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The 2010 WSOP Main Event final table, aka the 2010 November Nine, kicks off in just three short days at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, NV. The final nine players are returning to play not only for the gold WSOP World Championship bracelet, but also $8,944,138. Let’s take a look at the November Nine.

Coming in as the short stack is Jason Senti. He will start the final table with 7,625,000 in chips. The 26 year old player from St Louis Park, MN is a former Electrical Engineer and currently serves as an instructor at Bluefire Poker. Jason Senti WSOP and live poker career has included just one other cash, a 32nd in the $10,000 Heads-Up Championship in the 2009 WSOP.

Cuong Soi Nguyen is the other short stack of this event. Starting at just 9,650,000 in chips, the Santa Ana, Ca native will be going after the largest prize in live poker and probably has the least amount of live tournament experience out of anyone at the table. This was just the 4th live event he had played going into this event. Soi Nguyen WSOP Main Event run is clearly the highlight of this 37 year old’s career.

The most popular player at this final table is Michael Mizrachi. Mizrachi was on a monster run heading into the Main Event, having final tabled three other events, including taking down his first bracelet. For Michael Mizrachi WSOP Player of the Year is also on the line as he can tie Frank Kasella should he win the event. He starts with 14,450,000 in chips.

Filippo Candio comes to the table with 16.4 Million in chips. Hailing from Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy, this 26 year old former law has moved up to 7th all-time on the Italian money list. With over $260,000 in earnings, he is already guaranteed to become a poker Millionair. Now we will see if Filippo Candio WSOP World Champion will go with that title.

Matt Jarvis comes to the final table with 16.7 Million in chips and has been quite active since making the final table in July. He took down the Canadian Poker Heads-Up Championship in August and has had several other cashes since then. Matt Jarvis WSOP Europe cash in September was his most recent heading into this event. The extra practice should prove helpful as he has a tough road to travel.

John Racener is probably the most successful player at the final table outside of Mizrachi. With over $1.2 Million in winnings, he has a track record that extends back to 2006. John Racener WSOP record includes four final tables including this one. He starts 4th in chips with 19,050,000.

Joseph Cheong starts with the 3rd largest stack with 23,525,000 in chips. This La Miranda, CA native recently took 2nd in the High Roller Event at the EPT London event and then won a $5,000 preliminary event at Festa Al Lago WPT. This may give Joseph Cheong WSOP final table run some extra momentum heading into play Saturday.

John Dolan starts 2nd in chips at this final table with 46,250,000. This online pro has numerous strong live tournament performances, including making the final table of a $1,000 NL Event earlier in the WSOP. John Dolan WSOP final table could either be legendary or short lived as the pro has had a tendency in the past to blow through bankrolls.

Jonathan Duhamel is the chip leader heading into the final table with 65,975,000 in chips. This 23 year old is the youngest player at the final table but has showed both flashes of brilliance and a tendency to gamble. These qualities combined with his big stack should make Jonathan Duhamel WSOP final table run a deep one, if not a championship one.

The final table will kick off Saturday at 12 p.m. PDT. Play will continue until heads-up play is reached. Those players will return on Monday and play to the bracelet. Goto WSOP 2010 Final Table Coverage for series coverage.

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Long known for his prowess at the cash game tables, Jeff Lisandro has emerged in the last few years as one of the elite tournament players in the world. Jeff Lisandro is an Australian born poker player that now lives in Italy. For years, Lisandro was known mainly for his tournament prowess, but around 2003 was when things started to click for him as a tournaments player.

Lisandro’s first big win was in a PL Holdem event during the preliminaries of the WPT Bellagio Five Diamond in 2003. He took home over $122,000 in that event and then six months later had a solid 2004 WSOP where he cashed five times, including three final tables. Lather that year, he won a Heads-Up Limit Holdem event in Vegas to the tune of $194,000. In 2005, Lisandro took his first and only WSOP Circuit title when he wont the Main Event at Lake Tahoe, good for $542,360.

The 2006 WSOP was the first time that Jeff Lisandro was introduced to the general public. He went deep in the Main Event and his confrontation with Prahlad Friedman has become legendary. Friedman accused Lisandro of stealing a 5,000 chip ante and the two almost went to blows. It was later proven by videotape that Lisandro did not steal the chip, but Friedman never apologized for his accusation.

Read Jeff Lisandro’s complete biography here

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The World Series of Poker Europe Main Event kicked off last Thursday at the Casino at the Empire in London, England. This event started with two Day 1’s as players looked to take down the last bracelet of 2011. Barry Shulman won this event last year and was looking for a repeat performance.

Day 1a started with 137 players and nobody made a bigger entrance than Phil Hellmuth. He entered the casino escorted by 11 Lady Gaga impersonators, one of which was singing “Poker Face.” Unfortunately for Hellmuth, his entrance didn’t bring him any luck as he was out on Day 1a.

Players that played during Day 1a included Michael Mizrachi, Chad Brown, Allen Kessler, Chris Ferguson, and Erik Seidel. Faraz Jaka, Nick Shulman, and Leo Margets were among those that went on to Day 2 action from this heat.

Day 1b drew out 209 players with Men Nguyen, Eric Mizrachi, David Benyamine, Tom Dwan “durrrr”, and Vanessa Rousso. Barry Shulman started his title defense in Day 1b and was still alive at days end. Phil Laak, Eli Elezra, and Antonio Esfandiari were among those that moved to Day 2 play from this heat. In total, only 195 players saw Day 2 action.

Two players that made Day 2 action that drew the biggest rail and the most headlines were Phil Ivey and Viktor Blom. Blom is the man everyone is claiming to be isildur1 and Ivey is of course, Ivey. In addition to these two big names, Daniel Negreanu was trying to make a charge at his 3rd straight WSOP Europe Main Event final table.

By the end of Day 2, only 69 players were left, but it was Viktor Blom that took over the chip lead. Phil Ivey was 6th in chips with Negreanu still in the hunt. Barry Shulman went down during Day 2 action, guaranteeing a new champion.

Day 3 saw the players make the money in the event. Daniel Negreanu fell short of the money. He moved in with A-K, but Darren Woods made a light call with pocket threes, and they held. Viktor Blom made the money and survived the day, but he had a real roller coaster type of day. After starting as chip leader, he dropped to 275k before moving back up to 657,000 by the end of the day. This was good enough for 5th place on the day. Phil Ivey was just behind him with 657,000.

Day 4 22 players return to play to the final table. Ivey made a misstep early on and wound up in 19th place. He shoved with A-10 pre-flop and ran into A-K from Ronald Lee. Viktor Blom did not fare much better. The dropped 2/3rd’s of his stack early on and put in his last 210k with pocket eights. Brian Powell made the call with K-Q, leaving Blom in good shape. That was until a queen on the flop and king on the turn left Blom with just two outs. An eight failed to fall, and Blom finished in 16th place.

By the end of Day 4, the final table was reached with Roland de Wolf the main headliner. Dan Fleyshman was the chip leader going into the final table. Here were the chip counts:

Seat 1: Roland de Wolfe 1,377,000
Seat 2: Marc Inizan 349,000
Seat 3: Nicolas Levi 428,000
Seat 4: Fabrizio Baldassari 677,000
Seat 5: Brian Powell 842,000
Seat 6: Dan Steinberg 1,520,000
Seat 7: James Bord 1,331,000
Seat 8: Ronald Lee 1,899,000
Seat 9: Dan Fleyshman 1,946,000

Fleyshman nosedived early and finished in 7th place. Roland de Wolfe made a strong showing, but failed to take down the event. With four players left, he shoved with K-Q and Fabrizio Baldassari made the call with A-8. Baldassari flopped two pair, and a deuce on the turn eliminated de Wolfe in 4th place.

James Bord and Fabrizio Baldassari played heads-up for the bracelet. Baldassari was the chip leader early, but a bad shove with Q-8 resulted in Bord doubling up with A-K. A while later, Baldassari and Bord was in a raising war that saw Bord move all-in with pocket tens. Baldassari held pocket fives and made the call. The board missed both players and James Bord is the 2010 WSOP Europe Main Event Champion.

James Bord hails from England, and this is his first major tournament win. He took home the bracelet and £830,410 in prize money. Congratulations.

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The World Series of Poker Europe is currently underway and so far, three bracelets have been awarded. As expected, most of the top players from around the world converged on the Casino at the Empire in London to take their shot at one of five WSOP-E bracelets. Here is a breakdown of what has happened so far.

Phil Laak Wins First Bracelet

Event #1 was the £2,650 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Event. 244 players put up the buy-in for this first event and by the time the final table was reached, all eyes were on pros Chris Bjorin and Phil Laak. Laak was still going after his first WSOP bracelet and was the victim of a serious ATV crash just one month ago. In fact, Laak played this event with his right arm still in a cast. However, at the start of the final table, Andrew Pantling started as chip leader with nearly a 2 to 1 lead over the field.

Chris Bjorin fell in third place and it was Phil Laak and Andrew Pantling battling heads-up for the bracelet. The two battled for a while, but Pantling was soon left crippled after a big pot with Laak. Laak had flopped two pair and Pantling held a pair with both a straight and flush draw. Laak moved in and Pantling proceeded to miss his draw. The very next hand then saw Laak’s K-5 outdraw the A-9 of Pantling when a five hit the turn. Pantling failed to catch on the river and Phil Laak won his first WSOP bracelet. In addition, Laak took home £170,802.

Jeff Lisandro Wins Fifth Career Bracelet

Event #2, £5,250 Pot-Limit Omaha, drew 120 of the world’s best PLO players looking to take the bracelet and £159,514. After two days, there were still 15 players left looking to take the bracelet. Chris Bjorin would make his 2nd final table of this WSOP Europe. Joining him were November Niner John Racener, 2009 Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro, Jeff Madsen and Joe Serock.

Eventually, it was Joe Serock and Jeff Lisandro that played heads-up for the bracelet. Jeff Lisandro took a commanding lead when his Ks-Kd-5c-2d spiked a king on the flop to outdraw Serock’s As-Ad-Jh-10h. Serock was crippled and eliminated the very next hand. Jeff Lisandro won his 5th career WSOP bracelet. This was his first bracelet in a variant of poker other than stud. He took home the bracelet and £159,514.

Scott Shelley Denies JP Kelly History

Event #3, £1,075 No-Limit Holdem, drew the largest crowd of this WSOP-E at 582 players. By the time the final table was reached, the poker world was watching JP Kelly. Kelly won this event last year and was looking to not only defend his title, but also to become the youngest player to win three bracelets. Phil Ivey is the current record holder.

JP Kelly would get a shot at winning his 3rd bracelet as he made it heads-up with Scott Shelley. Kelly led at the start of the match, but Kelley was able to overtake the lead. The match was decided when Kelley moved all-in pre-flop with Qd-Jh against the pocket threes of Shelley. A three on the flop gave Shelley a set and left Kelly needing running straight cards to win. The turn fell a seven and Kelly was drawing dead. Scott Shelley became the Event #3 champion, taking home the bracelet and £133,857. Viktor Blom, Erik Seidel, Scott Montgomery, Carlos Mortensen, Barny Boatman, Tom “durrrr” Dwan, Jeff Lisandro, and Mike Matusow were among those that went out on Day 1.

Gus Hansen and Ram Vaswani Make Final Four of High Roller Event

Event #4, £10,350 NL Holdem High Roller Heads-Up started with 103 of the world’s best looking to take home £288,409 and the last bracelet before the Main Event. Play would continue down to 32 on Day 1 with many big names falling by the wayside.

Day 2 still started with a stacked field with Daniel Negreanu, Andrew Robl, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Ram Vaswani, Huck Seed, Howard Lederer, and Scott Fischman all still in the field. 32 would play down to 16 with Howard Lederer, Huck seed, Ram Vaswani, Gus Hansen, Phil Ivey, Andrew Robl, and Daniel Negreanu still alive.

Lederer would face Seed, Robl faced Negreanu, and Hansen went against Ivey. Huck Seed’s dominance of Howard Lederer continued as he advanced to the round of eight. Gus Hansen dispatched Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu defeated Andrew Robl. Jim Collopy, Ram Vaswani, Kevin Eyster, Neil Channing, and Andrew Feldman rounded out the elite eight.

The following were the elite eight draws:

Huck Seed vs. Jim Collopy
Kevin Eyster vs. Ram Vaswani
Gus Hansen vs. Neil Channing
Daniel Negreanu vs. Andrew Feldman

Collopy defeated Seed to move on to the final four. Vaswani took out Eyster and Hansen took out Neil Channing. The final match between Daniel Negreanu and Andrew Feldman was the last one to finish. Negreanu was unable to make it to the final four as Andrew Feldman knocked him out when his K-6 flopped a king against Negreanu’s pocket queens.

The final four players will return on Thursday to play down to the bracelet. In the final four, Gus Hansen will battle Andrew Feldman and Jim Collopy will battle Ram Vaswani. They will not only be playing for the bracelet but the £288,409 in top prize money.

That is the WSOP Europe up to now. The Main Event also kicks off on Thursday and, as always, promises to draw out one of the stronger fields of the year. Stay tuned as we bring you all the remaining action from the 2010 World Series of Poker Europe.

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