Joe McKeehen Takes Monster Chip Lead Into Final Table

Published on July 15th, 2015 7:55 pm EST

When Daniel Negreanu was eliminated from the 2015 World Series of Poker in 11th place (for the second time in his career) last evening, ESPN and World Series of Poker executives cursed their luck while the remaining 10 players in the tournament rejoiced. Negreanu, who is arguably the world's most popular poker player, would have been a fantastic addition to the final table in terms of potential ratings numbers. His opponents, however, were ecstatic that poker's all-time tournament money leader wouldn't be participating.

At around 1:30 am last evening, Alexander Turyansky, of Sourbruden, Germany, was sent to the rail in 10th place. With that, the "November Nine" final table was officially set. Here are the chip counts heading into November:

Joe McKeehen, 63,100,000
Zvi Stern, 29,800,000
Neil Blumenfield, 22,000,000
Pierre Neuville, 21,075,000
Max Steinberg, 20,200,000
Thomas Cannuli, 12,250,000
Joshua Beckley, 11,800,000
Patrick Chan, 6,225,000
Federico Butteroni, 6,200,000

All nine of these men are guaranteed a minimum of $1,001,020 for making it through to the final table. The eventual winner of the event will take home $7,680,021, while the runner-up will receive $4,469,171.

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Joe McKeehen will have a big advantage when the final table begins in November, as he has more than double the chips of his next closest river, Zvi Stern. McKeehen used his stack to bully his opponents and accumulate chips on Tuesday evening.

The final table will include one player who have previously won a World Series of Poker bracelet, as Max Steinberg won a gold bracelet back in 2012. He is definitely one of the players to watch at the final table.

Pierre Neuville, at the age of 72, becomes the oldest player to ever participate in a "November Nine" final table. Making a deep run in the World Series of Poker main event is taxing even on the youngest of players, which makes Neuville's run all the more incredible.

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The final table will officially commence on Sunday, November 8th. Play will continue until just four players remain. Those four players will return on Monday, November 9th, where the tournament will play down to the final two players. After that, the remaining two players will return for one final day on Tuesday, November 10th to decide the winner.

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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker