The November Nine Viewer's Guide
We’re halfway through the four month wait for the final table of the WSOP Main Event and the November Nine are now making their initial appearances on ESPN and are about to enter your world as poker superstars. All nine have a shot at the $8.5 million first-place prize, the bracelet, and the spot in poker history but each of the nine is unique in where they come from, how they got to the WSOP and what they plan to do until November.
While last year’s group included a Russian, a Dane, and two Canadians, seven of this year’s nine are American and the only two European players, Antoine Saout and James Akenhead, sit in eighth and ninth respectively. Of course, that doesn’t mean you should count them out, but rather get to know them better.
Whether it’s the logger from Maryland and his massive chip lead, the poker pro and his love of the gamble, the magazine editor and his look-at-me plans for the bracelet, or the Englishman who’s just happy to still have chips, the 2009 November Nine gives everybody somebody to pull for and potentially somebody to cheer against.
Ladies and Gentlemen, your November Nine...
1. Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
It’s fitting that his last name is Moon. Just like the moon landing, the story of this year’s chip leader is almost too good to be true. He’s a 45-year-old self-employed logger from Maryland. Truck salesman Dennis Phillips was last year’s everyman and Moon appears to be the 2009 version. He won his way into the event via a satellite and as poker fans get to know him via the ESPN broadcasts they’ll learn one thing: the guy only plays the nuts.
While TV coverage may show more from Moon than aces, kings, and sometimes even queens it seemed that every time he got into a pot it was with one of two hands. Throughout the final three days of play in July, Moon was a superhuman card rack. The big challenge for him come November will be whether or not he’s capable of playing when the deck turns cold on him.
Moon also might be known for being the only member of the November Nine to forego the process of hiring an agent and eschewing a lucrative online poker endorsement deal. Moon told anybody that wanted to talk about representing him that he wasn’t interested and intended on returning to his logging business as quickly as he could get out of Vegas.
2. Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
All the talk surrounding the November Nine has centered on Darvin Moon and his impressive chip lead and a certain well-known poker pro that we’ll get to in a minute here. However, sitting quietly in second place is Valley Stream, NY’s Eric Buchman with nearly 35 million in chips.
Buchman is a professional poker player, having made his living playing cards for the last eight years, and this isn’t his first time at a WSOP final table. Earlier this summer the 28-year-old finished sixth in the $2,500 Omaha/Seven-Card Stud Eight-or-Better event and in 2006 he finished runner-up in a $1,500 Limit Hold’em event.
With lifetime earnings of $892,234 Buchman is a threat to be recognized at the top of the leader board. His resume includes a win in 2004 at the New England Poker Classic and a runner-up finish at a WSOP Circuit event in Atlantic City in late 2007. With the attention squarely on Moon and Phil Ivey, he may just be in the best spot possible for a bracelet run.
“I’m not going to get emotional because it’s not my style. If I win a big hand to survive, I’ll be happy,” says Buchman. “I know what reality is and I could have gotten knocked out of this tournament. If that happened, I would have been disappointed.”
3.Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
It might be hard not to cheer for a guy who recently lost his job and now has a chance at winning $8.5 million. But when you find out he was an executive at the now-collapsed Bear Stearns that might temper your enthusiasm just a little bit. Begleiter, 47, worked with the investment firm as Senior Managing Director and served as a member of the Management and Compensation Committee. He’s now moved on to working with another investment firm but there are a few of his buddies back home who are more concerned with their investment in him. Begleiter qualified for the WSOP by winning a poker league amongst his friends back home and everybody in the league has a piece of his action.
Despite having dealt with large amounts of money and high risk in his daily routine, Begleiter was completely shocked to make the final table back in July.
“I’m numb. I’m glad it’s over,” said Begleiter after making the November Nine. “ I feel like a little boy on Christmas morning.”
The New Yorker feels his experience and the high pressure situations he’s dealt with his whole career have helped thus far and hopes he’ll continue to feel that way in November.
“Surprisingly I was very calm and able to play my game the entire time. I thought I might get nervous but I’ve been in a lot of pressure situations in my life and I was able to play my game.”
4. Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
Every poker player in the world dreams of winning the WSOP Main Event and most will even tell you they have special plans for the bracelet. They’ll get it put in a special display case armed with an onlyin- jewelry-heist-movies style alarm system. Or they’ll wear it everywhere, even rocking it while doing household chores like dishes or mowing the lawn. Shulman has plans for the bracelet too if he wins it. He’s going to chuck it in the garbage. That’s not a typo. Shulman, a part owner of CardPlayer Media, plans to renounce the bracelet by throwing it in the garbage. Apparently Shulman is upset with Harrah’s and their handling of various WSOP related items related to the rake and media policies. Ironically, Shulman was the editor of CardPlayer when they signed the initial exclusive media rights partnership with Harrah’s in 2006.
Shulman finished 7th in the Main Event in 2000 after entering the final table with the chip lead and he’s considered a wellestablished player with a strong resume.
As the number of players left in the field dwindled Shulman never had the chip lead but was always near the top. Rather than open up pot after pot in hopes of accumulating chips, Shulman picked his spots and when there were only two tables left to play he began making moves and building his stack.
Shulman, 34 years old, is in contention to win his first bracelet but there are many in the poker world who can’t help but cheer against him.
5. Joseph Cada – 13,215,000
Peter Eastgate broke Phil Hellmuth’s record last year for youngest Main Event champion in history. If Joseph Cada overcomes the other eight players at the final table he’ll claim that record as his own. Hellmuth won it as a 24-year-old and Eastgate was 22 when he captured the bracelet, but Cada’s only 21 years old.
Known in the online poker world as “jcada99”, the Michigan resident actually began playing on PartyPoker as a 15-year-old with his brother Jerome. He’s still on cloud nine after making the Main Event final table in his first try and with so much time off between July and November he plans to go back to working on his game online and hopes to learn as much as he can about his opponents by watching the ESPN broadcasts.
“I’m always willing to learn more about poker, I’ll probably look over some of the players and play a little poker here and there,” said Cada in July. “I don’t know what to say, this is a dream come true.” Cada has already had his share of big wins in the online world having taken down Full Tilt Poker’s $750,000 Guarantee. He’s also surrounded by poker playing friends who he can look to for insight as the final table nears including last year’s November Nine bubble boy Dean Hamrick.
6. Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
If you’re looking for somebody to cheer for come November, then 51-year-old Kevin Schaffel might be your guy. A little over a year ago the father of two made a tough decision to close the doors on his family business and look for a new challenge. The reason he might not be the guy that you cheer for? Well, he’s been helping to fill your mailbox with junk mail for the better part of thirty years. Schaffel’s business was built around the direct mail industry and when things started to turn last February he shut the family business down, ending his 31 years at the helm. But don’t take him as just some amateur hack that ran hot to get where he is; he’s had some live tournament success before. He’s been playing poker for forty years and in 2008 he finished 324th in the WSOP Main Event.
“I thought I would at least make my money back, but the final table?” said Schaffel, “That is a different story. This is a big bonus.”
Before returning to the felt in November though, Schaffel’s going to take some time to work on his golf game. And that might give some poker fans another reason to half-heartedly root against him – he’s already a scratch golfer.
7. Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Okay, finally somebody you’ve heard of and seen on TV before. Ivey scored two bracelets earlier in the Series and is considered by most to be the best all-around poker player alive today. He also has a propensity for placing and winning side bets. Doyle Brunson said in 2008 that he thought Phil Ivey might be the greatest gambler alive. With 2,400 players left in the Main Event, Ivey asked Andy Bloch to put odds on him winning the whole thing. Bloch gave Ivey a price of 99-1 and Ivey quickly made a $20,000 wager with Bloch. That’s right. On top of the $8.5 million first place prize Ivey would receive should he win the whole thing, he’ll get an additional $1.98 million from Bloch.
Ivey spent the last three days of the Main Event teasing poker fans around the world by hovering near the chip lead and remaining in contention as other big name pros fell to the wayside. When the last day of play in July began he was third in chips behind only Moon and Billy Kopp. Rather than change his style and tighten up to make the November Nine, Ivey was extremely aggressive and found himself short midway through the day. However he buckled down and showed the world-class skill he’s respected for, navigating his way to the final table.
The money is nice, but Phil Ivey has plenty of that. What he really wants to do is win everything he can, and now he’s this close to a title and bracelet that most pros now consider too elusive due to ridiculously large field sizes.
8. Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
At one point it looked like the final table would feature three players from France, but after Bertrand Grospellier imploded and Ludovic Lacay was eliminated in sixteenth it was up to Antoine Saout, the online qualifier.
Saout will have his work cut out for him starting the final table eighth in chips and the 25-year-old is well aware that an entire nation is pulling for him.
“There will be a lot of media attention when I get back to France, so I am going to have to deal with that,” said Saout moments after the November Nine broke for the summer. “I feel good. I was just hoping to make the top one hundred.”
That media attention, and the fact he could become the first French player to win the world title, got him a sponsorship from Everest Poker, the site he qualified for the Main Event with. He doesn’t plan on resting on his laurels during the break though and will be playing on the European Poker Tour and will be in the field later this month at the WSOP Europe in London.
Many European poker observers believe that should Saout come all the way back to take down the biggest tournament of the year he’ll set off a Moneymaker-style boom in France.
9. James Akenhead – 6,800,000
Now playing the part of Kelly Kim is 26-year-old English poker pro James Akenhead. Sure, when Jordan Smith went out in the tenth spot every player was smiling from ear to ear, but nobody was smiling more than Akenhead. He’s the short stack, but he’s just happy to be here and still thinks he’s got a shot to make some noise.
“I guess my life has changed. I just can’t believe it. To make it to the final is just unbelievable,” said Akenhead. “I was short stacked at ten, short stacked at fourteen. To make the last nine is just a dream come true to be honest. I didn’t have many chips.”
It was only last summer that Akenhead made the final table of a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event and got his heart broken by Grant Hinkle. Akenhead and Hinkle were heads-up for the bracelet when the young Brit was dealt ace-king and was facing a raise from Hinkle. Akenhead reraised and Hinkle moved all in with 10♦ 4♦. Akenhead snap called and watched in horror as the flop came 10♥ 10♠ 4♥. He then took another kick in junk when the 10♣ fell on the turn. Now Akenhead is at the final table of the Main Event and ready for another shot, this time with really nothing to lose.
“I’ll play the WSOP Europe, but just take it easy besides that. I’m going to focus a lot on tactics for the final. I’m short stacked and I need some sort of game plan. I’ll get some practice there.”
