WSOP 2011 – we have a November Nine
Wednesday, 20 July 2011
After eight days of poker we have finally reduced the 6,865-strong field in the 2011 WSOP Main Event down to a final table of nine. Our chip leader for the next four months is Czech player Martin Staszko, who takes more than 40m into play at the final table.
He is followed by Eoghan O’Dea, who is making history by becoming the first father-son combo to make WSOP final tables (his father, Donnacha O’Dea, finished 6th in 1983 and 9th in 1991). This is therefore the third time an O’Dea has made the final table of the WSOP and with a stack of 33m, Eoghan has a good shot at beating his father’s personal best.
Matt Giannetti is third in chips, despite becoming very short with just ten players remaining. He managed to double up with JJ versus the AT of John Hewitt and then doubled through Ben Lamb, shortly before Hewitt became the unlucky bubble boy and busted in tenth place.
Phil Collins rode the momentum of his chip lead all the way to fourth, with almost as many chips as Giannetti. “USCPhildo” is just ahead of his good friend, Ben Lamb, who we’re not entirely convinced isn’t playing some sort of elaborate joke on us by making the November Nine. No one’s heater can be this strong, surely? Nevertheless, the bracelet-winner-and-multiple-final-tabler has added to his Player of the Year tally and rocketed past Hellmuth by making it past 138th place, let alone the November Nine.
British hopes are still alive, albeit with the shortest stack – Sam Holden is ninth of nine with 12.3m which equates to a little under twenty-five big blinds since we’re midway through the 250k/500k level. He has some work to do but he’s nowhere near as dead in the water as other November Nine shortstacks have been.
The full chip counts are as follows:
1.Martin Staszko – 40,175,000
2.Eoghan O’Dea – 33,925,000
3.Matt Giannetti – 24,750,000
4.Phil Collins – 23,875,000
5.Ben Lamb – 20,875,000
6.Badih Bounahra – 19,700,000
7.Pius Heinz – 16,425,000
8.Anton Makievskyi – 13,825,000
9.Samuel Holden – 12,375,000
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