EVENT UPDATES
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Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:42 PM Local Time
Joe Cada has the button. Under the gun, Phil Ivey raises to 1,250,000 and the rest of the table cowers out of the way.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:41 PM Local Time
Eric Buchman has the button. Phil Ivey is in middle position and opens the pot to 1,250,000 after all fold in front of him. Everyone behind him folds as well, giving Ivey the blinds and the antes.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:40 PM Local Time
Steve Begleiter has the button. In middle position, Darvin Moon opens the pot to 2,000,000, and he'll pick up the blinds and antes as the rest of the table releases their cards.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:40 PM Local Time
Kevin Schaffel has had quite a run this year in poker tournaments. He was unfortunate to have his aces cracked by Eric Buchman's pocket kings here in the WSOP Main Event to bust out in 8th place. Gloria Balding caught up with the oldest member of the November Nine for an interview after his bust out.
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Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:38 PM Local Time
Phil Ivey has the button. Antoine Saout takes his turn in middle position and his turn open-raising, making the price of poker 1.35 million. Jeff "Happy" Shulman is on Saout's left. He re-raises to 4.0 million, driving everyone else out of the pot back to Saout.
Saout is stone-still, head leaning on his right hand, for thirty seconds. He then announces that he is all in for a total of 21,125,000. It's effectively an 8.0 million chip raise back to Shulman, because Saout has Shulman covered and that's how many chips Shulman has behind his re-raise.
Shulman tanks for more than a minute. Tanking preflop to an all-in raise is usually a sign of a fold coming. And yes, Shulman folds here. He's left with about 8,125,000 in chips, while Saout climbs to 26,225,000
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:32 PM Local Time
Darvin Moon has the button. Joe Cada opens the pot to 1,250,000 from middle position, and he'll take another free round of blinds and antes.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:30 PM Local Time
Jeff Shulman has the button. Eric Buchman jumps into the pot from early position with a raise to 1.25 million. He wins the pot without a fight.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:30 PM Local Time
Antoine Saout has the button. Joe Cada announces a raise to 1,250,000 from the cutoff seat, and he finds no takers.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:27 PM Local Time
Joe Cada has the button. Steve Begleiter opens the action from middle position to 1.2 million. That raise takes down the blinds and the antes.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:27 PM Local Time
Eric Buchman has the button. With the table passing around to him, he comes in with a small raise to 1,050,000. Antoine Saout matches the bet from the big blind to go heads-up with the chip leader.
The dealer runs out a flop of
. With Saout checking in front of him, Buchman continues out with a bet of 1,550,000, and that's all it takes to win the pot.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:24 PM Local Time
Steve Begleiter has the button. Darvin Moon is in middle position and makes a larger-than-usual raise to 2.0 million. It's of no consequence when everyone else folds.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:22 PM Local Time
Phil Ivey has the button. First into the pot, he raises to 1,100,000 and wins the blinds and antes outright. Two in a row to Ivey.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:20 PM Local Time
Darvin Moon has the button. Phil Ivey is first into the pot with a raise from the small blind to 1.1 million. The crowd is ecstatic to see Ivey pick up his second pot in a row.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:20 PM Local Time
Jeff Shulman has the button. The table folds around to him, and he opens to 1,500,000. Darvin Moon quickly folds his small blind. In the big blind, Phil Ivey mumbles something. The dealer clarifies as he clearly says, "Player announces, 'All in'." Ivey has committed his final 8,450,000 to the pot as Shulman sits deep in the tank. The audience falls deathly silent, quiet enough to hear shutters snapping and keyboards being pecked away at on media row.
Shulman sinks deeper into the tank, not even looking at Ivey really. Finally he looks up for the staredown, clasping his hands and mulling over this huge decision. Ivey looks cool as a frozen cucumber. After several minutes of camera time, Shulman opts to let it go, and Ivey didn't even flinch as he raked in the chips.
Ivey has 10,500,000 on the nose.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:19 PM Local Time
James Akenhead was the first player eliminated from the tournament today and our own Gloria Balding caught up with him on his way out.
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Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:13 PM Local Time
Antoine Saout has the button. Action passes to Eric Buchman in the hijack seat. He raises to 1,050,000. Joe Cada is right behind him and moves all in for 9.8 million. Everyone folds.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 6:03 PM Local Time
After that last hand, the final table went on a short break. We're not sure how long it will be.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 5:58 PM Local Time
Joe Cada has the button. Under the gun, Darvin Moon raises to 1,300,000, and Steve Begleiter puts on his thinking cap. With the deliberateness of a surgeon, Begs stacks out a re-raise to 3,900,000 and slides it forward. Moon thinks about it for just a minute before making the call, and the two men go heads up to the flop.
It comes
, and Moon instantly checks. Begleiter, again very deliberate, continues out with a bet of 5,350,000. Moon peeks back at his hole cards before re-capping them, and the crowd begins to stir as they sense the drama unfolding. Sure enough, Moon makes a healthy check-raise up to 15,000,000. Begleiter takes a big gulp and a big breath of air as he studies his opponent.
After a couple more minutes, Begs announces an all in for 21,000,000 total! It's just 6,000,000 more to Moon, but he's not calling quickly. He rocks back in his chair, clearly not liking his predicament, but he's got a ton of chips in there already. After a few more minutes of head shaking and frowns, Moon returns his cards to the muck! Begleiter's cheerleaders erupt in ovation at that monster pot.
We've got a new chip leader at the final table. With that surrender from Moon, Begleiter is up to 44,750,000, trailing only Eric Buchman and his top stack of 51,575,000.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 5:49 PM Local Time
While most of the players at this year's "November Nine" are sporting patches for various websites and companies, one in particular seems to stick out. Steve Begleiter is wearing a patch reading "AMC 11-15-09 The Prisoner."
Upon further investigation the patch seems to be promoting an upcoming mini-series starring Jim Caviezel and Ian McKellen, about a man trapped in a bizarre place called "The Village." Is Begleiter trying to send us a hint he has been trapped in some sort of "November Nine" village? Probably just coincidence.
We've seen some mainstream marketing in the past on player patches, but AMC stepping into the poker mix has to be considered one of the more intriguing marketing campaigns we've seen to date.
Saturday, November 7, 2009 5:49 PM Local Time
Eric Buchman has the button. Action folds to Steve Begleiter, who takes down the pot with a raise to 1,050,000.