2009 World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table

Over the past couple days the November Nine finally sat down to finish up the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table. The final table has been highly anticipated over the past several months and it was great to finally see the event commence. There were a few clear standouts this year in the Main Event including Phil Ivey, Joe Cada and Darvin Moon.

Darvin Moon started the final table with about 30% of the chips in play, so it was hard to not have him as an early favourite. Phil Ivey was obviously on most people’s betting sheet simply because Ivey is arguably the best poker player in the history of the game. Cada made a strong run last year in the Main Event, but was devastated, this year Cada had a lot of confidence and revenge in his sights.

When the final table started things got off to a really slow start as nobody wanted to be eliminated. It took a few hours before the first causality was sent packing. James Akenhead was short stacked most of the time although he did pick up a double up before being eliminated. The next player to be knocked out of the Main Event was Kevin Schaffel as he lost an all-in hand against Buchman.

After the 8th place elimination the players started to slow down again for awhile. Eventually Ivey of Full Tilt Poker would move all-in with his A-K against Moon who had an A-Q. It looked like a prime position for Ivey to get the double up that he was looking for, but Moon the miracle man hit a Q on the flop and knocked Ivey out in 7th place. The crowd was definitely cheering Ivey on the entire night, but it wasn’t enough to help him make a push for the bracelet.

After Ivey left the table the next player to be eliminated was Steve Begleiter. Moon was able to knock out Steve in a big hand and send him home. It appeared that Moon was hitting his stride and many people thought that he might actually pull the victory off. Jeff Shulman was the next to go although it wasn’t until long after Steve had been knocked out of the event. Eric Buchman was the next player to feel the wrath of Moon as Moon knocked out Eric in 4th place.

With only three players left in the online poker Main Event there needed to be one more elimination for the day. Antoine Saout was the next player to go in third place and this was the final elimination of the day. Joe Cada and Darvin Moon would both take a couple days off to prepare for the heads-up battle before coming back to the felt last night. Joe Cada had a huge chip lead over Moon, but it wasn’t that easy to secure the bracelet. Moon won some early hands and took the momentum away from Cada, but eventually after a struggle Cada regained momentum and finished off Moon. It took the 21 year old Cada 364 hands to win the bracelet and the $8.5 million prize pool.