Another almost big score for James “mig.com” Mackey who has recently commented that this has been happening to him a lot lately. Making the money, making it deep, but not quite making it to the big money. The frustration of tournament poker. At the Legends of Poker at the Bicycle Casino Mackey went away as the 11th place finisher in a tournament with a very top heavy payout structure. The full structure is available in the Blind and Payout Structures section in the left toolbar.

For finishing in 11th place Mackey will earn $32,700, a far cry from the $1 million first place prize. The elimination hand? The ultimate cooler. Mackey had pocket kings and Matt Marafioti opened for 41k in front of him with the blinds at 8k / 16k. Mackey made it 141k and Matt moved all in. Mackey called with the kings and after the board was ran out his 2nd best hand preflop was the second best hand after all was said and done, falling to Marafioti’s pocket aces.

The elimination of Mackey leaves the Legends of Poker field with only ten remaining players. They have been combined at just one table and will play down till only 6 remain. Kevin Schaffel and Steven Begleiter are the story of the tournament so far. Both are members of the November Nine and will play at the final table of the WSOP main event come November and both have a real shot at making the final table of six here. Already they are getting experience playing a final table deep in a major tournament since the action here has consolidated to one table, and the two players have spent plenty of time this tournament at the tables with each other getting a feel for how each plays. Not only that, they are also getting some experience playing against top pros such as Todd “tbt4653″ Terry, Prahlad Friedman and Toto Leonidas who all present their own unique challenges to other players at the table with them.

Final 10 Chip Counts:

• August 26, 2009 -- Marafioti Offed
• August 26, 2009 -- See You In November
• August 26, 2009 -- Clearing Space
• August 25, 2009 -- Doubling