WSOP Main Event – November Nine set
Sunday, 18 July 2010
A marathon 18-hour session has finally come to a conclusion and the Main Event final table is set. As the clock approached 6am Brandon Steven was eliminated in tenth place leaving nine players battling for the $8.94m first prize when the Main Event reconvenes in November.
Leading the way is Jonathan Duhamel who has a stack of 65,975,000 chips, much of which was earned after he took down a massive, tournament defining pot against Matt Affleck. Duhamel made it 550,000 to go, Affleck three-bet to 1.55m, Duhamel re-raised again, this time to 3.95m and Affleck made the call.
Duhamel checked a potentially dangerous looking 10d-9c-7h flop before Affleck put in a 5m bet and Duhamel made the call. The Qd on the turn prompted Affleck to put his final 11.6m in the middle. After going into the tank Duhamel eventually made the call, making it a monstrous pot of over 42 million chips.
Affleck tabled pocket Aces which looked to be in decent shape when Duhamel revealed pocket Jacks for a lower pair but an open ended straight draw. The final river card was an 8d giving Duhamel his straight sending a devastated Affleck to the rail. With a 20 million chip lead the Main Event appears Duhamel's to lose.
One man who will have a big say in who takes home the bracelet though is Michael Mizrachi who has also made the final table. The grinder is safely tucked away in the middle of the chip counts but is well placed to add a Main Event bracelet to his $50k Players' Championship title.
From the 7,319 starters we are left with just the following nine:
Seat 1: Jason Senti (7,625,000)
Seat 2: Joseph Cheong (23,525,000)
Seat 3: John Dolan (46,250,000)
Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel (65,975,000)
Seat 5: Michael Mizrachi (14,450,000)
Seat 6: Matthew Jarvis (16,700,000)
Seat 7: John Racener (19,050,000)
Seat 8: Filippo Candio (16,400,000)
Seat 9: Soi Nguyen (9,650,000)
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