WSOP Players
For everybody out there who is ready to bet and challenge themselves at the 41st World Series of Poker this year, here’s more information on last year’s WSOP which you can learn a lot from. This is the player profile section of last year’s winners and your possible opponents for this season!
2009 WSOP players
Last year, the WSOP was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. 57 bracelets were given from May 27 to July 15. The Main Event accumulated in the $10,000 No-Limit Texas Hold’em event. It started on July 4, and climaxed with the final table of nine players on July 15, but was delayed until November 7.
Main event celeb spotting
Since Chris Moneymaker’s win in 2003, poker’s fame sky rocketed. The thought that a normal person with amateur skills could scoop the main prize opened the world of poker to a mainstream audience. Professional poker players became celebrities overnight and the celebrities suddenly got very interested in playing WSOP poker. 2009 saw a large number of celebs playing for a place on the final table in the Main event. Here’s who you could have rubbed shoulders with last year;
Day 1-a: Jason Alexander, Orel Hershiser, Brad Garrett, Jennifer Tilly, and Nelly
Day 1-b: Shane Warne
Day 1-c: Paul Wight and Antonio Tarver
Day 1-d: Shannon Elizabeth, Jordan Farmar, Ray Romano, Audley Harrison, Sully Erna, Scott Ian, Lou Diamond Phillips, Sam Simon, John Salley, Nate Silver, Marlon Wayans, and Torrie Wilson
As you can see, there were more celebrities in day 1-d because on that day there were 2,809 people who played, which was the highest number of participants. Day 1-b had the lowest number, with only 873 participants, which is why there was only one who won on that day.
2009 Final Table
Moving on, we will give you the profiles of the players who made it to the November Nine or the final table.
1st place: Joe Cada
Cada was the WSOP 2009 Main Event champion. At 21, he was the youngest World Poker champion ever. He started as an online poker player, garnering up to $500,000 in online tournament winnings and in the 2009 WSOP live tournament, he was able to accumulate up to $8, 550,000. His winning hand was 9♣ 9♦. This was the 88th hand of the heads-up play with his opponent, second placer, Darvin Moon.
2nd place: Darvin Moon
Second placer Moon was an amateur poker player. In fact, it was his first time at the WSOP. He was the chip leader at the final table but in the end he lost to Cada. He was able to win $5,182,601. His biggest hands were Q♦ J♦, but they eventually lost to Cada’s 9♣ 9♦.
The remaining players on the final table were:
3rd: Antoine Saout
4th: Eric Buchman
5th: Jeff Shulman
6th: Steven Begleiter
7th: Phil Ivey
8th: Kevin Schaffel
9th: James Akehead