Another Niner Down
by Court on 09.26.09, 2:52 pm
For Steven Begleiter his November Nine fame garners a lot of attention for him in the interim between making the final table of the WSOP Main Event and the conclusion of that tournament in November. For another member of the November Nine, making the final table hasn’t done much to increase the media attention on him, but only because he was already the most sought after player in poker. Everywhere he goes people want to know what is going on with Phil Ivey, who is less than overly interested in being at the forefront of every poker media entities attentions.
Ivey was seated with his back to the opening of the upstairs room that hosts a secondary featured table along with two other tables and a crowd filled the area outside the room, though with the ropes, security guards and massage girls always between them and Ivey it is doubtful they ever saw much, but just being within feet of Ivey seemed to make them happy. After a short stint at the tables Ivey was eliminated and his seat has been filled by Jason “treysfull21″ Mercier who is one of the healthier stacks so far with around 120k.
A nowhere near all inclusive pass through the room just before the end of the level puts Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar at the top of the chip counts with around 140k. Aguiar was able to pick up a decent pot late in the level when his pocket kings help up against pocket queens on a 9-6-4-7-5 board. Aguiar bet 6,550 on the turn and was called but when the action was checked to him on the river he checked behind. Immediately following that hand he lost a small pot where he raised preflop and was called in two spots. After everyone checked the T
9
7 flop the Q hit the turn and when it was checked to him Aguiar bet 2,300 and both players called. The A on the river made a flush for the player first to act but as the ESPN crews rushed over to try to get some footage of Aguiar in a hand no more chips went into the pot and the flush showed down as the best hand and the other players mucked before the camera crews could get set.
After 4 levels of play the tournament is on dinner break, giving the players 90 minutes to wander out into London and find somewhere to eat. They will return to play the 200 / 400 50 ante blind level after break and then conclude the night with the 250 / 500 50 ante level.
Those that won’t be coming back after dinner incluse Steven “Stevie444″ Chidwick (right) and Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen who both seem to have been eliminated from the tournament in the last bit of play. Of the roughly 155 players that entered the action today somewhere around 40 have been eliminated and a few tables have been broken from play creating a little more space to move around some areas of the casino. The breaking order seems to be leaving a couple tables here and there in certain areas instead of crowding everyone by clearing out an area at a time. Or, as it seemed last year, the table numbering and / or breaking order is fairly random and just happens to be working out well. Actually, the best bet would be on a well thought out plan for breaking tables that is just not immediately obvious to those walking around the room.
Nadeem “deemer6″ Riaz doubled up just before dinner break and will be coming back with 48k after his pocket jacks won against pocket sixes. The sixes made a set but a four flush for the jacks still sent the pot to Riaz in the end.
Joe “ender555″ Ebanks, Ben “MilkyBarKid” Grundy, Markus “LURPED” Gonsalves and Scott “R_A_Y” Montgomery all look to have made it through the first 4 levels of play and will be coming back for after dinner action along with Christian “charder” Harder who 20 minutes of so before the break had chipped up to 25k and was much healtheir than his earlier 10k stack.
