The November Nine, Part Two: the big stacks

The November Nine, Part Two: the big stacks

Sunday, 31 October 2010

I can see this final table shaping up to be a really good one to watch, both for the casual viewer and the poker connoisseur.

The three biggest stacks in the room are alongside each other from the 23.525m of Joseph Cheong to the 65.975m of chip leader Jonathan Duhamel, with John Dolan’s 46.25m sandwiched in between. Oh, and with position on all three? None other than the most accomplished live tournament poker player at the table; $50,000 Players’ Championship winner Michael Mizrachi.Needless to say with these seating arrangements we’ll be seeing a lot of big plays from the larger stacks while the other half of the table will cower and wait for a hand. Or they could turn the tables with some nice re-steals in the right spots. In short I think it’s gonna be great to watch.

So who are the men behind the stacks? We’re always told that poker is a game of people so who commands the chips come November Nine showdown time? Well, chip leader Jonathan Duhamel is an unknown despite $100,000 in tournament cashes including a 10th place finish at EPT Prague in 2008. Like Dennis Phillips and Darvin Moon before him, he commands a big stack but lacks the experience to power it to a win.

John Dolan is probably my favourite to take down the event – he is second place in chips and despite being out of position to Duhamel he has position on Cheong. He will also probably see Duhamel defend a lot of small blinds and big blinds to Dolan’s raises which could work very well for him. Dolan is an online grinder and this is his second final table of the 2010 WSOP after finishing sixth in a $1,000 NL event.

If Dolan is my favourite, though, then Cheong may be my second. He plays under the name ‘subiime’ online if that rings a bell – over a thousand online MTT final tables; $1,000,000 in cashes and an FTOPS title? The most experienced tournament player there – in terms of events played, at least – Cheong has a decent stack and can make
things happen. Unfortunately he has a terrible seat draw.
Of the three big stacks I think John Dolan is most likely to make
something happen and take it to a win. Cheong is a solid player – he
has $1.2m in tournament earnings and his largest cash is $55,000. Yes,
do the maths; it’s incredible. However he just got unlucky in the seat
draw, but give him an early double up...



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