2015 WSOP November Nine Reached In Las Vegas

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Friday, July 17th, 2015 | Written by Shane Larson

The World Series of Poker is the biggest, most celebrated tournament series in the game and every year thousands of players from all around the world descend upon Las Vegas hoping to take down an event and walk away with a prestigious gold bracelet. This year, the 46th Annual World Series of Poker proved more popular than ever before, with its 68 featured events attracting more than 100,000 competitors for the first time in its history, resulting in a record prize pool of $210.3 million. As always, the WSOP’s most iconic tournament, the $10,000 No Limit Hold’em Main Event, attracted a huge field of 6,420 entrants to create a prize pool worth $60,348,000, and after seven grueling days of action at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, this year’s November Nine has been reached.

All nine players are now guaranteed a payday of at least $1,001,020 for their deep run, with $7,680,021 and a place in poker’s history book awaiting whoever manages to seal the victory. In the meantime, the remaining players will take a much needed four month break before returning to Las Vegas on November 8th, giving the poker community time to get to know this year’s lucky finalists.

Main Event High Points

Amongst the players creating a buzz at this year’s Main Event was US player Kelly Minkin, who was the ‘Last Woman Standing’ after Sweden’s Diana Svensk exited the competition in 83rd for $68,624. Kelly Minkin then managed to progress all the way through to Day 6, but was eventually eliminated in 29th place for a $211,821 payday.

A number of big name pros also caused a great deal of excitement during the Main Event as they made a play for the final table, but while 3-times WSOP bracelet winner Brian Hastings finished in 49th ($137,300), the most celebrated player in the game, Daniel Negreanu, almost made it all the way before eventually hitting the rail in 11th ($526,778), much to the chagrin of poker fans everywhere. Commenting on his exit, the Canadian superstar said:

“You know what I think the bigger disappointment is? Because if I don’t come first it doesn’t matter, all the extracurricular things I could’ve done by being a part of the November Nine to promote the event, up the ratings, and get people really involved.. I believe that I could help by being there, because there are a lot of things a lot of people aren’t willing to do. Like this stuff, doing an interview right after getting knocked out.”

2015 WSOP November Nine:

1: Joseph McKeehen (USA) (158bb)
2: Zvi Stern (Israel) (74.5bb)
3: Neil Blumenfield (USA) (55bb)
4: Pierre Neuville (Belgium) (53bb)
5: Max Steinberg (USA) (50.5bb)
6: Thomas Cannuli (USA) (31bb)
7: Josh Beckley (USA) (29bb)
8: Patrick Chan (USA) (16bb)
9: Federico Butteroni (Italy) (15.5bb)

Advocacy For Regulated Online Poker

The 2015 Main Event features three players from overseas (Israel, Belgium, and Italy), while the remaining six players hail from the USA. Furthermore, these players have the potential to make powerful ambassadors for regulated online poker stateside, as they all come from states which already offer iPoker, or are seriously considering its introduction in the near future, namely New Jersey, California, Pennsylvania, and New York. The next four months may therefore provide a powerful platform for these players to give interviews, take to social media, and join advocacy groups in order to present their positive views on the issue, which in turn will also make a welcome change from a discussion usually dominated by commercial operators and politicians.

Meet The November Nine

As one would expect from a $10,000 buy-in tournament with such a large number of players, the final table is once more dominated by experienced players with a great deal of poker pedigree. In fact, most of the November Nine are poker professionals, with Max Steinberg having already earned a WSOP bracelet as well as $1,936,457 in winnings, Pierre Neuville awarded an EPA Lifetime Achievement Award in March 2015 with $2,166,842 in winnings, and Joseph McKeehen with $1,995,070 earned from tournaments. The same goes for Patrick Chan ($524,263) Joshua Beckley ($219,526), and Federico Butteroni having earned $82,679 in 2015 alone, while Thomas Cannuli is a cash game grinder whose high profile rail includes Antonio Esfandiari, Brian Rast, Sorel Mizzi, and Jeff Gross.

Less expected for a November Niner is the age of Pierre Neuville, 72, and Neil Blumenfield, 61, both of whom are professional businessmen and the two oldest players ever to make a Main Event final table since the competition was revamped in 2008. Seeing either of these players win would prove a huge boon in promoting the age diversity of poker, as Jerry Yang in 2007 was the last player not in his 20’s to win the event.

Final Table Payouts

Action resumes at the 2015 WSOP Main Event on Sunday, November 8th, when the final table will take three days to reach an ultimate champion. The payouts awaiting the finalists are as follows:

1: $7,680,021
2: $4,469,171
3: $3,397,103
4: $2,614,558
5: $1,910,971
6: $1,426,072
7: $1,203,193
8: $1,097,009
9: $1,001,020