Antoine Saout, who recently earned a seat as a member of the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) November Nine, has signed a deal to join Team Everest Poker. The agreement will allow Saout to participate in the biggest poker tournaments in the world while representing the budding online poker site.
Saout won his seat to the 2009 WSOP Main Event through a $50 satellite on Everest Poker, where’s he’s been playing full-time since 2008 as “Tonio92.” Saout was studying engineering in college before opting to drop out to focus on poker. That decision has rewarded him with a seat at the most prestigious final table in poker and a contract with Everest Poker, the official on-felt sponsor of the WSOP.
The 25-year-old Frenchman joins Cristiano Blanco, Voitto Rintala, Maria Maceiras, Steven van Zadelhoff, and Kim Wooka as members of Team Everest. Unlike PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and many of the other major sites, Everest chooses to sponsor up and coming players rather than sign established big-name pros. While Saout had a great deal of experience playing online, including a multitude of wins on Everest Poker, he hadn’t cashed in a live tournament before this year’s WSOP Main Event.
“France is where Everest Poker first launched and to have a French player on the final table who qualified with us is very exciting,” said Everest Poker Director Sandrine Mangia-Park in a press release distributed by the independent site.”(Antoine) joins an increasingly well respected team of real poker players who all support each other in the biggest tournaments around the world.”
Saout, from Saint Martin des Champs, Brittany, France, will enter the final table of the WSOP Main Event second-to-last in chips with 9.5 million, ahead of fellow European James Akenhead, who has 6.8 million. On the final day of play in July, Saout doubled up through Akenhead when his pocket eights held up against Akenhead’s A-K after all of the chips went in pre-flop. That increased Saout’s stack to 13 million and he coasted to the final table from there. Saout and Akenhead are the only non-Americans remaining in the field.
All nine final table members are guaranteed a minimum payout of $1,263,602, with the winner collecting $8,546,435. Here’s a glance at what the table will look like when play resumes on November 7th:
Seat 1: Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Seat 2: James Akenhead – 6,800,000
Seat 3: Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Seat 7: Joe Cada – 13,215,000
Seat 8: Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
