WSOP: November Nine Down to Final Two Players

Lance Bradley | November 10, 2008

Ivan Demidov and Peter Eastgate have survived. There were seven others though that weren’t so lucky.

The November Nine gathered at the Penn & Teller Theatre inside the Rio Sunday to play down to the final two players and the way it all unfolded has to have made ESPN producers extremely happy as they quickly put together the show for the Tuesday night broadcast.

The day started off with the theatre being packed with over 300 of Dennis Phillips’ supporters, all dressed identical to the chip leader; red St. Louis Cardinals cap and a white dress shirt decorated with sponsors logo. Jerry Yang ended his year and a bit as World Champion and ambassador with the “shuffled up and deal call”. After all the festivities were out of the way and everybody was seated here’s how the seven eliminations went down to leave Demidov and Eastgate to play for the $9 million first place prize.

Off the Marquis

Phil Hellmuth can breathe a little easier. Craig Marquis, one of two players who were in the running to break Hellmuth’s record for youngest ever Main Event champion was eliminated in ninth place at the hands of Scott Montgomery.

Marquis moved all-in with pocket sevens and was called by Montgomery holding A-Q. The flop delivered good news for both with Marquis making a set and Montgomery catching his ace. But the turn and river delivered a nasty dose of fate for Marquis as Montgomery caught a jack and a king to make a runner-runner straight.

“When you flop a set, you expect to win the hand,” said Marquis afterwards. “That was certainly unfortunate for me, but that’s why we play this game.”

The elimination sent Kelly Kim’s supporters into a frenzy as the desperately short-stacked Kim moved one spot up the payscale. It also sent Marquis back to Texas with nothing to show for the 117-day long delay.

Kelly Kim KO’d

Kelly Kim was supposed to go out first. Members of the media were betting on how many hands he’d last and some had the line set at as few as 15 hands. But Kim showed extreme patience and waited for his opportunity.

“I just wanted to wait and wait and wait as long as I could,” said Kim. “Every hand you wait and survive there’s a better chance to sneak up.”

On the first hand of the night Kim moved all-in and found no callers. He then waited and waited for an opportunity to double up again, but in the process let his stack get as low as 2.5 big blinds. On his exit hand though Kim had all but his last 150,000 committed to the pot. When action came to him he moved all-in and got calls from Ivan Demidov, Ylon Schwartz and Darus Suharto to call. With all those callers Kim simply mucked his hand when the river card was dealt and walked away.

The crowd though wanted to pay tribute to Kim’s perseverance and gave the 31-year-old a standing ovation. The support, which was led by the army of supporters here for Dennis Phillips, lasted more than 30 seconds as Kim exited the stage.

“The support was awesome. I’m glad I was able to win that one hand to give them something to cheer about.”

With an eighth place finish Kim’s given them more to cheer for - about $380,000 worth

Rheem’d Out

Bad beats are a part of poker. Sometimes you win them; sometimes you get to dish them out. For David “Chino” Rheem today was not his day to dish them out.

After moving all-in with ace-king and inducing a call from Darus Suharto with ace-queen, Rheem had to watch in horror as a queen hit the flop. When the turn and river came out with blanks Rheem’s dream of becoming World Champion was dead. Understandably, he wasn’t in the best of moods as he left the Penn & Teller theatre.

“How do you think I feel right now? Seriously, not to be rude, I put my heart into it,” Rheem said when asked to describe his mood. “My heart is broken right now. I feel like shit. You can quote me on that. I feel like shit.”

When he wakes up in the morning he’ll discover he’s got $1.7 million to console himself with. Given the number of poker pros in attendance to support Rheem, he’ll probably be using some of that to throw a party.

No More Canucks

In a shocking development for Canadian poker fans both Darus Suharto and Scott Montgomery have been eliminated from the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.

Suharto was actually eliminated at the hands of Montgomery in a rare display of Canuck-on-Canuck violence. After Montgomery opened the pot with a raise Suharto moved all-in for 8.55 million from the button and Montgomery thought momentarily before calling. Suharto sheepishly turned up A-8 and grimaced when Montgomery showed A-Q. The flop brought three spades and with Montgomery holding the As it eliminated one out for Suharto. The 4s on the turn ended the drama and Suharto was out in sixth place.

“I can’t lie. I feel pretty disappointed,” said Suharto, who plans to return to his job as an accountant before deciding on his future poker goals.

Only 14 hands later, after losing 80% of his stack to Ivan Demidov, Montgomery was eliminated by a one-outer. Peter Eastgate opened with a raise to 1.25 million and Montgomery moved all-in. Eastgate called and tabled pocket sixes while Montgomery showed Ad-3d. The flop brought an ace for Montgomery and the turn brought another one.

With the dealer waiting for the go-ahead to deal the final card Phillips mentioned that he’d folded the 6c. That seemed to tempt fate and the case six fell on the river to fill up Eastgate and send Montgomery to the rail with his fellow Canadian.

“I was behind when I got it all-in, so I don’t consider that a bad beat,” said Montgomery. “I certainly wanted to finish better that fifth.”

Ylon? He Gone.

The chess player from New York that made his way to the final table of poker biggest tournament is on his way back to NYC.

Ylon Schwartz, who started the day in fifth place with 12.525 million, was eliminated by Peter Eastgate in fourth place, earning $3,774,974. After seeing a flop of Kh-8h-2s both players checked. The Kd on the turn enticed a bet from Eastgate and a call from Schwartz. The 5d on the turn saw Schwartz check-raise all-in. After some time Eastgate made the call and showed pocket fives for a rivered full house.

When the tournament went on break in July, the 38-year-old had threatened to simply run away and hide. He did just that after busting out and completing his ESPN interview, leaving a number of poker media without a chance to speak to the man many of them had picked to win it all.

The elimination of Schwartz left Peter Eastgate, Ivan Demidov and fan favorite Dennis Phillips all vying for the $9 million first place prize and WSOP gold bracelet.

Disband the Army

Dennis Phillips came to the final table of the WSOP as the chip leader. The red cap he wore may as well have served as a target on his head. Everybody was gunning for him.

To say that he had an up and down day Sunday would be a bit of an understatement. He was one of the more active players earlier but spent most of his time shipping chips to his opponents. If not for a lucky double-up with AQ vs. QQ in the early evening, Phillips’ story would have been one of a monumental collapse. But finishing third meant that Phillips fun ride was over - and enjoyed every second of it.

“I came in here telling you I was gonna have fun, and I guarantee you, I had fun,” said Phillips, smiling after busting out just short of the heads-up session for the bracelet. “

Phillips walks away with $4.5 million and guaranteed all the media he’d be back at work very soon.

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