Mike Matusow made an appearance in the feature table area as the players were setting up their chip stacks. He singled out Jeff Shulman and Phil Ivey for handshakes and heart-felt words of congratulations. Of course, there's still one more elimination to go.
The mood while players were setting up in their new seats was beyond festive. Railbirds are crammed into the feature table set tighter than a Tokyo subway. They're in the feature table seating area, the standing room around the feature table, and the box above the feature table area. There are also small clumps outside the feature table area -- at the two entrances, and by the secondary feature table area where some railbirds are watching the action on a flat-panel television.
The media are in on the action too. Media row at the feature table area has seats for five or six people, with two small rows of chairs behind that. All the seats in all three rows are taken, with other members of the media standing or sitting wherever they can find space.
When cards got back in the air, the crowd descended into respectful and hushed murmurs.
Tournament Director Robbie Thompson is presently introducing our ten remaining players to the crowd. Thus far, James Akenhead (with a large, rowdy crowd of supporters, including Karl Mahrenholz), Phil Ivey ("Ivey, Ivey Ivey!") and Steven Begleiter ("Begs! Begs! Begs!) and Joe Cada ("YOU ARE A ROCKSTAR! SOUL CRUSHER!") have received the strongest ovations.
This is a big re-draw folks. After the tenth-place finisher is eliminated, the November Nine will maintain these seating assignments at the final table four months from now. Here's the lineup:
Seat 1: Darvin Moon (44,300,000)
Seat 2: Jordan Smith (15,430,000)
Seat 3: James Akenhead (5,100,000)
Seat 4: Phil Ivey (10,210,000)
Seat 5: Kevin Schaffel (13,080,000)
Seat 6: Steven Begleiter (26,495,000)
Seat 7: Eric Buchman (36,780,000)
Seat 8: Joe Cada (13,400,000)
Seat 9: Antoine Saout (10,200,000)
Seat 10:Jeff Shulman (17,900,000)
With the elimination of Jamie Robbins in 11th place, the tournament is on a pause. The players at the secondary feature table are racking up their chips to bring them all to the main feature table. We'll have the new seat assignments in a few minutes.
With one more elimination, the November Nine will be set!
Jamie Robbins moved all in for 2.35 million and Phil Ivey made the call.
Robbins
Ivey
The flop didn't help Robbins, coming down . The turn was the , the river was the and the crowd full of Ivey fans roared as their man took down the hand and sent Jamie Robbins to the rail in 11th place.
Wow. That's a succinct description of what just happened on the secondary feature table. Billy Kopp opened for 600,000 preflop from early position and was called by the small blind, Darvin Moon. So far, so good.
On a flop of , Moon had first action and checked. He then called when Kopp bet 750,000. Again, nothing out of the ordinary yet.
It was on the turn where everything went haywire. Moon checked again and drew a bet of 2.0 million from Kopp. Moon then check-raised to 6.0 million. Improbably, Kopp moved all in for about 20.0 million total. Even more improbably, Moon called!
Kopp:
Moon:
Kopp looked like he wanted to cry when he saw Moon's hand. He knew that he was drawing dead and that Moon had him covered. Kopp had more than 80 big blinds to start the hand; with the river he had none. He didn't even wait for the river to come out, barreling out of the secondary feature table area as fast as he could.
Moon is once again the chip leader with a whopping 45.0 million chips.