Darvin Moon is the clear chip leader among the November Niners, but Phil Ivey is the indisputable star. However, James Akenhead has already recorded some successes. Here are the seats 1 to 3 of the final table in detail.
6,494 players made up the starters at the WSOP Main Event in the beginning of July. Nine of them returned to the tables on Saturday after a four-month break, in order to decide the ultimate winner of the most important poker tournament of the year.
We are now going to present you the nine finalists and have a quick glance at their previous successes and achievements. Today, we will bring you a portrait of the chip leader Darvin Moon, Phil Ivey, star of the final table and WSOPE finalist James Akenhead.
The American Darvin Moon is the clear chip leader at the final table. With almost 60 million in chips, the 45 year-old Moon holds approximately six times as many chips as Phil Ivey and he also has an advantage of almost 25 million in chips over his closest rival.
Being in this position, Moon himself called it "a dream". In everyday life, Moon owns a small sawmill in Oakland, Maryland. Poker is no more than a hobby for him. His tournament experience was limited to some smaller tournaments with buy-ins in the range of $50 until this WSOP.
The amateur player qualified by means of a live satellite, initially confronting him with a choice-making process: namely, to either have himself paid off the $10,000 or otherwise, to risk the "WSOP adventure". Moon decided for the adventure and was richly rewarded for it.
He is already guaranteed $1.2 million and with his currently massive stack, he has bright prospects to add a million "here or there". He refers to his type of play as tight. If he gets premium hands he plays them, if not, he won't, he says.
Time will tell how long the amateur player will thus be able to use his advantage or if he even knows how to make use of this advantage. With Phil Ivey, James Akenhead and Antoine Saout, there will be some killer players at the final table to defeat.
Seat 2: James Akenhead
Seat 2
Name: James Akenhead Age: 26 Location: London Winnings: $2,199,071 Chip Stack: 6,800,000 WSOP voting: 2.10%
Directly next to Moon, James Akenhead, the short stack of the game, will be seated. Born in 1983 in London, Akenhead has played poker professionally ever since 2008 and has been able to achieve a notable number of successes in his still young career.
With his meagre 6.8 million in chips compared to Moon, Akenhead will probably try to look for his spots in an early stage of the game. Even though he still holds 22 BB and thus does not necessarily have to move to the push or fold tactic on level 34 where the blinds are 150,000/300,000 and the ante is 40,000, he has probably focus on attacking Darvin Moon. After all, he will be able to isolate the chip leader perfectly due to his position.
However, Akenhead knows too well, that Phil Ivey will be in turn after him and so Akenhead said that "you need a bit of luck when you are short-stacked".
He proved that he has the necessary skills at the WSOP Europe, where he reached the final table of the main event alongside with November Niner Niner Antoine Saout. In his home town, he only came in ninth and Akenhead is thus determined to perform better in Las Vegas.
As already on his way to the final, Akenhead can enjoy the support of his 'Hit Squads' friends at the final table, a union of poker players whose appointed goal is to enter the realm of professional poker play. Further members and supporters of Akenhead are, among others, bracelet winner Praz Bansi and GUKPT champions Sunny Chattha and Karl Mahrenholz.
Seat 3: Phil Ivey
Seat 3
Name: Phil Ivey Age: 33 Location: Las Vegas Winnings: $12,096,302 Chip Stack: 9,765,000 WSOP voting: 78.05%
The unchallenged star at the final table is Phil Ivey. With seven bracelets to date, more than $12 million in tournament winnings and his opportunity to reach the top spot on the "All Time Money" list, he is a permanent guest at the high stakes and he still is the majority's favourite despite of his relatively small stack amounting to 9.8 million in chips.
On the official WSOP home page, almost 80% voted for Ivey to win the final table. Lagged far behind, Darvin Moon follows with only 6.5% of the votes. Jeff Shulmann, the second big stack, scores almost 5%. The remaining 10% are distributed across the other six players.
The reason for the explicit voting is probably due to Ivey's two bracelets which he won in this year's WSPO. But also before the 2009 WSOP, Ivey was regarded as one of the best poker players in the world. Over a number of years he has been participating in the highest available stakes. As one of just a few players, he has managed to make steady profits.
He collected his first experiences in professional poker play under the name of 'Jerome'. Simply too young to be admitted to casinos, a false passport used to serve him.
Eventually reaching the age of 21, Ivey drew attention on him using his real name and only two years afterwards, at the age of 23, he won his first bracelet in 2000. In 2002, three more bracelets followed, in 2005 he managed again to win one more of them and now, he has the possibility to win his third bracelet in 2009, which would make him win his eighth bracelet altogether.
If he manages to at least come in fifth place, he is guaranteed to get the top spot the "All Time Money" list which is currently lead by Daniel Negreanu and Jamie Gold.
