John Racener opened his first pot at this "last" table with a raise to 730,000. The hijack player, Soi Nguyen, then made the price of poker 1,700,000. The blinds cleared out and, after about thirty seconds, Racener did too.
2010 World Series of Poker
Joseph Cheong has done a great job chipping up all day. On the bubble of the November Nine, he's at it again. Sitting in the big blind, he called a raise to 675,000 made by button-player Soi Nguyen. Cheong checked a flop of to Nguyen. Nguyen bet 900,000. After a few momements, Cheong check-raised that bet to 2.25 million. There was no further action; Nguyen folded and Cheong collected the pot.
We've had a few raise-it-and-take-it hands. The most exciting of them was the last, in which Brandon Steven open-shoved for about 3.6 million. Nobody wanted to try to take him out.
The gallery became quite still on the very first hand of play. Michael Mizrachi raised the small blind to 900,000 pre-flop and was called by Matthew Jarvis from the big blind. Mizrachi checked the flop to Jarvis, who made a bet. Mizrachi then check-raised that bet to 2.5 million. Jarvis took about a minute before mucking his cards. Mizrachi's gallery thundered their approval.
Jack Effel picked up the mic for what is likely to be the last time during play this July.
"Ladies and gentleman, welcome back to the World Series of Poker Main Event!" Effel was met with rousing applause from the packed gallery.
"The play from ten players down to nine will probably be some of the most exciting poker you'll watch in your entire life. The next couple of hours - or however long it takes - will be intense."
Effel then turned his attention to the players at the table. "You guys played pretty hard from 7,319 down to 10. Whoever gets knocked out, I wish all of you the best of luck. It could go any way, it could be anybody's game. Best of luck!"
Effel passed the mic over to "Rockin" Robbie Thompson. Thompson introduced each of the ten players by name and chip count (Michael Mizrachi got the loudest ovation). Thompson then instructed his dealer to shuffle up and deal.
Cards are in the air. 79 minutes remain in the level. The blinds are 150,000 and 300,000 with an ante of 40,000. One elimination to go!
Seat 1: Jason Senti (12,495,000)
Seat 2: Joseph Cheong (39,305,000)
Seat 3: John Dolan (24,550,000)
Seat 4: Jonathan Duhamel (49,350,000)
Seat 5: Brandon Steven (3,305,000)
Seat 6: Michael Mizrachi (7,780,000)
Seat 7: Matthew Jarvis (20,075,000)
Seat 8: John Racener (32,625,000)
Seat 9: Filippo Candio (13,260,000)
Seat 10: Soi Nguyen (17,415,000)
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
Jonathan Duhamel |
49,350,000
-850,000
|
-850,000 |
Joseph Cheong |
39,305,000
-695,000
|
-695,000 |
|
||
John Racener |
32,625,000
2,525,000
|
2,525,000 |
|
||
John Dolan |
24,550,000
-150,000
|
-150,000 |
Matthew Jarvis |
20,075,000
-2,460,000
|
-2,460,000 |
Soi Nguyen |
17,415,000
1,015,000
|
1,015,000 |
Filippo Candio |
13,260,000
1,340,000
|
1,340,000 |
Jason Senti |
12,495,000
310,000
|
310,000 |
Michael Mizrachi |
7,780,000
-1,020,000
|
-1,020,000 |
|
||
Brandon Steven |
3,305,000
-1,345,000
|
-1,345,000 |
After a seeming eternity of small pots, the outer table became a hub of activity as Jonathan Duhamel opened to 750,000. Pascal LeFrancois had the button and called that raise. Joseph Cheong then re-raised the small blind to 2.55 million, inducing a fold from Duhamel. LeFrancois must have smelled a squeeze, because he pushed all in. Cheong quickly called with , and was looking good against LeFrancois' . A jack on the flop, , surely gave Cheong a moment of discomfort, but it passed when the turn came to give Cheong an unbeatable hand. The ended LeFrancois' tournament in 11th place.
We're now on a break to set up the "last" table of 10 players. This is the November Nine bubble!
Brandon Steven raised to 775,000, and he was called by John Racener in the blinds.
The two men went to a flop of , and it went check-check. The action repeated with two more checks on the turn. The river drew a leading bet of 1.1 million from Racener. Steven quickly called, but those chips were not coming back to him. Racener showed king-jack, and kings up earned him the pot and set Steven all the way down to 2.695 million once again.
Steven shoved the next hand to earn the blinds and antes and grab a few of those lost chips back. Still, he's got a lot of work to do.
In between hands, TD Robbie took a few seconds to recognize a truly noteworthy accomplishment this year.
"For the first time in history," Robbie said, "four brothers cashed in the Main Event... Let's give it up for the Mizrachis!"
A thunderous ovation followed, and Robbie introduced the three brothers in the stands to the crowd. Eric, Robert, and Danny are the most interested of the onlookers here today, sweating brother Michael as he attempts to pull off one of the more impressive feats in the history of poker.