The Daily Rewind: November Nine, TonyG, Cash Game Italy, Busquet's Blog

Today's the day we meet the November Nine. Tony G recently travelled 10,000km to Slovenia. Was it worthwhile? We have news of OnGame in Italy and we look at Olivier Busquet's blog plus we salute the lovely Lynn Gilmartin.

The Daily Rewind is your one-stop-shop for a sharp review of the day in poker. Join us here for a mix of the latest news and a more irreverent insight into the poker world. Today we discovered the following topics for you:

Main Event

After 12 days of arduous checking, betting and raising, nine elite poker players have ascended poker’s toughest summit. Twenty-two players returned last night to battle down to the final table and we now know who will be returning as the November Nine. 

Play was very cagey as the final table loomed and the critical bubble hand occurred when John Hewitt’s 33 lost out to Eoghan O’Deas’s KJ leaving nine extremely happy poker players. 

The 2011 WSOP main event final table is a truly international affair with seven different nationalities involved. It promises to be a very busy few months for these nine lucky players – Here they are in order of chip counts:

1 Martin Staszko - 40,175,000 
2 Eoghan O'Dea - 33,925,000 
3 Matt Giannetti - 24,750,000 
4 Phil Collins - 23,875,000 
5 Ben Lamb - 20,875,000 
6 Badih Bounahra - 19,700,000 
7 Pius Heinz - 16,425,000 
8 Anton Makiievskyi - 13,825,000 
9 Sam Holden - 12,375,000

More details about November Nine can be found here.

The final table resumes on 5th November. We’ll be there to follow all of the action.

Meet the November Nine

WPT Slovenia – Speranza leads, Tony G in the hunt

Tony G tweeted last week about his ‘heart and commitment to travel 10,000km from WSOP to Slovenia’. It looks like making the long trip was a good idea for Mr G as he has made it through to day 3 of the tournament with 66,000 in chips. 

141 players entered in total and just 26 remain with Gianluca Speranza heading the counts on 421,700 chips. Other notables remaining include Marcello ‘Luckexpress’ Marigliano (153,600), and British pro John Eames (227,700). Follow the action live here.

Tony G through to day 3 at WPT Slovenia

Italy cashing in

EGRmagazine report that the OnGame network are set to be one of the first providers of online cash games to the Italian public. Bwin and GiocoDigitale will be the first partners on the network to add cash games to their offerings. 

Other sites to have been awarded licences to offer cash games in Italy include PokerStars and the Ipoker network. According to EGRmagazine PartyPoker will not enter the Italian market before the sale of the OnGame network, despite having been awarded a licence too.

 

School’s in for Busquet

High stakes heads-up specialist and popular ESPN commentator Olivier Busquet yesterday released a thoughtful blog on the merits of an education for poker players.

In his blog The Value of a College Education Busquet stresses the importance of life balance for poker players and unearths some home truths about the reality of being a professional poker player. 

Busquet admits feeling responsible for setting examples to the younger generation of players ‘who look to older successful players as role models for important choices in their lives’. It’s a great read for any young aspiring pro.

Olivier Busquet says stay in school kids

Hot shot of the day

Today’s hot shot features Pokernews hostess and Aussie favourite Lynn Gilmartin. It’s been a pleasure watching Lynn’s coverage of the WSOP this year!

Lynn Gilmartin - Not your average presenter