November Nine Countdown

Chip leader, Martin Staszko

We are just a week away from the biggest event of the poker year, the World Series of Poker final table.

For the fourth year in a row, the nine hopefuls remaining in the championship event have been forced to wait almost four months to reconvene, so they can travel the world and generate hype as part of the 'November Nine'.

Where this year will differ greatly from previous November Nine finals is that this is the year the online poker world was turned upside down.

The entire landscape of the poker industry will never be the same since Black Friday, and the eventual victor next week will be remembered as the first champion of the new world order of poker.

One of the biggest benefits of being a November Niner in previous years was the inevitable six figure endorsement deals that PokerStars and Full Tilt would splash upon the final nine players.

For obvious reasons that wont be happening this year, and a significantly less 'patched' final table has had more time to think about playing.

Which may have had a profound benefit for several players at the final table. In the four month hiatus, many of the players have been prolific on the tournament circuit.

Ben Lamb secured player of the year during the WSOPE and also helped Team Americas to victory in the Caesars Cup. Pius Heinz took down a side event in EPT Barcelona and Eoghan O'Dea made the final table of the PLO event at the WSOPE.

Elsewhere one of the November Nine took down a prestigious TV event, which is a secret because it hasn't aired yet, so you will have to keep guessing for that one. And most notably Matt Giannetti became a WPT Champion in Malta, taking down €200,000 in the process.

This will also be remembered as the most international main event final table in history. Seven Nations in total are represented at the final table, with five Europeans and four Americans remaining.

Once again this is a young final table, the average age is 28, however Badih Bounahra of Belize is leading the charge for the old school at 49, while Anton Makiievskyi of the Ukraine is the youngest at just 21.

Giannetti goes back to Vegas as a WPT Champion

Although the online poker element of the WSOP Main Event is significantly on the decline, this year will see a massive progression in terms of broadcasting.

Throughout the entire WSOP this year ESPN has impressed with their live streaming of every single bracelet event and this year the final table will be broadcast with a 15 minute delay both online and direct to viewers homes on ESPN.

The blinds will restart at 250,000/500,000, meaning that shortest stack Sam Holden will have 24 big blinds, while chip leader Martin Staszko will start with 80. The final table will reconvene as follows.

Seat 1:  Matt Giannetti (Las Vegas, NV) – 24,750,000 in chips       
Seat 2:  Badih Bounahra (Belize City, Belize) – 19,700,000 in chips
Seat 3:  Eoghan O’Dea (Dublin, Ireland) – 33,925,000 in chips
Seat 4:  Phil Collins (Las Vegas, NV) – 23,875,000 in chips
Seat 5:  Anton Makiievskyi (Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) – 13,825,000 in chips
Seat 6:  Sam Holden (Sussex, UK) – 12,375,000 in chips
Seat 7:  Pius Heinz (Cologne, Germany) – 16,425,000 in chips
Seat 8:  Ben Lamb (Tulsa, OK) – 20,875,000 in chips
Seat 9:  Martin Staszko (Trinec, Czech Republic) – 40,175,000 in chips

The November Nine takes place on November 6-8 at the Penn and Teller Theatre at the Rio in Las Vegas. We will be bringing you ongoing coverage from here on in and you can have your say on who you think will be crowned the WSOP Main Event Champion in an exclusive poll in our community forum.