Day number 9 of the 2009 World Series of Poker would bring another story for the history books, as two more champions were crowned. The most notable story had to be that of the 6th Bracelet of Poker legend, Phil Ivey. Ivey’s poker prowess is renowned throughout the poker world, and he is heralded by many as the greatest poker player to have ever lived. The owner of now 6 bracelets, Ivey is certainly more than deserving of being in the discussion.
Ivey took down Event #8, the Deuce to Seven Draw Lowball No Limit Event, besting a field of 147 to claim the top prize, but the player that became the 146th elimination proved to be his toughest foe. John Monnette has yet to win a bracelet, and will have to settle for “he played amazing, but couldn’t best one of the greats.” For three and a half hours, these two players locked horns heads up. Monnette began with the chip lead, but Ivey would eventually take it from him, and held a giant 8 to 1 advantage. Then, Monnette would refuse to roll over, doubling up twice to take a similar lead. But Ivey would rebound and get a double himself, eventually squeeze a 3:2 lead, and get all the money in to claim the top prize. He didn’t take much time to relish in the victory, as he snapped a few quick photos with his new jewelry, and jetted over to take his seat in the $10,000 Mixed World Championship.
Here is how the final table was paid:
1st – Phil Ivey, Champion ($96,367)
2nd – John Monnette ($59,586)
3rd – Yan Chen ($38,891)
4th – Eric Kesselman ($26,757)
5th – Rodeen Telbi ($19,346)
6th – Raphael Zimmerman ($14,663)
7th – Elia Ahmadian ($11,627)
Congratulations to Phil Ivey, who now sees himself as tied for the 7th most bracelets of all time. I think that everyone is expecting Ivey to continue to climb that ladder.
In Event #7, the $1,500 Buy in No Limit Hold’em, 2791 players would enter the field, and Travis Johnson would best them all. He was the prominent figure throughout the day, and was on the right side of some big early pots against Michael Pesek and Gary Tang. He was able to ride that large stack to the final table, and play his way to an eventual Bracelet. Congratulations to Travis Johnson. Here’s how the final table paid out:
1st – Travis Johnson, Champion ($666,853)
2nd – Steve Karp ($414,116)
3rd – Michael Ciotola ($273,385)
4th – Mark Salinaro ($193,343)
5th – Craig McConville ($145,721)
6th – Brian McInnis ($116,234)
7th – Walter Wright ($97,985)
8th – Jim McLain ($87,013)
9th – Kam Low ($81,185)
This was Travis Johnson’s first cash as well as his first bracelet in his WSOP history. Congratulations to Travis.
A new rule at the WSOP dictates that play will end at 3AM. I think that it’s a good rule, as really there isn’t much need to continue to play till all eternity. But the trend has been set that instead of playing events down to the final table, we’re playing them just short of that, and then restarting the day in the afternoon. Such was the case for events # 9 and #10, as they will return 8 and 18 players respectively.
In Event # 9, the 6 max tournament has seen some brilliant, and some amazingly aggressive play. The final 8 remaining players and their chip counts are:
Charel Furey – 1,690,000
Bryce Yockey – 1,489,000
Carman Cavella – 1,059,000
Peter Gould – 780,000
Bryn Kenney – 656,000
Praz Bansi – 630,000
Ken Aldridge – 411,000
Manny Minaya – 339,000
One of these 8 men will emerge victorious for the next bracelet of the 40th WSOP.
In Event #10 the final elimination game more than an hour prior to the cutoff, so it was a welcomed sign. I think that eliminations will pick up as the day restarts. There are 2 players that have really pulled away from the rest of the field, Daniel Makowsky is the chip leader with 561,000 and Rami Boukai has 508,000. Between the two of these players, they account for nearly 30% of the chips in play. But in Omaha, it could really go any way.
The other two events in play saw action trimmed slightly. Event #11 will be back with 243 participants, of which 171 of them will make the money. There are still some big names left including the likes of T.J. Cloutier and Phil Hellmuth. The chip leader on the day is the very young Scott Hall with 144,000. There is still a lot of poker left in this event.
In Event #12, the chip leader emerged as a poker veteran. Daniel Negreanu is tops of the remaining 128 players of the $10,000 Mixed Game championship. But only 66 players hit the rail in play. This event has a number of top name pros still alive like Mike Matusow, Greg Raymer, John Juanda, and Phil Ivey who made it back in time to still be in the mix with a decent stack.
That’s about it from day 9. Events #13 and #14 also kick off today (#13 is the $2,500 buy in No Limit Hold’em event, and #14 is the $2,500 Limit Hold’em event). See you tomorrow.
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