Final Table

"And then there were nine."

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The World Series of Poker got down to the nine survivors; the final table; the November Nine. There were a lot of different reactions when that finally happened.

Relief that it was over.

A sense of being cheated because it wasn't really over.

The beginning of a long period of delayed gratification.

A cool celebration at the final table.

An unsatisfactory celebration because we had not a champion.

As you all know, I was for the delayed WSOP final table from the beginning but you also know I was pulling and praying for at least one "name" player to make the final nine; that did not happen. So we begin a long walk and wait until November. How will this all play out? Well at this point everyone has an opinion and no one has an answer.

This is just the first of many "9" posts.

First and foremost, congratulations to Scotty Nguyen for taking down the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. and being the first player to hold the Chip Reese trophy. Scotty has an amazing track record over nearly 20 years of playing poker. His record, of course, includes the 1998 World Series of Poker main event championship and tournament earnings approaching Ten Million Dollars. Now Scotty adds to his legend, taking down the most prestigious tournament in professional poker.

But like so many great careers there is a dark side to Scotty's, one episode of which took place last summer at the 2007 WSOP main event. With twelve players remaining in the hunt for the final table nine, Scotty Nguyen was the chipleader and, as we all know, he did not make the final table. That crash and burn troubled Scotty for many months and will probably never be forgotten in poker lore.

Fast forward to this summer, the very next World Series of Poker main event and add to the mixture: the delayed final table. Combine these two events and I offered to you the "Scotty Nguyen Syndrome".

Syndrome: a predictable, characteristic pattern of behavior, action, etc., that tends to occur under certain circumstances

I don't know when it will hit and it will not affect all players at the same moment but somewhere around 18 players or 27 players; maybe even as high as 36 or even 45 players for some, it will appear. This is not just the World Series of Poker Final Table, no this is the "November Nine", the "Fall Final".

And as sure as it will be 108 degrees in Las Vegas, each an every player who survives to Day Six on July 13th and certainly to Day Seven on July 14th, each of those players will experience the "Scotty Nguyen Syndrome".

To get that close to four months of publicity and interviews and endorsements and fame and potential fortune and who knows what else... The "SNS" is going to massively effect play whenever it sets in. Players will get tight, really tight; decisions will take longer, a lot longer; tempers will shorten, in some cases really, really shorten; table talk, hand winning celebrations and anything resembling angle shooting will be scrutinized, analyzed and penalized? Floor decisions will be magnified out of all proportion, imagine giving a player a two round penalty on the bubble!

The final table bubble itself will be much bigger, extending out to at least 27 players. The media coverage will be more intense and more critical than ever before. And the players...? Well the players will not be themselves because they will be playing under the influence of the "Scotty Nguyen Syndrome".

Rumor has it that Corona will lessen but not alleviate the symptoms of the syndrome but there is a rebound effect if you excede a twelve pak in less than two full tournament levels. Perhaps Harrah's should supply extra massage staff for the final four tables or just rig cold showers above the tables like they do in hazardous material labs. And people say poker is not a sport.....

A final table battle on the high seas takes place today aboard the Party Poker Millions Cruise VI. Germany’s Dominik Stopka enters as chip leader, but only by a single chip over Alexander Jung also from Germany. The final nine also include Sweden ’s 2008 PartyPoker Late Night Poker winner Andreas Jorbeck, Johannes Strassmann and Mika Paasonen. All have tasted recent success on the European circuit. Amongst those to miss out on the final table include Thomas Bihl, Mike ‘Timex’ McDonald, Florian Langmann and Christop Haller.

For a summary of all the final table action check the PartyPoker Blog.

Here are the final table players with beginning chip counts, we will add the finishers as they bust out down to the champion.

SEAT 1 – KENNETH GREGERSEN – Denmark - 44,000 9th place

SEAT 2 – RAYMOND ESTALL – UK - 187,000 5th

SEAT 3 – JOHANNES STRASSMANN – Germany - 182,000 7th

SEAT 4 – ALEXANDER JUNG – Germany - 326,000 CHAMPION

SEAT 5 – MIKA PAASONEN – Finland - 236,000 4th

SEAT 6 – DOMINIK STOPKA – Germany - 327,000 2nd

SEAT 7 – CORY ALBERTSON – United States - 90,000 3rd

SEAT 8 – PETER STEINLESBERGER – Austria - 132,000 8th

SEAT 9 – ANDREAS JORBECK – Sweden – 182,000 6th

LAS VEGAS – May 1, 2008 – The World Series of Poker® (WSOP) Presented by Milwaukee ’s Best Light today announced a groundbreaking change that will more closely align the televised presentation of the world’s largest, richest and most prestigious poker tournament with other premier sports broadcasts.

The last nine players of the $10,000 World Championship of No-Limit Texas Hold’em, known as the Main Event, will compete on November 9-10 instead of the originally scheduled date of July 16.

“Our intent is to provide an even bigger stage for our players,” said Jeffrey Pollack , Commissioner of the World Series of Poker. “Now fans and viewers will ask ‘who will win’ our coveted championship bracelet instead of seeing ‘who won.’ The excitement and interest surrounding our final nine players will be unprecedented.”

This change in how the Main Event final table is staged will bring the excitement and drama of high-stakes WSOP tournament play closer to millions of fans around the globe.

All other 2008 WSOP tournament structures and schedules remain unchanged. This announcement affects only the final nine players of Event #54, the Main Event World Championship.

Within a space of less than 36 hours the three major poker tours will all have final tables going off. The World Poker Tour is already down to the final six at the Bay 101 Shooting Star in San Jose, California. The European Poker Tour at Casinos Poland in Warsaw will hold its nine player final table tomorrow and the WSOP Circuit event at Caesars in Atlantic City, New Jersey has a final table of ten set for tomorrow afternoon.

Here are the lucky players who have survive to these three final tables:

European Poker Tour; Warsaw

Michael Schulze 1,162,000
Ricardo Sousa 756,000
Juan Maceira 437,000
Mehdi Ouakhir 360,000
Mathias Viberg 229,000
Trond Erik Eidsvig 220,000
Niclas Svensson 174,000
Daniel Woolson 164,000
Christian Öman 110,000

WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, San Jose

Noah Jefferson - 842,000
John Phan - 374,000
Brandon Cantu - 3,323,000
Steve Sung - 474,000
Jennifer Harman - 541,000
Mike Baker - 1,964,000

WSOP Circuit Event Caesars Atlantic City

Dan Hicks 1,182,000
Eric Haber 927,000
Soheil Shamseddin 855,000
Steven Merrufield 624,000
Sumeet Batra 579,000
Nicholas Binger 546,000
Scott Blackman 391,000
Steven Greenberg 251,000
Marc Morris 185,000

In Part One of "Final Table Chip Stacks", I outlined the process of semi-mathematically looking at just how much the size of a chip stack means at a final table. Today we will look at the first 10 open events at the 2007 World Series of Poker and answer some of these questions:

If you come in as the chip leader, how often will you win? [2 out of 10]

If you come in as a "big" chip leader, how often will you win? [0 of 5]

If you come in as a "monster" chip leader, how often will you win? [0 of 1]

Yes, this is a small sample, only ten events.

Yes, there is a data problem because of Stud events and one double-bubble bustout, so in three of the events there are only 8 players at the final table. But its all in fun, so let's take a closer look at some of our results. Full results of all 10 final tables are posted at the end of this article.

So where did the chip leader finish in all ten events? [1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th]

Which starting chip position eventually won each event? [1st, 1st, 4th, 4th, 5th, 5th, 5th, 5th, 6th, 6th] The middle positions have dominated.

What was the the biggest chip lead entering the Final Table? [Justin Bonomo in Event #10 had over 2 Million chips, his nearest rival had 850K; Justin finished 4th]

Best Finish by a short stack? [Edmond "Omaha Ed" Tonnellier came into Event #5, Mixed Omaha8/Stud8, dead last in chips and managed to finish 2nd]

Full Results for all 10 Final Tables can be found below:

This is the latest of World Poker Tour President Steve Lipscomb's "Open Letters to the Poker Community." This time he addresses the long running complaints about the blind structure at the WPT "TV" Final Tables.

If you would care to comment the WPT has a forum for discussion.

The Steve Lipscomb letter is presented here without comment or editing directly from the WPT website:

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An Open Letter regarding Final Table Structure from WPT Founder Steven Lipscomb:

Dear WPT family:

As we begin our historic Season VI of the World Poker Tour, we continue to strive to make World Poker Tour events the best possible experience for players, casinos and television audiences alike. To that end we are opening a forum today on our website to discuss the optimum final table structure for WPT events.

The most comprehensive betting line on the WSOP is available at Blue Square Bet. The odds are not for winning the WSOP Main Event but rather for making the final table.

Mind you, if you just picked a random player last year to make the final table of 9; then the exact odds would have been 8773/9=975/1. With perhaps a shorter field this year the random odds would be perhaps 500/1 (4500/9=500). So the question arises: Is Phil Ivey 25 times better than a random player in the field?

Odds to make the Final Table of 9 in the WSOP Main Event.

Phil Ivey 20/1

Daniel Negreanu 33/1
Carlos Mortensen 2001 WSOP Champion
Allen Cunningham 2006 WSOP Final Table (4th)

Howard Lederer 40/1
Antonio Esfandiari
Michael Mizrachi
Phil Hellmuth 1989 WSOP Champion
JC Tran
Erik Seidel
Johnny Chan 1987-1988 WSOP Champion

Barry Greenstein 50/1
Gus Hansen
Doyle Brunson 1976-1977 WSOP Champion
Ted Forrest
John Juanda
Chris Ferguson 2000 WSOP Champion
Scott Fischman
Scotty Nguyen 1998 WSOP Champion
Erick Lindgren
Joe Hachem 2005 WSOP Champion
John 'World' Hennigan

Higher Odds after the break......

You know you can wager on anything and everything, anytime in many ways. Betus.com is taking action on players making the Final Table of the Main Event at this summer's World Series of Poker.

Like playing long shots with a big overlay? Notice that the worst of it is 100,000 to 1. Interesting odds with a field of between 4,000 and 9,000 players.

Let's take any single unknown player and estimate the field on the high side, let's say 8100 starters. Nine players make the final table, so 1 in every 900 players. Pick any non-name player and you can get odds of 100,000 to 1 on mathematical odds of 1 in 900. But then we all know poker is about more than math.

Here are the posted odds for some of the "name" players.

Phil Ivey +1400
Daniel Negreanu +1800
Phil Hellmuth +2500
Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson +2500
Allen Cunningham +2500
Johnny Chan +3000
Gus Hansen +3000
Erik Seidel +4000
Scotty Nguyen +4000
Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi +4000
Dan Harrington +4000
Howard Lederer +4000
Antonio Esfandiari +4000
Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliot +4000
John Juanda +4000
...more after break

Marcus from I'm not sure where wrote in a while back wondering:

Dan,

Long time reader, first time writer. I was reading today about the PPV offering of ESPN of the final table tomorrow. My question is, how are they going to prevent people from watching the coverage and relaying the information to the players in the tourney. I'm sure that this has been thought out, but I have not seen any blogs or news explaining what all will be on the PPV (pocket cams, etc.) or if there will be a delay.

Any inside info?

Thanks,
Marcus

Marcus, that is a great question. And truth be told, I don't really know the answer. But I bet someone here does. I am thinking the live coverage had to be done on a 5- or 10-minute delay, similar to the various "live" events put on by Full Tilt and Fox Sports. I do know that the TV's showing the final table at the Rio simply didn't show what the hole-card cams were seeing.

Actually, if I recall, while listening to Phil Gordon in the media room, I DO seem to remember knowing when Jamie Gold was bluffing, and when Allen Cunningham ran into a very unlucky river. But since we were sitting some 100 years or more away from the action, I am not certain what sorta delay there was. Amy? Shrink? Jen B.? Do any of you have some hard facts on this? It's a relevant question as I expect/hope to see more "live" coverage in the future.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--We're about 15 minutes away from the first hand of the TV table. The new WPT set for Season 5 is trippy--it's almost totally dark in here, except for the blue and white set lights and the glow from various televisions showing old highlights. It looks like they converted the Borgata Event Center into a teleportation chamber.

Anyway, here are the chip counts:

1 Mark Newhouse 7,025,000
2 Chris McCormack3,000,000
3 Chris Bell 1,260,000
4 Blaise Ingoglia 840,000
5 Anthony Argila 700,000
6 David Sklansky 665,000

One last thing: Jen, Spaceman and I threw all six names into a hat and drew two of them randomly. Whoever has the winner picks up $10 from each others.

Here are the picks:

Jen: Chris McCormack and Chris Bell.
Spaceman: David Sklansky and Blaise Ingoglia.
Gonz: Mark Newhouse and Anthony Argila.

I like my chances.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ—We’re back from dinner break. Athanasios Diakos is out. He finished in 8th place and won $157,141.

We’re down to seven players. One more until the TV table and quitting time.

ATLANTIC CITY, NJ--We’re down to 10 players. Mark Newhouse (pictured above), a high-stakes online limit player and Tilly's foil, is our chip leader. Here are the players at the Final Table, along with their starting chip counts:

1.) Mark Newhouse 2,920,000
2.) Athansios Diakos 2,260,000
3.) Chris Bell 1,850,000
4.) Chris McCormack 1,640,000
5.) Shawn Chaconas 1,240,000
6.) Blaise Ingoglia 940,000
7.) David Sklansky 540,000
8.) John Parker 430,000
9.) Louis Russo 407,000
10.)Anthony Argila 380,000

UPDATE: The chip counts above are what they started with at the final table. But right now Mark Newhouse is absolutley running over people. He just won a monster pot by cracking aces with pocket nines. The kid can't miss right now.

BELL GARDENS, CA-- Action is underway at the TV final table of the 2006 Legends of Poker. The WPT stage is set up right in the middle of the casino floor, surrounded by ceiling-high black curtains. The new set, which debuted at the WPT Mandalay Bay in June, is smaller, slicker, and a lot more stylish. Gone are the flashing neon lights, replaced by cool green and lavender hues illuminating against the stainless steel and black lighting rig bearing the familiar WPT logo.

Here's another look at our final table's starting chip counts:

1 Frankie O'Dell 3,880,000
2 Kevin O'Donnell 2,345,000
3 Randy Holland 1,100,000
4 Hoyt Corkins 1,030,000
5 Joe Pelton 615,000
6 Scotty Nguyen 375,000

After four days of little internet access at the tournament, I'm finally wired up thanks to the good folks at the Bike and will be able to update you all throughout the night.

**LIVE UPDATES**

8:50 PM- Joe Pelton raised to 400K and Frankie O'Dell moved all-in. Pelton called and showed the Ac-7c, while O'Dell showed pocket sixes. The flop came Ad-Jh-3s putting Pelton firmly in the lead. The turn was the 2c and the river the Qs, eliminating Frankie O'Dell, much to the dismay of his vocal cheering section.

Frankie O'Dell received $776,385 for his second place finish. Joe Pelton is our champion, winning $1,577,170 and a $25,000 entry to the WPT Championships next May!

BELL GARDENS, CA-- We're only a few hours away from kicking off the final table of the Legends of Poker. Last night, play lasted until almost 3:30 AM, when seventh place finisher and TV bubble-boy David Daneshgar was eliminated at the hands of Kevin O'Donnell.

Here's a glimpse at today's 6-man lineup:

Jamie Gold just made history. Give me an F-bomb penalty. BLUFF just reported that Jamie had said he didn't care about the bracelet and that he was going for the money. But when he put the bracelet on he said, "It looks good."

I don't know about you, but this is a big disappointment for me.

There is a rumor going around that said if he won, Jamie was going to give $1 million to the dealers. We shall see.

After busting, Paul came over to Jamie and told him that his play had improved 100-fold since yesterday. At least that's what I thought I heard. Now that's a gentleman.

Hey, the good news is, this was over in less than 24-hours. Does this mean that Mike Matusow owes Esposito some $$$? Good night everyone.

Maudie's got it mastered! ESPN and Tao of Poker.

The Queensbury card sharks in Los Angeles get 20 people together for a home game while the WSOP 2006 final table plays behind them. (This pic is actually during a final table break) But the guy who just got all his hairs cut says, "Huh? Jamie who?"

My friend Harold asked his cat Gus if he wanted to take a picture and Gus said no. But a few hours of watching the final table on Tivo, and Gus changed his mind. As long as he didn't have to have the flash in his face. Thanks, Gus! Does this mean you're cheering for Wasicka?

This is Swirl. She is watching the final table on CJ's laptop. She also reads Up For Poker

Hey everybody, lets have some fun with this! If you're following the coverage tonight - ESPN's Pay Per View, BLUFF's Sirius radio, CardPlayer of Poker Wire's internet updates – or even if your best friend Jamie Gold is texting you between hands, take a pictures and send it in.

I'm looking for:
-pics of you watching the WSOP on your tv
-pics of you watching the WSOP on your laptop
-pics of your pets watching it
-anything goofy and fun (but clean)
-links to funny YouTube videos of people watching the WSOP tonight.

I will post my favorites right here on PokerBlog.com. Please send to jenleo@gmail.com (no bigger than 600pixels wide please). This could be really FUN. Come on!

AND THANKS!!!!!!

That's according to the ESPN announcers. Paul Wasicka beat Binger when his A-J went up against Binger's A-9. Binger had doubled up earlier, but now is sort of back where he started. While, being from Texas, I have to be for Richard Lee, but I like how this little underdog is playing. He hung on for so long the day before, how long can he hang today?

Michael Binger continues to impress me...which with my minimum poker knowledge may not say much...but he does. I was almost sure on Tuesday when we were watching the final ten play that Binger would be the one to fall. The blinds and antes were eating up his chip stack and until the end, he didn't play a hand. When Binger finally went all-in...I was sure he would be gone. Nope...he was still standing. He just sat back and waited patiently. To my surprise Fred Goldberg went out first and Binger...well he's still with us.

I am learning that poker, not only a game of skill, is definitely a game of patience. Something I lack more often than not....but I am working on it.

Thanks for the lesson Michael.

On the seventh hand of action, we already have one elimination.

Jamie Gold limped in from early position and Dan Nassif raised to 700K with AK. Gold called with 22 and checked in the dark. Gold flopped a set of deuces on the 5s-3s-2c board. Nassif moved all in and Gold called. The turn was an A giving Nassif outs to a chop, but the 10s on the river was of no help. Nassif will take home $1,566,858 for his ninth place finish.

Gold's stack is up over 30 million. As Phil Gordon just said on ESPN Radio, "the other eight players picked up over $400,000 in real money just by folding the first seven hands." Eighth place will receive $1,979,189.

The "opening ceremonies" just concluded on the tournament floor and cards are in the air. After each player was introduced and a short bio read to the crowd, 2005 Main Event champion Joe Hachem congratulated the final table players and threw out the first pitch of poker, "shuffle up and deal."

Interesting/notable nuggets:

- Chipleader Jamie Gold has been nicknamed "The Malibu Express" by his poker mentor, Johnny Chan.

- The WSOP Main Event is the first tournament cash ever for Rhett Butler and Doug Kim and the second ever cash for Richard Lee.

- Michael Binger received his Ph.D in Physics from Stanford only two months ago.

- Dan Nassif had to call his boss to get more time off to play the final table.

- Sweidish superstar Erik Friberg's poker nickname "Lilar" means "gambler"

- Paul Wasicka has only been playing poker for two years and already has six cashes in major tournaments including a 14th at this year's WSOP.

- Allen Cunningham... well he's clearly the man with four WSOP bracelets including one this year.

So we know what the final table looks like as we enter the Final Day.
But it might be interesting to take a closer look at where our final nine were after each of the seven days in the Main Event thus far.

So here is our Final Nine in order as they looked early in the morning on each of our previous Seven Days of play. I have combined all four Day Ones and both Day Twos for the entire field.

Final Table-Final Day
1st.... Jamie Gold............. 25,650,000
2nd.... Allen Cunningham. 17,770,000
3rd.... Richard Lee............ 11,820,000
4th.... Erik Friberg............. 9,605,000
5th.... Paul Wasicka.......... 7,970,000
6th.... Doug Kim............... 6,770,000
7th.... Rhett Butler........... 4,815,000
8th.... Michael Binger........ 3,140,000
9th.... Dan Nassif............. 2,600,000

And when we began play yesterday with 27 players remaining, here is where our nine stood in chip counts and in [brackets] where that was in the whole final twenty-seven.

End of Day Six
1st.... Jamie Gold............. 13,000,000 [1]
2nd.... Erik Friberg............. 7,735,000 [2]
3rd.... Rhett Butler............. 6,400,000 [4]
4th.... Michael Binger......... 5,725,000 [5]
5th.... Dan Nassif.............. 5,430,000 [6]
6th.... Doug Kim............... 3,595,000 [10]
7th.... Richard Lee............ 3,275,000 [11]
8th.... Allen Cunningham.. 2,650,000 [13]
9th.... Paul Wasicka............ 700,000 [25]

Yes, Mr. Cunningham had a very good day seven; as did Mr. Wasicka and Mr. Gold picked up a chip or two. But let's not forget the eighteen players who did not survive, so even Mr. Nassif falling off 2M+ made a huge gain in the Prize Pool.

On to Day Five: