Although there is still over three months before they will venture back to the felt, the betting lines have been set on the 2014 World Series of Poker’s November Nine. The nine men who have battled their way to the final table will be playing for a $10 million first place prize and, as such, sports betting sites are setting the odds on what will occur.
Betfair is by far offering the most online betting options for the WSOP Championship Event, although some of the offerings don’t have any action as of yet. With the diversity of the final table (four of the players are from the United States, with the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Brazil rounding out the pack), there is a bet available as to whether the eventual World Champion will be from the U. S. or from the “rest of the world.” Who will be the first player eliminated has been established as a betting option alongside who will reach heads up play.
Those options do not have action at this point, but there is plenty going on when it comes to who will win the 2014 WSOP Championship Event. There are co-favorites atop the standings, with chip leader Jorryt van Hoof and his closest pursuer, Felix Stephensen, set as 5/1 odds for taking down the World Championship. The man who many have their eyes on, back-to-back WSOP November Niner Mark Newhouse, pulls up in the third slot with odds of 8/1 that he’ll win the title.
Perhaps being overlooked by the odds makers is Martin Jacobson, who currently has 9.5/1 odds that he will take home the championship. Everyone else remaining on the table has double digit odds set on them: Andoni Larrabe and Dan Sindelar sit at 13/1, William Pappaconstantinou gets odds of 21/1, William Tonking has odds of 29/1 and Bruno Politano is the current longshot at 31/1.
The action heats up a bit when you move over to Ladbrokes to examine the lines. There are 10 different proposition (“prop”) bets that can be placed on their site, beginning with what the winning hand will be (currently one pair or lower is a prohibitive favorite at 11/10, while two pair or better gets 4/6 odds). If you really wanted to go crazy on the winning hand bet, you could put some money up that a royal flush will win the Championship Event; that currently has odds of 1000/1 (one pair is the favorite here at 6/5 odds, but two pair (15/8) and a high card winner (11/4) are close behind). You can also place a wager on the color of the final flop, river card and which suit that it might be.
Ladbrokes gives the nod for the championship to van Hoof, who is sitting at 5/2 on their sheet. Stephensen isn’t far behind him, however, sitting with odds of 7/2 for taking down the World Championship. The Ladbrokes bookmakers are a bit kinder to some of the other members of the November Nine, with Newhouse (5/1), Sindelar and Larrabe (7/1) and Jacobson (9/1) all coming in under double digit odds. Only Pappaconstantinou (10/1), Tonking (12/1) and Politano (16/1) have those double digit figures.
If you’d rather place a money line bet, Carbon Sports is offering a spot for action. For a $100 bet, van Hoof would return you $250 should he take down the World Championship. A victory by Stephensen would earn a punter $350 and, should Newhouse take the title, it would be a $400 payday for a bettor. Larrabe and Sindelar (a $700 return), Jacobson ($750) Pappaconstantinou ($1000), Tonking ($1200) and Politano ($1500) round out the remainder of the November Nine field.
Until this fall, there will be plenty of betting action around the globe on the outcome of the action at the Rio in Las Vegas. The 2014 WSOP Championship Event November Nine will reconvene on November 10 to work down to the final three contenders for the crown. The next day, those three men will come back and determine poker’s next World Champion and see who made the best choices when it comes to poker prop bets.
