Meet the 2016 November Nine
We have a stacked final table, including a PokerStrategist, in the World Series of Poker Main Event. Find out who will be playing for $8 million.
With the elimination of Joshua Weiss in 10th place, the WSOP Main Event now takes a four-month break. Until then, meet the 2016 November Nine:
The chipleader is a very well known face in both live and online poker. Cliff 'JohnnyBax' Josephy is not only a two-time bracelet winner but also one of the first big names in online tournament poker. He is also known as a legendary staker, with a resume that includes backing Joe Cada's Main Event win.
Griffin 'Flush_Entity' Benger is widely regarded as one of the best tournament players in the world today. He has over $6 million in online winnings and over $2 million in live winnings, most notably winning the PokerStars Shark Cage in 2014 for $1 million. He almost didn't play this event, winning a satellite at the last moment, and away from poker is a well known Counter Strike player.
Vojtech '' Ruzicka from the Czech Republic is a former PokerStrategy.com coach and is 4th on the Czech all-time money list. He has previously won an EPT High Roller for €313,000 and also came second in the 2011 WCOOP Main Event for $710,000.
Kenny 'SpaceyFCB' Hallaert is a popular player from Belgium whose biggest result so far was a 6th place finish in the EPT Deauville Main Event for $210,962. He is only the second player ever from Belgium to make the Main Event final table after Pierre Neuville was the first last year.
The rest of the final table are relatively unknown, but no doubt we will learn more about them in the coming weeks and months.
Play will resume on October 30 to November 1, a week earlier than usual to avoid the live broadcast clashing with the US Presidential Election.
| Position | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Cliff Josephy | 74,600,000 |
| 2nd | Qui Nguyen | 67,925,000 |
| 3rd | Gordon Vayo | 49,375,000 |
| 4th | Kenny Hallaert | 43,325,000 |
| 5th | Michael Ruane | 31,600,000 |
| 6th | Vojtech '' Ruzicka | 27,300,000 |
| 7th | Griffin Benger | 26,175,000 |
| 8th | Jerry Wong | 10,175,000 |
| 9th | Fernando Pons | 6,150,000 |
| Number of entrants: 9 (6,737) | ||
All nine men are leaving Las Vegas as millionaires, and this is what they will be playing for when they return in November:
| 1st | $8,000,000 |
| 2nd | $4,658,452 |
| 3rd | $3,451,175 |
| 4th | $2,574,808 |
| 5th | $1,934,579 |
| 6th | $1,463,906 |
| 7th | $1,250,000 |
| 8th | $1,100,000 |
| 9th | $1,000,000 |
Who is your money on this year? Let us know in the comments.
