With the November Nine officially in place, it’s always interesting to see how the oddsmakers view the crop of players at the biggest final table of the year. Online bookmaker Bodog released the odds of each player winning the World Series of Poker Main Event yesterday, giving poker fans and bettors alike even more reason to sweat until November.
Martin Staszko, a 35-year-old poker pro from the Czech Republic, will enter the Main Event final table as the chip leader and is the slim betting favorite going into November. Staszko has 40,175,000 chips and bettors can get 4-1 odds on him to win it all. He’s followed by Irishman Eoghan O’Dea with 33,925,000. The son of famous Irish poker player and gambler Donnacha O’Dea is set at 9/2.
The three Americans remaining in the field are bunched together in the 3-5 spots. Matt Giannetti, who nearly tripled his stack after the “unofficial” final table of 10 was formed, is third in chips with 24,750,000. He and online superstar Phil “USCPhildo” Collins are offered at 13/2; Collins is fourth in chips with 23,875,000. Ben “benba” Lamb, the biggest name coming into the final table, has 20,875,000 and is set as a 7/1 favorite to win his second bracelet of the 2011 WSOP.
Rounding out the November Nine are Badih Bounahra, Pius Heinz, Anton Makievskyi, and Samuel Holden, who will take the short stack into November. Holden is offered at 16/1, which could be a bargain considering the amount of success short stacks have had in previous years.
Here’s a look at Bodog Poker’s odds to win the 2011 WSOP Main Event (at the time of writing):
Martin Staszko (40,175,000) — 4/1
Eoghan O’Dea (33,925,000) — 9/2
Matt Giannetti (24,750,000) — 13/2
Phil Collins (23,875,000) — 13/2
Ben Lamb (20,875,000) — 7/1
Badih Bounahra (19,700,000) — 9/1
Pius Heinz (16,425,000) — 11/1
Anton Makievskyi (13,825,000) — 12/1
Samuel Holden (12,375,000) — 16/1
Last year, Jonathan Duhamel held a significant chip lead over the rest of the field and was a 3/1 favorite to win it all. Runner-up John Racener was set at 9-1 and third-place finisher Joseph Cheong was 6-1. In case you don’t remember, Cheong held a sizeable lead with three remaining before executing a mistimed bluff against Duhamel that eventually led to his elimination.
In previous years, Joe Cada (2009) was fifth in chips coming into the final table before winning; Peter Eastgate (2008) was fourth; Jerry Yang (2007) was eighth, Jamie Gold (2006) was the chip leader, and Joe Hachem (2005) was sixth. Yang was considered the least likely player to win in 2007 as bookmakers offered odds of 19-1 before the final table. Cada opened as an 18/1 favorite and went on to become the youngest Main Event winner ever.
The 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event final table gets underway Saturday, November 5 with the heads-up match concluding on Monday, November 7. Each of the players who made it this far are guaranteed $782,115, and the winner will receive $8,711,956.
