WSOP Main Event Day 8 - The November Nine

6,865 men and women entered the 2011 WSOP Main Event over four starting days with just $10,000 and a dream. That dream was to make the November Nine and come back to the Rio in a few months to play for the bracelet.

Nine men (and sadly no women) have now made that dream a reality:

Seat 1: Matt Giannetti (24,750,000)

Seat 2: Badih Bounahra (19,700,000)

Seat 3: Eoghan O'Dea (33,925,000)

Seat 4: Phil Collins (23,875,000)
Seat 5: Anton Makiievskyi (13,825,000)

Seat 6: Samuel Holden (12,375,000)
Seat 7: Pius Heinz (16,425,000)

Seat 8: Ben Lamb (20,875,000)

Seat 9: Martin Staszko (40,175,000)

Blinds start at 250,000-500,000, 50,000 ante when players return.

Photo from wsop.com
Eliminations were at a fast pace in the early going on day 8 as we lost Chris Moore, Aleksandr Mozhnyakov and Gionni Demers to get down to two tables. 29 year old professional and well known online player Bryan Devonshire busted in 12th, much to the dismay of the forums.

John Hewitt was the player with the unwanted achievement of making the final table but not the November Nine, as he busted in 10th after shoving 33 into the KJ of O'Dea, who promptly turned a straight to end play and set the November Nine.

Each of the remaining players are now guaranteed at least the $782,115 for ninth place. Everyone who makes it past that point will make at least a million dollars with $8.7m up top for the winner:

1st: $8,711,956
2nd: $5,430,928
3rd: $4,019,635
4th: $3,011,661
5th: $2,268,909
6th: $1,720,396
7th: $1,313,851
8th: $1,009,910
9th: $782,115

Sam Holden is our last remaining Brit at a very international final table. When you consider the percentage of players who play in the WSOP that are American, only three have managed to make the November Nine. There is one player from the Czech Republic, one Irishman, one player from Belize, one from the Ukraine, one from the UK and one from Germany.

The average age at the final table is just 28, and that's bumped up significantly by 49 year old Badih Bounahra who is, not surprisingly, the first player from Belize to make a Main Event final table.

It's the toughest final table lineup for a few years. Even though we have no Ivey or Grinder, there isn't really any weak spots, everyone seems at least somewhat competent and while there will clearly be favourites, I'd be interested to see the lines set, I think it could be quite close to chip counts.

That's nealry it from me this WSOP until November, but I'll probably do a November Nine profile at some point over the next couple of days.

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