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Tournament: WSOP Final Table: from nine to two
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Generally the WSOP Main Event final table is whittled down to a winner in two intense days, but this year some might say that it's been a three-day event. The day one action began at 3pm on Saturday, November 7 and continued on for a grueling 14+ hours as each of the nine remaining players grappled for the final two positions. Day one of the event didn't wrap until nearly 6am when online qualifier Antoine Saout was edged out by Joseph Cada.
Phil Ivey initiated the first all in at hand 14, and many believed it would be the first elimination as Cada contemplated his own hand, but ultimately the table folded. It would be nearly five hours before the table lost its first player (James Akenhead) at hand 59, but the second soon followed when Kevin Schaffel went out on hand 68.
The final table crowd had been nothing short of rowdy for most of the event, but things got especially tense when it became clear that Ivey was in trouble around hand 131 (which went to Cada). When Cada dealt already short-handed Ivey another blow at hand 148 the Penn & Teller Theatre went ominously silent. Ivey played it tight through the next leg, but underdog Darvin Moon finished him off on the first hand after the break. Last year's final table was down to two by hand 169, but at hand 176 the 2009 final table still had six players.
The crowd thinned noticeably after Ivey's departure and continued to thin as the battle raged on into the wee hours of the night. Barely ten hands after eliminating Ivey, Moon trimmed more fat from the final table when he took out Steve Begleiter at hand 187. With all of the final table favorites gone, the auditorium was nearly empty by the time Antoine Saout eliminated Jeff Schulman in hand 236.
It was give-and-take for the next hour while the chip lead bounced between the remaining four players (Buchman, Cada, Moon and Saout). Buchman gained the chip lead at hand 259 but lost his lead (and most of his stack) when Saout went all in and won hand 264—the largest hand of the tournament. Buchman rallied by winning hands 267 and 268, but he became the third player to fall to Moon when he lost what he had left at hand 271.
Finally, at 5am only three players remained. With the end near, the exhausted players took a last, unannounced break. Play recommenced at hand 272, and it looked like it would all be over when Cada went all in and chip leader Saout called, but Cada won and the game continued. In just one hand Saout went from chip leader to short stack, and shortly thereafter at hand 276 Cada dealt him the final blow, ending the longest final table competition in WSOP history.
Going into Monday's heads-up face off for the title, only underdogs Joseph Cada and Darvin Moon remained making for one of the most unexpected Main Event match-ups ever.
10-Nov-2009, 07:06
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