After 13 hours of battle amongst the survivors of the 2014 World Series of Poker Championship Event field, the “November Nine” have been determined with one man, Mark Newhouse, making history in his achievement.
Three tables of nine players returned on Monday with the glow of potentially taking down the World Championship in their eyes. Sweden’s Martin Jacobson, with his monstrous 22.335 million chip stack, was at the top of the ladder and was a prohibitive favorite to make the “November Nine” field. There were plenty of challenges facing him, with Andrey Zaichenko, Eddy Sabat and Newhouse on his patch of felt alone and Bryan Devonshire, Luis Velador, Dan Smith and Leif Force scattered on the other tables in the Amazon Room.
Newhouse would earn first blood of the day, taking down Sean Dempsey when Newhouse rivered a flush against him in sending Dempsey out in 27th place. Sabat also got in on the party, knocking off Brian Roberts in 26th place after Sabat’s A-Q flopped an unnecessary Ace and rivered another against Roberts’ K-J to bust him. Both of these eliminations, however, were on the short stacks and had little impact on the overall leaderboard as the players went to break.
While Jacobson still held the lead at this point, Dan Sindelar would soon take over that mantle. Sindelar took over the lead in pushing Force off a 7-4-9-J-6 board with an all-in move that saw Force lay his hand down and Sindelar shoot up to 23 million chips. Moments later, Sindelar would take another huge pot off of Iaron Lightbourne, enabling Sindelar to crack the 25 million mark in chips.
Devonshire, who finished in 12th place in the 2011 WSOP Championship Event, was the first notable name to hit the rail on Monday. Racing for his tournament life against Maximillian Senft, Devonshire had the pre-flop edge with his pocket tens over Senft’s suited A-J. The K-2-A pushed Senft into the lead and, although the turn teased with a Queen for a Devonshire straight possibility along with his two tens, the river six drowned “Devo” and sent him home in 25th place.
Devonshire’s elimination seemed to open the floodgates to the cashier’s cage. Kyle Keranen, who had hovered around the top of the leaderboard for much of the latter stages of the tournament, saw his stay ended by Bruno Politano in 24th place. Yorane Kerignard would join Keranen on the rail in 23rd and Lightbourne (22nd) and Force (21st) picked up their six-figure paydays soon afterwards. Once Smith was knocked off by Jorryt van Hoof in 20th place in a race situation (Smith’s Big Slick couldn’t catch van Hoof’s pocket fours), the tournament was one elimination away from redrawing to two tables.
After a level-up, the final 18 players were determined when Christopher Greaves’ pocket Aces found little resistance from Scott Palmer’s pocket deuces to send Palmer out in 19th place. With the redraw, overall chip leader Sindelar and Jacobson were seated next to each other while Newhouse was seated with the table chip leader Politano and Velador.
The players began the final drive to the “November Nine” rather slowly, feeling out their new tables and playing small pots. Only two players – Scott Mahin (18th place) and Zaichenko (17th) would depart in the next two hours as Politano took the chip lead from Sindelar. Following the break, however, a player would emerge who would eventually become the “November Nine” chip leader.
After opening up the betting, van Hoof saw Sabat defend his big blind and a 9♥ J♣ 5♠ flop hit the felt. Both players would check and, on a 7♥ turn, Sabat took a stab with 600K in chips that van Hoof simply called. On the 4♥ river, the fireworks were set off as Sabat bet out 1.15 million in chips. Almost as soon as Sabat’s chips were pushed forward, van Hoof announced he was all in, sending Sabat into the tank. Sabat eventually would make the call and was devastated to see that van Hoof had the nut flush with his A♥ 8♥, devastating his own J♥ 10♥ that had looked so promising. Sabat would head off in 16th place with a $347,521 payday but dismayed and left wondering what might have been.
Van Hoof would take over the chip lead at that point (with 26.655 million) and power his way to the unofficial final table once Senft was eliminated by Newhouse in 11th place. It would take slightly more than two hours (and 24 hands) before the “November Nine” bubble was popped in dramatic fashion.
After a raise from Politano, Newhouse called from the button and Velador pushed his slightly more than six million chip stack in from the small blind in a squeeze play. Politano let his hand go but Newhouse wasn’t going anywhere, making the call and tabling pocket fives against Velador’s pocket fours. The 6-A-A flop kept Newhouse in the lead but opened potential chop outs for Velador, but those were closed when a trey hit the turn. Looking for two outs, Velador instead saw another Ace on the river, his full house not able to best Newhouse’s better boat and eliminating him in 10th place to set the “November Nine.”
1. Jorryt van Hoof, 38.375 million
2. Felix Stephensen, 32,775 million
3. Mark Newhouse, 26 million
4. Andoni Larrabe, 22.55 million
5. Dan Sindelar, 21.2 million
6. William Pappaconstantinou, 17.5 million
7. Willam Tonking, 15.05 million
8. Martin Jacobson, 14.9 million
9. Bruno Politano, 12.125 million
For the first time in WSOP history, the entirety of the final table will enter with eight figure chip stacks, meaning that even the shorter stacks are just one double up out of getting back into the game. It is also a truly “world” final table, with five of the competitors – van Hoof (the Netherlands), Stephensen (Norway), Larrabe (Spain), Jacobson (Sweden) and Politano (Brazil’s first ever final tablist) – hailing from outside the United States.
It is also a historic moment for Newhouse, who has now made back-to-back WSOP Championship Event final tables. That achievement hasn’t been done since the legendary Dan Harrington pulled off the feat in 2003-04 and, arguably, might be considered a better achievement than Harrington’s due to the field size. Newhouse will look to better his 2013 performance (a ninth place finish) and, in his current position, seems poised to do just that.
The men who have made it to this point have all taken down $730,725 prize and now must wait until November 10 to resume hostilities. They are the “November Nine” for the 2014 WSOP Championship Event and every man is well-deserving of the $10 million first place prize that awaits come this fall.
