Darvin Moon Leads World Series of Poker Main Event; Phil Ivey Is In

Published on July 16th, 2009 2:16 am EST

After nearly two weeks of play, the "November Nine" has now been set.

Jordan Smith bubbled the "November Nine" final table just a few short minutes ago.

After a flop of 8-4-2, Smith and Darvin Moon moved the rest of their stacks into the middle of the table.

Smith showed A-A for an overpair, while Moon showed 8-8 for a flopped set.

Smith would need an Ace or a runner-runner straight or flush in order to stave off elimination.

The turn was the 5 of hearts, meaning that Smith would need an ace to still alive.

The river was the 10 of hearts, and the "November Nine" was set. Smith will receive $896,730 for his tenth place finish.

Darvin Moon will enter the final table as the chip leader, as he finished the day with around 44 million in chips.

All eyes were on Phil Ivey on Day 8. Would he be able to make it to the final table?

After suffering a few early setbacks, Ivey managed to make it through to the final table. He currently has around 10 million in chips, meaning that he will be one of the smaller stacks when play resumes in November.

Phil still has around 40 BBs though, so he can certainly do some damage when the final table begins in a few months. Ivey is a master at reading players, and you can bet that he will be watching tape before the final table begins in November so that he can figure out some of the tells of his opponents.

All of the remaining nine players will receive at least $1.263 million dollars for making it through to the final table.

The winner will ultimately receive $8.546 million dollars, while the second-place finisher will receive $5.182 million.

Here are the most recent chip counts, courtesy of Worldseriesofpoker.com. I don't think that these are the final counts - we will update these numbers once the counts are finalized:

Darvin Moon - 43.7 million
Eric Buchman - 36.3 million
Steven Begleiter - 28.19 million
Jeff Shulman - 20.51 million
Joseph Cada - 13.62 million
Kevin Schaffel - 13.08 million
Antoine Saout - 10.2 million
Phil Ivey - 10.1 million
James Akenhead - 5.76 million

The inclusion of Phil Ivey in the main event final table should mean considerably higher ratings for ESPN when they broadcast the final table in November. This is a good thing for everyone.

Ivey will be looking for his third WSOP bracelet of the year when play resumes in November, and the eighth WSOP bracelet of his career.

This will be his highest WSOP main event finish ever - his previous best was a 10th place finish in 2003.

As for Darvin Moon, I believe that this will be the first live cash of his poker career.

We'll have more on the players that make up the "November Nine" over the next few months.

Congratulations to the nine players that made it through to November.



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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker