The poker boom’s origin story begins in 2003 when Chris Moneymaker won the World Series of Poker Main Event. ESPN’s television coverage was coming of age, allowing millions of viewers to revel in the victory of an amateur with the glorious poker name. It was also the first time that most people had heard of online poker, thanks to the fact that Moneymaker had won his seat into the Main Event via a satellite on PokerStars. Television coverage plus ZOMG ONLINE POKER and you had the explosion of a game that was previously thought to only be played in smoky back rooms.
Today, online satellites are as common place as micro-stakes cash games; loads of players win their way into the Main Event via internet qualifiers every year. But it is not every year that two players at the Main Event final table qualify via satellites from the same online poker room. That is what happened this year, as both Griffin Benger and Fernando Pons won their way into the $10,000 Championship via 888poker.
Griffin Benger, while perhaps not as well known to the general poker public as chip leader Cliff Josephy, may be the most accomplished player of the November Nine. Like Josephy, he is an online poker legend, known by his screen name “Flush_Entity.” According to records kept by PocketFives.com, Benger has won about $6.5 million in online poker tournaments alone in his career and has hit the top spot in PocketFives’ worldwide rankings a number of times. Prior to the million dollars he is already guaranteed for the Main Event, he had won about $2.4 million live tournaments, as well.
Benger has also been a commentator this summer for the Global Poker League’s Summer Series, so the tables will be turned on him this fall when someone else provides a running commentary on his poker play.
Normally, one would think such a big-time player as Griffin Benger would have played in the WSOP Main Event even if it didn’t satellite in, but he told 888poker that that’s not true:
I was actually in Malta. I went over to my friend’s place, and he was there rooting me on, bought me a smoothie, and we were just there playing, My friend Roland – shout out to Roland. I wasn’t going to come play the Main Event unless I won a package, and I sort of decided last minute to register to play the tournament because I find those satellite to be great. Check them out on 888poker. It all just worked out. I steam-rolled through the final three tables of the satellite and got there. Locked it up pretty easily.
Just like Chris Moneymaker famously won a $39 satellite to get into the 2003 WSOP Main Event, Fernando Pons won a €30 satellite on 888poker do qualify for the Main Event this year.
“I guess I’m the PonsMaker,” he told 888poker.
Pons is mainly an online poker player; he has just two live tournament cashes listed on his profile at TheHendonMob.com. In fact, this was the first time he ever played in a World Series of Poker event. Too easy, right?
Pons, smartly, did not expect to get this far. He has been traveling with his friend Massa Paola, who has played in the WSOP for six years. They only planned to stay in Vegas for five days, so when Pons went on his unexpected deep run, he had to keep buying more clothes so he could appear presentable. Paola described Pons to 888poker as “dedicated, quiet, and focused.”
When the November Nine picks up in a few months, Benger will be seventh in chips at 26.175 million, while Pons will be the shortest stack at the table with just 6.15 million.