Not one, but two members of the World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine made the final table of the WSOP Europe Main Event. Last year, Ivan Demidov accomplished the feat. This year, Antoine Saout and James Akenhead will battle for the top prize.
Akenhead nearly found his first gold WSOP bracelet in 2008, but took second in a $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament and cashed for $520,000. In that event, his opponent, Grant Hinkle, was all-in holding just 10-4 against Akenhead’s A-K. However, Hinkle made four tens in the hand and became one-half of only the second set of brothers ever to win WSOP bracelets and the first to do so in the same year. Akenhead is in his backyard for the WSOP Europe festivities, as he makes his home in London. He sits with the second largest chip stack entering final table play with 1.4 million, trailing only Team PokerStars Pro member Jason Mercier’s hefty total of 3.2 million.
Saout owns the sixth largest chip stack in the WSOP Europe Main Event at 701,000. The Frenchmen is also a member of the November Nine and sponsored pro of Everest Poker. Interestingly enough, he won a $50 satellite to claim his WSOP Main Event seat. Last November, he finished sixth in a Spanish Poker Tour event in Marbella for €5,800 and promptly reached another final table in Castellon in June for €780. Saout and Akenhead are the only two non-Americans at the final table of the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas. Saout will take to the felts in Seat 8 on Thursday in London.
The November Nine has another tie to the final table, as CardPlayer Founder Barry Shulman owns the fourth largest chip stack in London at 1.1 million. He is the father of November Nine member and CardPlayer Editor Jeff Shulman, who infamously threatened to throw away the WSOP Main Event bracelet should he win it. The younger Shulman owns the third largest chip stack entering the final table at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in November.
Daniel Negreanu finished fifth in last year’s WSOP Europe Main Event and scooped £217,200. Now, he’ll seek his first WSOP Europe bracelet in this year’s feature tournament. Incredibly, Negreanu reached the final table in back-to-back WSOP Europe Main Events in London, but is the tournament’s short stack entering today’s finale. Negreanu, a Poker Hall of Fame nominee and four-time bracelet winner, recorded eight cashes during the 2009 WSOP, including a pair of six-figure scores in the World Championship of Omaha High-Low Eight or Better and Six-Handed Limit Hold’em.
Mercier is the chip leader entering the final table in London. The card-carrying member of Team PokerStars Pro hails from Fort Lauderdale, Florida and won a bracelet this year in a $1,500 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha event for $237,000. Mercier defeated online poker pro Steven “PiKappRaider” Burkholder in that event, which attracted 809 players. In May, Mercier won a tournament during the quarterly Full Tilt Online Poker Series (FTOPS) for $86,000. Mercier sent six of the final 15 eliminated players to the rail on Wednesday to build his massive chip lead.
The final table kicks off today at 2:00pm local time. Here’s a look at the remaining players and their chip stacks:
1. Jason Mercier – 3,198,000
2. James Akenhead – 1,398,000
3. Praz Bansi – 1,160,000
4. Barry Shulman – 1,090,000
5. Markus Ristola – 784,000
6. Antoine Saout – 701,000
7. Matt Hawrilenko – 674,000
8. Chris Bjorin – 518,000
9. Daniel Negreanu – 438,000
The prizes up for grabs for the nine WSOP Europe Main Event final table members are as follows:
1st Place: £801,603
2nd Place: £495,589
3rd Place: £360,887
4th Place: £267,267
5th Place: £200,367
6th Place: £150,267
7th Place: £114,228
8th Place: £87,074
9th Place: £66,533
