Poker’s biggest prize - the World Championship No Limit Texas Hold’em - which is the main event at the World Series of Poker has been taking place over 11 days of competition in Las Vegas.
A total of 6,844 players competed in world poker’s biggest event, with only 9 remaining to contest the final table to be staged later this year in November.
There will be a new champion as all the former champions have failed to make the final stage. 1989 winner Phil Hellmuth did the best out of former winners; finishing in 45th place which still managed to earn him $154,400 in prize money.
Last year’s champion was Jerry Yang, an amateur from California. The scale of the talent on display and proof that poker is extremely competitive was demonstrated by the fact that he was eliminated in qualifying rounds for this year’s event.
24 year-old actress Tiffany Michelle was the last remaining woman left in the field eventually finishing in 17th place. She is the highest finishing woman in the event since Annie Duke finished 10th in 2000.
The 9 players that have made it to the final table include 5 Americans, 2 Canadians, a Russian and a Dane.
The Americans are: Dennis Phillips (who is also the oldest and highest ranked player left in the competition), Kelly Kim, Craig Marquis, Ylon Schwartz (who is a former professional chess player) and David “Chino” Rheem.
The two Canadians are Scott Montgomery and Darus Suharto. Russian, Ivan Demidov and Peter Eastgate of Denmark complete the final table line-up.
The chip counts going into November’s action are:
Dennis Phillips (26.42 million)
Ivan Demidov (23.92 million)
Peter Eastgate (19.3 million)
Scott Montgomery (19.3 million)
Ylon Schwartz (13.04 million)
Darus Suharto (13.02 million)
David “Chino” Rheem (10.88 million)
Craig Marquis (10.12 million)
Kelly Kim (2.9 million)
These players played extremely well to get to the final table and managed to book their place after a long three hour session which eventually eliminated the unlucky tenth placed player, Dean Hamrick.
Hamrick must be gutted to come so close to the final table of the world’s glitziest poker tournament but he can console himself with a consolation prize of $591,846.
He said afterwards, “It’s the worst you’re ever going to feel to win half a million bucks. I guess at least it’s a good story.”
Each of the final table players have guaranteed themselves at least $900,670 which is the prize for finishing ninth. This money was presented to the players after the gruelling 11 days of action.
Players that finish in eighth place upwards guarantee making themselves millionaires in terms of US dollars – and the prize for winning the event is a massive $9,119,517!
Paddy Power has Dennis Phillips and Ivan Demidov currently first and second in the chip count as joint favourites at 4/1*. Scott Montgomery and Peter Eastgate are joint second favourites at 9/2*.
*Odds correct as of time of writing.
