WSOP Main Event: Down to heads-up battle

Phil Ivey was a big favourite to win the WSOP Main Event despite being short stacked. However, it was another short stack who fought his way to the heads-up battle for the most sought-after poker trophy in the world.

After
17 and a half hours into the game, Joe Cada (pictured right) sighed
with relief. The 21 year old American had been very short at times,
only holding 3 million chips. However, he was able to double up time
and time again and managed to take the wind out of Phil Ivey's sails by
winning yet another coin flip against the popular pro.

Having played 276 hands on the final table, Joe Cada
will now play against Darvin Moon on Monday in an attempt to become the youngest WSOP Main Event winner of all times.

The ups and downs of James Akenhead

Another player who started
as a short stack and was in a desparate need of a double-up was James
Akenhead. Being aware of the difficult situation, Akenhead pushed his
chips into the middle of the table time after time. Eventually he got
called holding .
Steve Begleiter had announced his call but got pushed out of the hand by Eric
Buchman's re-raise, thus giving the young Akenhead the chance to triple up his chip stack.

Buchman was the clear favourite, holding , until the river showed a ,
which saved Akenhead's (pictured left) tournament life. His chip stack
of now 12 million put him back into the game and into a good position
for the hands to come. Meanwhile Kevin Schaffel had turned into the
player with the least chips on the table.

Schaffel did not stay in the last position for long. Akenhead had momentum on his side but nine hands later it looked like he
was going to be put back to a stand still. Kevin Schaffel put all his
chips in the middle on a flop of and got called instantly by Akenhead. The short stacked Briton showed and seemed to think for a moment that his time had come. However, Schaffel revealed and neither the turn nor the river brought a king.

Eventually
Akenhead's rollercoaster ride ended against Schaffel (pictured right)
when he ran into the oldest player on the table and his holding . Thus after 59 hands, the first player had to leave the table. Schaffel's luck however didn't last for long.

Soon after, Schaffel again held and his opponent, Eric Buchman, held .
This time however Schaffel's aces got crushed by Buchman who had made
quads even before the river, thus sending Schaffel to the rails.

Moon happy with a face of steel

It took over 100 hands before
the next player had to make the painful walk to the rails. It seemed
that none of the spectators wanted to see this man leave. Phil Ivey
went all-in before the flop holding to get called by the former chip leader Darvin Moon who revealed whilst the observers where chanting "Ivey! Ivey! Ivey!". However, the flop silenced their cheers:
were bad news for Ivey. Neither the turn nor the river brought a king
so Phil Ivey had to leave the table making it to 7th place.

Shortly after Moon once again held when one of his opponents went all-in. Steve Begleiter was happy to risk his tournament life holding .
When the river revealed an ace he seemed stunned. Moon, who had turned
the crowed against him with his first suck-out against Ivey, once again
showed no emotion when he eliminated Begleiter from the competition.

Saout on top...

Antoine
Saout sneaked into the top counts almost unnoticed. Having started with
the same chip stack as Phil Ivey, he held the chip lead at one point
and managed to reclaim it when he sent Jeff Shulman to the rails.

Saout put Shulman (pictured left) all-in in the blind battle. The Frenchman held and won the coin flip against Shulman's when the board came , giving him a pair of nines. Almost $2 million sweetened Shulman's walk to the rails as he was busted in 5th place.

Antoine Saout kept his cool and won the biggest pot of the tournament soon after holding against Eric Buchman's . Buchman was left with only a hand full of chips and did not recover from this confrontation. Darvin
Moon eliminated Buchman with when the turn brought a whilst Buchman holding could only show a pair of fives.

...yet out of luck

Joe
Cada
came close to being Saout's (pictured right) next victim. Fortune
however favoured the young American against the chip leader. Cada went
all-in with which left him with two outs against Saout's . It was the flop of which brought one of those two outs and the turn and river brought no changes giving Cada the chip lead.

Only four hands later Cada and Saout fought their next battle. Saout
went all-in after a raise by Cada who called after only a moment of
consideration. This lead to the last big showdown of the tournament so
far: Cada held , whilst Saout showed . The board came , until on the river a put an end to the Frenchman's run.
Antoine Saout had to go home with $3,479,670 making it to third place.

Meanwhile Darvin Moon and Joe Cada will return to the table to to
determine who will be the WSOP Main Event Winner and who will go home
with almost $3.5 million more than his opponent. Moon will start with
58,500,000 chips whilst Cada calls 135,950,000 chips his own.

These are the result of the Final Table of the WSOP Main Event 2009 thus far:

WSOP Main Event Final Table
Place	Name	Price money
1		$8,546,435
2		$5,182,601
3	Antoine Saout	$3,479,485
4	Eric Buchman	$2,502,787
5	Jeff Shulman	$1,953,395
6	Steve Begleiter	$1,587,133
7	Phil Ivey	$1,404,002
8	Kevin Schaffel	$1,300,228
9	James Akenhead	$1,263,602