFrancois dropped in 11th to whittle the field down to just one table, it looked as though we were just moments away from the summer's end, but little did we know that the November Nine bubble would take a near six hours to burst. After an emotionally exhausting battle which only saw the occasional showdown (one of which was an A-K versus A-K split pot between Brandon Steven and Matthew Jarvis), our November Nine were finally unearthed when Brandon Steven felt the splash of poker's most costly bubble to finish in 10th place for $635,011.

With the blinds at 250,000 and 500,000 with a running ante of 50,000, Steven found himself within touching distance of poker's most undesirable wooden spoon, his Ac-Ks in search of one of six outs against the Qs-Qc of Matthew Jarvis. The dealer rolled out a 4h-3d-Tc flop, and after a raggy 4c turn, the river brought a harmless 5h to award the pot to Jarvis. Despite his best efforts, Steven had fallen at the final hurdle and would be missing out on all the fun and financial gain that comes with being a member of the November Nine.

Jonathan Duhamel -- 65,975,000
John Dolan -- 46,250,000
Joseph Cheong -- 23,525,000
John Racener -- 19,050,000
Matthew Jarvis -- 16,700,000
Filippo Candio -- 16,400,000
Michael Mizrachi -- 14,450,000
Soi Nguyen -- 9,650,000
Jason Senti -- 7,625,000

And so, after 12 long, hard fought days, the WSOP Main Event has reached its final table with Jonathan Duhamel boasting the chip lead after eliminating poor Matt Affleck in an unforgettable hand. However, the big story of the day will be that of Michael Mizrachi, 'The Grinder' putting the icing on the cake of what has been a quite remarkable Series by becoming the MVP of the November Nine.

As the main character in his own riches to rags story, Mizrachi came in to the Series sharing the same hopes and dreams as everyone else, eager to put his recent financial ruin behind him and once again start scaling the poker ranks. Not only did he triumph in the Poker Players' Championship to snap up one of poker's most celebrated bracelets, but now he is also a November Niner and on the verge of not only completing a comeback for the ages, but also of placing himself in the very highest echelons of poker's greats. Along with his three brothers who also made the money, Mizrachi has made easy writing for the ESPN crew, and will no doubt dominate the coverage. Given his achievements, it will be richly deserved.

10th Brandon Steven -- $635,011
11th Pascal LeFrancois -- 635,011
12th Adam Levy -- $635,011
13th Duy Le -- $500,165
14th Hasan Habib -- $500,165
15th Matt Affleck -- $500,165
16th Benjamin Statz -- $396,967
17th David Baker -- $396,967
18th Scott Clements -- $396,967
19th Michiel Sijpkens -- $317,161
20th Patrick Eskandar -- $317,161
21st Redmond Lee -- $317,161
22nd William Thorson -- $317,161
23rd Robert Pisano -- $317,161
24th Ronnie Bardah -- $317,161
25th Mads Wissing -- $317,161
26th Matthew Bucaric -- $317,161
27th Johnny Lodden -- $317,161

48th James Fennell -- $168,556
111th JP Kelly -- $57,102
123rd Justin Tazelaar -- $57,102
147th Javed Abrahams -- $57,120
180th Jamie Brown -- $48,847
232nd Richard Ellis -- $48,847
239th Mark Teltscher -- $48,847
240th Praz Bansi -- $48,847
241st Neil McFayden -- $48,847
256th Jan Boye -- $41,967
267th Padraig Parkinson -- $41,967
281st John Kabbaj -- $41,967
285th Tomas MacNamara -- $41,967
332nd Susan Nordsen -- $36,463
370th Ben Blackmore -- $36,463
389th Mark Dalimore -- $31,647
422nd Richard Sinclair -- $31,647
501st Rory Rees Brennan -- $27,519
536th Roy Vandersluis -- $24,079
542nd Matthew Ireland -- $24,079
556th Darren Woods -- $24.079
572nd Simon Taylor -- $24,079
582nd George McKeever -- $24,079
591st Chris Bjorin -- $24,079
652nd Gregory Howard -- $21,327
656th Dan Carter -- $21,327
672nd Mel Judah -- $21,327
743rd Priyan de Mel -- $19,263

Previous WSOP Reports:

Employee of the Month
Fairytale Endings
Must Be Nice
Make Mine a Double
Blonde on Blonde
Summer of Sam
Chuft to Bits
Under the Radar
Taking Notice
BBP Braced for WSOP Main Event
WSOP Main Event - Day 1A
WSOP Main Event - Day 1B
WSOP Main Event - Day 1C
WSOP Main Event - Day 1D
WSOP Main Event - Day 2A
WSOP Main Event - Day 2B
WSOP Main Event - Day 3
WSOP Main Event - Day 4
WSOP Main Event - Day 5
WSOP Main Event - Day 6
WSOP Main Event - Day 7

Vegas Blog:

May 23: My Old School Teacher
May 31: Welcome to America; Let the Institutionalising Begin
June 1: Pleasure & Pain
June 5: 100% British Beef
June 9: Alphabetti Spaghetti & Giant Meatballs
June 13: Colour Me Up
June 14: The Crying Game
June 20: Last Gasps
June 25: Dancing With the Devil
June 30: The End of a Streak
July 6: Tournament of Famous People
July 10: Running on Empty
July 15: An Excuse to Party
July 16: For for Thought