World Series of Poker Main Event Final Table Starts

Boxing razzmatazz as November Nine vie for millions
 
The 2010 World Series of Poker final table is in full swing following a roaring, show-business start Saturday in which the individual members of the November Nine were led into the Penn & Teller theatre at the Rio in Las Vegas by scantily clad ring girls in scenes more reminiscent of a boxing tournament than a poker event.
 
Backed by a theatre full of hyped up supporters, many clad in team colours, the nine players appeared to be enjoying the spirit of the occasion.
 
Here are the chip counts and players, each of whom has already won over a million dollars for getting this far:
 
1 Jonathan Duhamel 65,975,000
 
2 John Dolan 46,250,000
 
3 Joseph Cheong 23,525,000
 
4 John Racener 19,050,000
 
5 Matthew Jarvis 16,700,000
 
6 Filippo Candio 16,400,000
 
7 Michael Mizrachi 14,450,000
 
8 Soi Nguyen 9,650,000
 
9 Jason Senti 7,625,000
 
The action started at level 36 with blinds at 250K/500K, ante at 50 000 and average stacks around 24,396,667, and the finalists got right down to business, with John Racener taking more than 6.5 million chips from John Dolan with pocket kings in the game's second hour.
 
Michael Mizrachi lined up to maul Dolan next, four-betting after he came over the top of a Jason Senti open, in a move that gave the respected Grinder more chips after both players mucked. Later Mizrachi was to take the chip lead, although he was unable to hold on to it for long.
 
Second lowest chip count when the game started, Soi Nguyen, clashed with Jason Senti in a multi-million pot and came off second best - it cost him his place at the table and he was the first elimination in an exciting final, collecting $811,823 from the cashier.
 
Level 37 saw the next casualty some two hours later, when Matt Jarvis bit the dust after clashing with Mike Mizrachi, and left the table to collect $1,045,738 for his time and trouble.
 
By late evening the intense action showed little sign of slowing down as Joseph Cheong faced off against Jason Senti and prevailed, sending a clearly surprised and a little rattled Senti to the rail and a $1,356,708 payday.
 
When we went to press around 11pm Vegas time the five-man table looked like this:
 
 
1 Joseph Cheong 69,225,000
 
2 Jonathan Duhamel 47,400,000
 
3 John Racener 42,200,000
 
4 Michael Mizrachi 32,500,000
 
5 Filippo Candio 28,275,000
 
In level 39 the blinds were 500K/1million, ante at 150,000 and average stacks were 43,914,000.
 
This year's first prize of $8,944,138 will be the third highest in WSOP history - check out the leader board of previous champions:
 
1 Jamie Gold $12,000,000
2 Peter Eastgate $9,152,416
3 Joseph Cada $8,546,435
4 Jerry Yang  $8,250,000
5 Joe Hachem  $7,500,000
6 Paul Wasicka  $6,102,499
7 Ivan Demidov  $5,809,595
8 Darvin Moon $5,182,601
9 Greg Raymer $5,000,000
10 Tuan Lam $4,840,981