The 44th Annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) has ended it’s summer business with the casting of the November Nine, and it’s the two-time bracelet holder JC Tran that leads the way with 38m chips.
6,352 players started this monster of an event. Each of them with a dream of capturing the $8,359,531 first-prize; something that only nine players remaining on this earth can now achieve after the action on Day Seven came to an end yesterday.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Barcelona runner-up, Benjamin Pollak, was the first player eliminated and it was a nasty ending for the Frenchman. Pollak calling off a shove from Maxx Coleman with pocket nines and Coleman tabled [Ac] [4c], but a rivered wheel gave Coleman his ‘one time’ and Pollak had to settle for a $285,408 payday.
Jorn Walthaus (26th) and Jason Mann (25th) both received the same amount before the wonderful journey of Steve Gee came to it’s dramatic close. Gee won a bracelet in 2010 before finishing ninth in the 2012 Main Event. He was trying to reach back-to-back final tables for the first time since Dan Harrington in 2003-2004. It’s a feat that is much tougher to do these days and it was a heroic effort. Gee eventually going with [Td] [7d] and Anton Morgenstern flopped a set of eights to send Gee over to the rail with $285,408 and change.
The Day 1B chip leader, Clement Tripodi (23rd), Ukraine sensation Yevgeniy Timoshenko (22nd), Maxx Coleman (21st), Anton Morgenstern (20th) and James Alexander (19th) all met their end to collect the remaining batches of $285,408, before we had a steep pay jump of approx. $72k.
Jan Nakladal ran his pretty little ladies into the rockets of Matthew Reed to finish in 18th place for $357,655, and Fabian Ortiz (17th) and Chris Lindh (16th) picked up the same prize. We then lost our final South American contestant as Bruno Kawauti from Brazil got extremely unfortunate when he got it all-in with pocket tens versus the pocket sevens of Rep Porter, only for a third seven to hit the flop to end the Brazilian’s hopes. Kawauti picked up $451,398 for that run and it was an amount that also went the way of Sergio Castellucio (14th) and Alexander Livingston (13th).
That lucky hand for Porter would earn him an additional $120k, as he would last until 12th place after losing a flip against Ryan Riess. Two-time bracelet winner, Porter, taking $573,204 as the payouts started to get huge. Matthew Reed was then eliminated to create our unofficial final table when he moved all-in holding [Kc] [4d] and JC Tran woke up with pocket queens.
So ten players left and just the business of crowning the November Nine bubble boy. That unfortunate honor would go to the former world champion Carlos Mortenson. The Spaniard opened to 800k in the cutoff and Tran called in the big blind. The flop was [Tc] [6c] [3s] and Tran check-called an 800k c-bet from the Spaniard. The [9c] arrived on the turn and Tran put Mortenson all-in. The Spaniard made the call with [Ac] [9h] for the pair and nut flush draw and Tran showed [8c] [7s] for the straight. The [2d] completed the action and The Matador had failed to slay his final bull and departed with $573,204 in prize money.
The 2013 WSOP November Nine
Seat 1: Sylvain Loosli – France – 19,600,000
Seat 2: Michiel Brummelhuis – Netherlands – 11,275,000
Seat 3: Mark Newhouse – USA – 7,350,000
Seat 4: Ryan Riess – USA – 25,875,000
Seat 5: Amir Lehavot – Israel – 29,700,000
Seat 6: Marc McLaughlin – Canada – 26,525,000
Seat 7: JC Tran – USA – 38,000,000
Seat 8: David Benefield – USA – 6,375,000
Seat 9: Jay Farber – USA – 25,975,000
