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In Event 9 - the $1 500 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em competition - a final table of six players came together after 2 days of action that saw an original field of 1 459 whittled down to only 105 by the end of Day 1. Among those registered on the long entry list were aces from both the online and live poker sectors including: Jon Turner, Maria Ho, Chad Batista, Jeff Madsen, Eric Froehlich, Clonie Gowen, Joe Sebok, Jeff Williams, Justin Bonomo, Peter Eastgate, Kathy Liebert, Ivan Demidov, TJ Cloutier, Chau Giang, Men Nguyen, and Jimmy Fricke.
Celebrity player and rapper Nelly, Justin Bonomo, Kevin Saul, Jeff Madsen, and Bryan Micon were all gone by the end of the first day, and the surviving six who gathered at the final table included few easily recognisable names.
Bryce Yockey held the chip lead over opponents Ken Aldridge, Peter Gould, Charles Furey, Carman Cavella and Manny Minaya, with Praz Bansi eliminated just short of the final.
Initially it looked as if the day would belong to Yockey, but he was eliminated in fourth place by Cavella, with Aldridge coming through in a series of well played clashes to eliminate Gould and set up the heads up with Cavella.
Cavella held a 650 000 chip lead as the duo went into the heads up and early play was very cautious on both sides of the table, but eventually Aldridge's grinding style of play told and Cavella was eliminated with a $264 814 check for his time and trouble.
Ken Aldridge collected his first WSOP bracelet and the $428 259 top prize.
