From the vast sea of 6,353 hopefuls that began a once-a-year voyage costing $10,000, just nine survivors remain to vie for riches, fame, and the realization of every poker player’s dream–the Main Event bracelet.
These nine are now destined to become this year’s most celebrated and scrutinized group of poker players. They are the nine finalists of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event, otherwise known as the November Nine.
The day the November Nine is set is always one of the most exciting days of the year, but the energy was particularly high this time around as numerous major players in the poker world made this positively stacked final table. The line-up features three bracelet winners with a total of five bracelets. Gold bracelet winner Amir Lehavot and two-time winner JC Tran are known names in their own right, but the final table also includes WPT winner Mark Newhouse, former online cash game pro David Benefield, noted European pro Michiel Brummelhuis, and WSOP Circuit grinder Ryan Riess.
Tran isn’t just the biggest name either. He is also the biggest stack, beginning play at the final table with 38,000,000. The next closest competitor is going to be Lehavot with 29,700,000. When play resumes, blinds will be at 200,000/400,000 ante 50,000. For short stack Benefield, that means he will be coming back in the fall with just shy of 15 big blinds in his stack.
One player missing from the line-up is 2001 WSOP Main Event Champion Carlos Mortensen. The man known as The Matador had a chance to become the first Main Event winner since Dan Harrington in 2004 to return to the final table, but he bubbled in tenth place, taking home $573,204.
It’s hard to imagine this glorious journey actually began ten days ago. At the time, no one could have picked out the nine players who would endure the longest and outlast 6,343 others. This moment may be the end of the summer series. However, for the fortunate nine who made it this far, this is only the beginning.
One player among this group will collect a whopping $8,359,531, the coveted WSOP gold and diamond bracelet designed by Jason of Beverly Hills (valued at $500,000), not to mention poker immortality as the 2013 World Champion.
And so, the November Nine are as follows:
Seat 1: Sylvain Loosli – France – 19,600,000
Seat 2: Michiel Brummelhuis – Netherlands – 11,275,000
Seat 3: Mark Newhouse – USA – 7,350,000
Seat 4: Ryan Riess – USA – 25,875,000
Seat 5: Amir Lehavot – Israel – 29,700,000
Seat 6: Marc McLaughlin – Canada – 26,525,000
Seat 7: JC Tran – USA – 38,000,000
Seat 8: David Benefield – USA – 6,375,000
Seat 9: Jay Farber – USA – 25,975,000
All nine players are guaranteed payout of at least $733,224. Here are the prize money payouts and what’s at stake when play continues in November:
1st – $8,359,531
2nd – $5,173,170
3rd – $3,727,023
4th – $2,791,983
5th – $2,106,526
6th – $1,600,792
7th – $1,225,224
8th – $944,593
9th – $733,224
The November Nine finale will be played at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas. Dates are Monday, November 4th through Tuesday, November 5th.
