2009 WSOP Wrap Up Report

by Bodog Poker | Jul 17 2009

The 2009 WSOP has been dealing cards and awarding bracelets for over a month and a half now, and finally it has come down to only nine players remaining in the Main Event. That will conclude play until the final nine play down for the championship in early November. The 2009 November Nine may be the most talented final table in many years, and it includes one of the best players in the world. All final table players are already millionaires and are guaranteed $1.2 million if they go out first when play resumes.

Overall the 2009 WSOP was a huge success. Many experts predicted that the current economic times may cause a decline in entries in '09, but instead we saw numerous entry records broken this year. The new $1K stimulus tournament attracted over 6000 entrants, and only a couple of WSOP Main Events have had fields bigger than that. In total 56 WSOP bracelets have been handed out, with one still remaining to be determined.

The big stories of the 2009 WSOP have been Jeff Lisandro and Phil Ivey. It's a rare occasion when a player wins two bracelets in one WSOP, but Jeff Lisandro was able to do it three times this year. He established himself as one of, if not the best, stud poker players in the world. Speaking of the best poker players in the world, Ivey was able to win twice in '09, and is still in the Main Event as a member of the November Nine, sitting with just under ten million in chips as he waits for November to roll around. It's the second time Ivey has won more than one bracelet in one WSOP year. Like Lisandro, he won three of them himself back in 2002.

Team Bodog had a good run in the WSOP Main Event with numerous players making it into Day 3. The Team Bodog professional that went the deepest was Justin Bonomo, who went out in 442nd place. He managed to make it to the money but didn't get deep into the big payouts. The Team Bodog qualifier that went the deepest was Alper "thunderfx" Sar. He went deep enough to collect $57,991 for an 85th-place finish.

The Main Event attracted 6494 players and had to turn away somewhere between 500 and 800 on the final day of registration because they filled all the tables that were available. After eight days of play the final November Nine has been decided. Those players, and their chips stacks for the final table in November, are as follows:

Darvin Moon - 58,930,000
Eric Buchman - 34,800,000
Steven Begleiter - 29,885,000
Jeff Shulman - 19,580,000
Joe Cada - 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel - 12,390,000
Phil Ivey - 9,765,000
Antoine Saout - 9,500,000
James Akenhead - 6,800,000

The November Nine will spend the next four months hyping up the final table and signing advertising contracts. You'll be able to bet on which players will win the Main Event and, despite his short stack, I wouldn't bet against Ivey.