In this section World Series Life takes the liberty of indulging in WSOP action past and present; reliving the highs and lows of WSOP events gone by and predicting the outcomes of WSOP tournaments to come. Join us as we take a trip down memory lane…

A milestone WSOP: 2009

The 40th annual WSOP or World Series of Poker happened in 2009 and was held at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The tournament ran from May 27 to July 15. Fifty-seven bracelet events were held. The November Nine or the nine finalists of the Main Event ($10,000 No- Limit Hold’em Poker) returned on November 7.

On 2009, the player turnout reached almost 6,500, the exact number being 6,494. This was a considerable number of participants but is still beyond the record the year 2006 had set, wherein 8,773 poker players joined to compete in the WSOP. That’s what a global recession will do for you!

New media, more hype
Contrary to the number of players, the media hype on WSOP has increased. For the first time, poker fans had the opportunity to talk daily with their favorite poker players as well as their favorite ESPN columnists. Every day, a poker chat was hosted, which focused on the action of the 2009 World Series of Poker. Television broadcast as well as blogs and pod casts had been made in order to give the audience updates on the events of the WSOP.

2009 November Nine
Out of the 6,494 players, seven poker players from the United States and two from Europe competed as finalists of the Main Event. The November Nine included Darvin Moon, Eric Buchman, Steven Begleiter, Jeff Schulman, Joe Cada, Kevin Schaffel, Phil Ivey, Antoine Saout, and James Akenhead, with Moon initially leading the rankings. Moon, a newcomer and a logger from Maryland, held 58,930,000 in chips.

The year 2009’s November Nine included some of the best poker players at present. The favorite pick among commentators and sports enthusiasts has almost always been Phil Ivey. Some say that it was in this year’s competition where Ivey was able to show his best, gathering two bracelets during the six weeks of preliminary tournaments. Some concluded that last year’s was the strongest Main Event final tables of the past few years, having in the November Nine professional players such as Ivey, Akenhead and Shulman (Editor of CardPlayer Magazine). However, they were not able to foresee that none of the crowd favorites and the poker professionals would win the title as World Poker Champion.

WSOP’s dark horses
Two seemingly underrated players among the professional finalists contended for the said title. Darwin Moon, who held the chip lead, was really an amateur player. He does not have any documented cashes in any tournaments, live or online. He was just a recreational player, having played poker for only three years. In fact, he said that the only reason he got into playing poker was because he got too fat to play softball, which was his original sport.

Joe Cada, on the other hand, was not an amateur player. In the past, he has already played 16 World Series of Poker events and has been able to win a total of $500,000. However, the WSOP Main Event final table is the biggest score Cada has ever achieved. In addition to that, Cada held the record for being the youngest player to reach the November final table.

By November, Cada had another record. He now holds the record of being the youngest World Poker Champion. He was able to defeat Moon in the Main Event. That was the longest heads-up battle in history, lasting over three hours.