Dan Sindelar was just eliminated from the 2014 Main Event. He finished in 7th place.
The Las Vegas poker pro, the only local to make this year's November Nine, became the first player to earn over $1 million in this year's Main Event. This is by far the largest tournament score of his career. Sindelar now has 18 cashes in World Series of Poker events.
Sindelar, who is also an amateur golfer who grew up in Nebraska, entered the final table ranked 5th in chips with 21,200,000. He climbed the leaderboard early, but stalled out around the 30-million mark. After slowly losing chips for a couple hours, he three-bet over a raise from Jorryt van Hoof with . Van Hoof called with , and Sindelar was in good shape. The flop changed matters, though, as the dealer spread , giving Van Hoof top pair and a flush draw. Sindelar was drawing to a single out (the ), and it didn't come.
"I'm disappointed, of course, but it was quite an experience for me," Sindelar confided afterward. "I was kinda distracted by all the television breaks. I couldn't really focus because of that."
Sindelar was speaking of the ESPN coverage which does tend to change the dynamics of the final table and how hands are sometimes played out. Like everyone else who made this year's final table other than Mark Newhouse, who finished ninth, this was a unique first-time experience that's difficult to prepare for, as well as predict.
This wasn't Sindelar's year to win. But it was a year where he shined, more brightly than more than 6,000 others who wished they were in the Las Vegas poker pro's shoes.
With Sindelar eliminated, the Main Event is now down to the final six players.
Here are the final table results so far:
1st - - $10,000,000
2nd - - $5,147,911
3rd - - $3,807,753
4th - - $2,849,763
5th - - $2,143,794
6th - - $1,622,471
7th - Dan Sindelar - $1,236,084
8th - Bruno Politano - $947,172
9th - Mark Newhouse - $730,725