Eyes on the Prize... Day 8 Awaits
The long summer of poker comes to an end today. Fifty-seven bracelets have been awarded. One -- the most coveted at all -- remains up for grabs. Today 22 hopefuls continue their pursuit of poker's greatest prize, the World Series of Poker Main Event bracelet.
Ukraine's Anton Makievskyi returns to the biggest stack today with more than 21 million, the majority of those chips coming to him in a massive pot with Christopher Moore near the end of Day 7 in which Makievskyi flopped a full house versus Moore's trip jacks to claim a 20-plus million chip pot.
Makievskyi is followed at the top of the counts by Eoghan O'Dea (Ireland), Khoa Nguyen (Canada), and Andrey Pateychuk (Russia). And lurking behind them is WSOP Player of the Year points leader Ben Lamb from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Lamb added significantly to his stack during the last hour of play on Day 7 to position himself well in his quest to land a spot among the November Nine.
Yesterday's Day 7 was especially fast-paced, with the field shrinking from 57 to 22 in five 120-minute levels (an average of seven knockouts per level). Eliminations will likely come at a slower clip today as players near the final nine, with other scheduling necessities related to the television coverage possibly introducing additional delays. But as we've seen time and time again all summer at this year's WSOP, trying to predict what will happen can be as hard as guessing what the next card will be.
Cards go back in the air at 12 noon Vegas time. Join us then for all the coverage as the 2011 version of the November Nine is finally determined.