blonde poker

2011 World Series of Poker
Event #58: $10,000 Main Event


Nine Players, One Bracelet

Level 36: 250,000-500,000, 50,000 ante

What a day! What a couple of weeks! What a summer!

The World Series of Poker Main Event has reached what has become its traditional climax-before-the-climax, with this year's massive field of 6,865 players having finally been reduced down to a final table of nine.

The whole world was watching over the last several days as chip leaders emerged, short stacks were busted, and the nine eventual survivors craftily negotiated their way to earn return tickets to November's final table. And the world will be watching again four months from now -- in many cases rooting on their own as this year's final table will have a most international feel. These final nine come from all parts of the globe -- Ireland, England, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Germany, Belize (by way of Lebanon), and the United States -- further underscoring how poker truly is the world's game.

The day began with the Anton Makievskyi the leader among the final 22. A wild first level of play saw the field cut to 15, with Makievskyi still in front but Eoghan O'Dea closing in fast. Those two both had crossed the 30-million chip milestone by then, at the time about twice what nearest challengers John Hewitt and Ben Lamb had. But another level's worth of big pots and high drama tightened the race anew.

Three more would fall before dinner -- Andrey Pateychuk (15th), Scott Schwalich (14th), and Konstantinos Mamaliadis (13th) -- then soon after players returned Bryan Devonshire would succumb in 12th. Devonshire lost the majority of his chips on two different hands in which he held king-queen each time and failed to catch against opponents holding an ace.

With 11 left, we began seeing an increasing number of three-, four-, and even five-bets with all-ins involving the short stacks interspersed in between. As the chips moved around, Makievskyi maintained his big stack, with Hewitt, O'Dea, and current WSOP Player of the Year points leader Ben Lamb all accumulating as well. Eventually the last Canadian in the field, Khoa Nguyen, ran pocket tens into Martin Staszko's kings to go out in 11th, and the final ten redrew for seats around the last table of the summer.

From there the pace slowed considerably, and many began to recall the six hours it took a year ago for the final ten to become nine. During the first two hours few big pots were played, with O'Dea and Staszko nudging out ahead of the field while Badih Bounahra and Matt Giannetti became increasingly short.

On the first hand of Level 36, Matt Giannetti found a hand worth chancing -- {J-Spades}{J-Clubs} -- and got a caller in John Hewitt who held {A-Spades}{10-Hearts}. Giannetti dodged a bullet among the five community cards, and survived with a double-up. Another hour would pass, with a few three-bets and an all-in shove by John Hewitt that went uncalled, but otherwise small exchanges of chips. Then Giannetti, having become short again, found himself all in once more with {J-Spades}{J-Diamonds}, this time against Ben Lamb's {K-Hearts}{9-Spades}. Giannetti's jacks held a second time.

Soon came another all-in shove, this time by Bounahra, with Hewitt once more being the one willing to call. Bounahra had {K-Hearts}{K-Spades} and was in a dominating position versus Hewitt's {K-Clubs}{Q-Spades}. The board brought one queen but no other help to Hewitt, and suddenly he'd become the short stack with just over 4 million -- not even nine big blinds.

It wasn't long before Hewitt's short stack went into the middle, with the Costa Rican hoping his {3-Spades}{3-Clubs} would hold against O'Dea's {K-Spades}{J-Diamonds}. The flop came a most worrisome (for Hewitt) {Q-Clubs}{10-Diamonds}{7-Spades}, then the {A-Hearts} on the turn sealed it -- Hewitt had bubbled the final table in 10th! The November Nine was set!

We've all four months now to get to know these nine further. Much attention will be given to chip leaders Martin Staszko of the Czech Republic and Eoghan O'Dea of Ireland, although a lot of the talk between now and then will undoubtedly concern Ben "Benba" Lamb and the continuation of his remarkable 2011 WSOP run.

Top Chip Counts
1    Martin Staszko    40,475,000
2    Eoghan O'Dea    29,400,000
3    Matt Giannetti    24,850,000
4    Phil Collins    21,425,000
5    Ben Lamb    20,725,000
6    Badih Bounahra    19,950,000
7    Pius Heinz    16,475,000
8    Anton Makievskyi    15,325,000
9    Samuel Holden    13,725,000