Halfway Home
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Eight grueling days -- some of them with multiple flights. That's how long it takes to consolidate the richest, grandest, most prestigious poker tournament in the world from its starting field (7,319 this year) to its final November Nine. It took almost four full days just to burst the money bubble.
We passed that point yesterday, which means the 574 remaining players are only halfway home. It hasn't been easy to get this far. They've endured countless suckouts and probably sucked out once or twice themselves. They've put in 33 hours of poker to guarantee themselves $24,079. But the biggest prize of all -- a berth in the November Nine -- is a long, long way off.
When we left off last night, American-turned-Aussie-turned- American Tony Dunst had surged to the chip lead, amassing more than 1.5 million in chips. At the current limits of 3,000-6,000, that's 250 big blinds.
Dunst has the pole position, but anyone who unbags chips today has a shot at catching him. Things have a tendency to shake up after eight hours of world-class poker. We'll be there for all eight starting in about twenty minutes. Stay tuned!