The nine members of the 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) final table, otherwise known as the “November Nine,” were determined Tuesday morning and now, just a day later, sports books have begun setting the odds of each player winning. After all, it’s the World Series of Poker. We all need to pile on more gambling, right?
Looking at Bovada’s odds to win the Main Event, it should come as no surprise that J.C. Tran has been installed as the favorite at 9/5. He is the chip leader with a fairly sizeable edge over second place and he has a history of success in the live tournament world. He already has two WSOP bracelets to his name and eight top-ten finishes on the World Poker Tour (WPT), one of which culminated with a title. Tran is highly respected for his poker skills and very well might have been the favorite if all nine players started even in chips.
From there, the odds coincide almost exactly with chip counts. Amir Lehavot, second in chips, is next at 9/2, followed by Marc McLaughlin at 5/1. The only spot where things get slightly out of order are four and five. Ryan Reiss, fifth in chips with 25,875,000 has 6/1 odds to win, while Jay Farber, with 25,975,000, is at 15/2. The chip difference is negligible at this stage in the tournament, so Bovada may have looked at Reiss’s professional poker player status and some recent success as a tie breaker of sorts.
The bottom half of the stacks see Sylvain Loosli coming in at 8/1, Michiel Brummelhuis at 12/1, and the two shortest stacks, Mark Newhouse and David “Raptor” Benefield, at 15/1 each. Here is a complete look at the odds, courtesy of Bovada.lv:
J.C. Tran – 9/5 – 38,000,000 chips
Amir Lehavot – 9/2 – 29,700,000 chips
Marc McLaughlin – 5/1 – 26,525,000 chips
Ryan Riess – 6/1 – 25,875,000 chips
Jay Farber – 15/2 – 25,975,000 chips
Sylvain Loosli – 8/1 – 19,600,000 chips
Michiel Brummelhuis – 12/1 – 11,275,000 chips
Mark Newhouse – 15/1 – 7,350,000 chips
David Benefield – 15/1 – 6,375,000 chips
In other Vegas odds-related news in the World Series of Poker, the powers-that-be at Bovada were probably biting their fingernails to stumps as the Main Event final table neared. According to an article on OddsShark.com, Bovada had given bettors the opportunity to wager on whether or not any former Main Event winner would make the final table, posting 7/1 odds of it happening. Carlos Mortensen, the 2001 WSOP Main Event Champ, made a run at winning some people a bunch of money (and costing Bovada a healthy chunk of change), but in the end, he bowed out in 10th place. He made the “unofficial” final table, but did not make the official final table of nine.
The members of the November Nine now have quite a while to think about things as play will not resume until November 4th.
