Antonio Esfandiari had a solid day on Monday and plans on doing his best on Tuesday to make a November Nine run possible.

Poker fans had a little bit of good news and a little bit of bad news on Monday, Day 6 of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. Which do you want first?

The bad news is that some of the most well known players in the field were sent home and denied a shot at the limelight that comes with being in the November Nine. The good news though is that two big names made huge strides on Monday to finish in the top ten in chips and with 64 players remaining are in good shape for an even deeper run.

Seeing their Main Event end in disappointing fashion were JC Tran, Theo Tran, Jordan Morgan, David Benyamine, Hac Dang and the current #1 ranked tournament player in the world, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier. If that list of top pros has poker fans disappointed they need not worry – both Phil Ivey and Antonio Esfandiari had very strong days and each finished near the top of the leaderboard.

“Determination and will. I have both and I’m going to get there,” said Esfandiari of what it’s going to take for him to make an even deeper run.

Other well known players still in the mix are 2007 WSOP Player of the Year Tom Schneider, Fabrice Soulier, original November Niner Dennis Phillips and Prahlad Friedman. Making the most of a short stack the entire day was Joe Sebok who finished with exactly 1,000,000 in chips.

“I don’t even know what’s going on in this tournament anymore. I should have been a hundred times in a hundred different ways,” laughed Sebok, who was down as low as 125,000 on Monday. “If you can’t be patient, if you can not work a short stack, if you can not deal with some of your issues in the poker world when it comes to that stuff in the Main Event at the World Series of Poker you have no business being here.”

The last two remaining world champions both saw their respective runs come to an end on Monday. Joe Hachem busted in 103rd spot for $40,288 and defending champion Peter Eastgate finished 78th for $68,979. Eastgate moved all-in preflop with A J and got called by both Dennis Phillips and Billy Kopp. The board ran out A 4 6 J 3 giving Eastgate two pair but Kopp showed 8 8 for a completed flush.

“Obviously this exceeds all expectations, but you still feel some disappointment when you bust out,” said Eastgate. “That’s how it goes in poker sometimes. I can’t be disappointed though having won last year.”

Sitting atop the leaderboard at the end of the night was Darvin Moon. The logger from Maryland finished with 9,745,000. He’s joined in the top five by Billy Kopp (8,245,000), Ivey (6,345,000), Steven Begleiter (6,315,000) and Ludovic Lacay (5,965,000).

“It’s easy to play when you get hands like I was getting. To run like this is a dream. To get pocket aces and flop trips on a rainbow flop – you check it and people bet into you,” said Moon at the end of the night. ”The first 5 hours I didn’t get a hand. I had pocket kings one time and a guy pushed over the top of me for three quarters of a million and I mucked them. He’s got to have pocket Aces there, what else can he have?”

“That’s just my style, I play tight. When I get’em I bet and when I don’t I fold.”

The title of Last Woman Standing was awarded to Leo Margets of Barcelona after Nichoel Peppe was eliminated in 75th place. Margets is excited to have gotten this for and takes pride in being the last female player still playing for poker’s biggest prize.

“Yeah it is my first Main Event, but I’ve played the best poker I can and I’ve been super consitent and I’ve actually never played so good,” said Margets. ”At least it has been working, because sometimes you can play good and it doesn’t work and in this tournament it’s been working. I can really see the results and it’s very satisfying.”

Day 7 gets underway again at Noon PT and play will continue until 27 players remain. BluffMagazine.com will have the live updates and chip counts to let you follow the action live.

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