Tournament announcer Tom Sexton has just finished up introducing the players for the final table and the cards are in the air. The button begins with Dennis Meierotto in seat #2 and there's just over 52 minutes left in level 12.
Along with the prize money up for grabs today, the players will be playing for the coveted World Series of Poker championship ring along with an entry to the 2009 Main Event in Las Vegas!
John McDonald just informed tournament announcer Tom Sexton that he miscounted his chip stack before bagging up last night. Instead of the 525,000 chips listed, McDonald has 439,500. That could change things just a little bit, but he still remains the chip leader.
Jeff Daubs is a part-time poker player originally from Plattsburgh, New York. Now a resident of Omaha, Nebraska, Daubs has the home court working for him as well. When he's not playing cards, Daubs is a software test engineer, but he's been dabbling with this game for about three years now. He'll start the final table with one of the short stacks, but his 34,500 chips are plenty to work with.
Jesse Hale enjoys jumping out of planes. In fact, skydiving is the 35-year old's profession and he's made the leap over 4,000 times. "Outside of jumping, I enjoy water and snow skiing, ATV riding, shooting, and flying," mentioned Hale, who is also an experienced pilot with over 1,000 hours of flying time.
He's admittedly accomplished losses in poker at the hands of the best and the worst players in the game and according to Hale, "I was prohibited from playing blackjack in Council Bluffs because I am the luckiest S.O.B. in the world!"
Hale comes into the final table with 77,000 chips.
Jeff "Mr. Rain" Banghart is one of our local guys from Omaha, Nebraska, and the home-field advantage has been working out well so far. By day, Banghart owns a lawn sprinkler company, but on nights and weekends, he hits the felt hard. At age 47, Banghart says he's already been playing poker for 35 years.
Banghart has excellent results when he crosses the river to come play in Council Bluffs. In 2007, he made the final table here at this same event, taking home $54,000 for his fourth-place showing. Now, he's back at it again in 2009. Banghart took down the first preliminary event of this circuit, pocketing $30,000 right out of the gate. A few days later, he would go deep once again, racking up another final table and a fifth-place score.
"Mr. Rain" knows his way around the online game as well. Each year from 2005 through 2007, Banghart has gone deep in the PokerStars Sunday Million at least once. His best score came in 2006 when he took down the whole thing, good enough to earn him nearly $190,000. All totaled, this grinder has more than $1,000,000 in total online winnings.
Banghart has some work to do today; he will start near the bottom of the pack with 52,000.
Jeff Bryan is a 51-year old sales manager for a concrete equipment company hailing from Fort Calhoun, Nebraska. Bryan has been playing tournament poker for three years and this will be his ninth WSOP tournament cash. He cashed in the 2007 and 2008 Main Event at the WSOP, coming in 27th place in 2007. That finish earned him over $333,000.
Bryan has a wife Donna, who also played in the event here at the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs, along with five children, and three grandchildren. He enters today with 27,500 chips.
Joaquin Sosa is with us this week from windy Chicago, Illinois. He is 49 years old, and he's been playing poker part-time for about five years. This is his first major final table, and this event has already been the highlight of his short poker career. By day, Sosa is a laboratory technician in his home town, playing poker mainly as a side hobby.
This game might become more than a hobby if Sosa can rack up a few more deep finishes like this one. He will begin play in the middle of the pack, sitting squarely on 60,000 chips.
Ari "BodogAri" Engel is no stranger to the poker scene. He has put up solid performances both online and live. Originally from Toronto, Engel now calls Las Vegas, Nevada his home. At the young age of 25, Engel plays poker professionally. With many live cashes to his name, the largest came last year when he came in third place in the $2,000 Borgata Deep Stack Tournament in May. That finish netted him over $120,000.
Evan "MacDaddy34" Panesis is a young online grinder who has come to Iowa from Overland Park, Kansas. Panesis has been playing for about five years, and he makes online poker his full-time occupation.
"MacDaddy34" begins the final table comfortably in third place. His 203,000 chips are more than double the fourth place stack.