WSOP: Meet the November Nine
Nine players from around the world are set to square off for poker’s biggest event
By J. Phillip Vogel
The Main Event for the 45th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship is down to its final nine players. The “November Nine” is all that remains of the massive field of 6,683 players from 87 different nations who entered poker’s biggest event seeking glory, fame and a top prize of $10 million.
The final nine players represent six countries—Brazil, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden and the United States. The players will return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino on Monday, November 10 to battle for a WSOP gold bracelet and a guaranteed first-place prize of $10,000,000, with the other eight players sharing another $18,480,121. The November Nine and their respective seat assignments and chip counts are as follows:
Billy Pappaconstantinou
Chips: 17,500,000
First time at the WSOP, the 29-year-old world foosball champion “Billy Pappas” Pappaconstantinou hails from Lowell, Massachusetts. In total, he has earned $16,379 in live poker tournaments, mainly from a $500 buy-in event at the 2010 World Poker Finals where he took eighth place and won $15,341. He is a five-time U.S. foosball champion and is a world-recognized champion in foosball hoping to add his name to the legendary list of poker World Champions.
Felix Stephensen
Chips: 32,775,000
Stephensen is a 23-year-old originally from Norway now living in London, England. This is his second year in a row playing the WSOP Main Event. He has no previous WSOP cashes and has $22,118 in career live poker earnings.
Jorryt van Hoof
Chips: 38,375,000
Van Hoof is a 31-year-old from Eindhoven, Netherlands with three previous WSOP cashes and $27,956 in earnings. Worldwide, Jorryt has won $358,580 in live poker tournaments. He has never cashed in the WSOP Main Event but he will enter the final table as the chip leader with 19.1% of the chips in play.
Mark Newhouse
Chips: 26,000,000
No stranger to the WSOP Main Event, Newhouse finished in 9th place in 2013, collecting $733,224. Newhouse becomes the first player since Dan Harrington in 2003-2004 to make back-to-back Main Event final tables. The 29-year-old Las Vegas resident has $906,093 in career WSOP earnings, with eight previous WSOP cashes. His total live poker tournament winnings are $2,776,172.
Andoni Larrabe
Chips: 22,550,000
Larrabe is a 22-year-old poker profession from London, England and is the youngest player remaining in the field. Andoni has $20,068 in career WSOP earnings via three WSOP cashes but has won a tournament in the Bahamas in 2013, good for $218,710. In total, Larrabe has $341,266 in career poker earnings.
William Tonking
Chips: 15,050,000
Tonking, from Flemington, New Jersey, came into this Main Event with $13,421 in career live poker earnings via three previous WSOP cashes. Tonking has $93,306 in live poker tournament earnings.
Daniel Sindelar
Chips: 21,200,000
Sindelar is a 30-year-old poker professional originally from Columbus, Nebraska now living in Las Vegas, who has 17 previous WSOP cashes and more than $227,791 in earnings in WSOP events. He has career earnings of $527,779.
Martin Jacobson
Chips: 14,900,000
A 27-year-old from poker professional from London, England, Jacobson enters this final table as the only one with more than $1 million in career WSOP earnings, with $1,224,706 in 15 previous cashes.
Bruno Politano
Chips: 12,125,000
The first Brazilian ever to make the WSOP Main Event final table, Politano will start play as the shortest stack remaining. The 31-year-old single Administrator plays poker as a hobby with just three cashes on his WSOP resume totaling $25,404. He has $110,054 in worldwide poker earnings.
The 2014 Main Event capped the largest-ever WSOP in terms of entrants and prize pool in the 45-year history of the event. A total of 82,360 players from 110 countries entered the 65 events on this summer’s WSOP schedule, generating a total record prize pool of $227,712,923.
