Final table has international flavor
By Andrew Scott, MSNBC.com contributor
Posted July 17, 6 a.m. ET At first it was just a dream. With 6,358 people in the starting lineup, winning the main event of the World Series of Poker couldn’t be anything other than a dream, even for the absolute best of the best — even for the 19 former winners of the event that were in the field. But for these nine men remaining, the dream stage is long past, and each and every one of them can smell victory. They have now made the final table, a very special club comprising nine very special men, who have already endured a grueling 60 hours of intense poker just to be here. Earlier the event had a carnival atmosphere, with the field sprinkled with a heavy dose of hopeful poker amateurs, a handful of pretty female players, and some celebrities like Seinfeld star Jason Alexander, comedian and TV star Norm Macdonald and Tobey Macguire from the recent Spider-Man movies. But that carnival atmosphere is now long gone. The celebrities are gone. The amateurs are gone. The last woman was knocked out in 38th place. All that is left is the bedrock. The really tough nuts to crack. Of the nine still alive, six describe themselves as poker professionals, and two others have already experienced considerable major tournament success. | |
Jon Kalmar (AP megasports) 
On Day 1 of the event (actually held over four days due to the enormous size of the field), each of these nine men began with a starting stack of a mere 20,000 in chips. That seems like a long, long time ago. Now, at Day 7, even the man currently coming last has more than 6 million in chips. By the time the dust settles sometime Tuesday night (or perhaps in the wee hours of Wednesday morning), one man will have the entire 127 million chips in play. He will be crowned World Champion of Poker for the next year and claim the first prize of $8,250,000.
Already $37,765,053 has been awarded in prize money to those who placed 10th through 621st. But the serious money will go to the final table. Their prize money will be:
Winner: $8,250,000
Runner-up: $4,840,981
3rd: $3,048,025
4th: $1,852,721
5th: $1,255,069
6th: $956,243
7th: $705,229
8th: $585,699
9th: $525,934
With the winner receiving more than fifteen times the ninth placed finisher, Tuesday's final table will most likely be the highest stakes poker these nine men will ever play in their life. The famous cry of “shuffle up and deal!” will start the action at noon Las Vegas time.
Many hours later, there will be one last man standing, and his victory will be the catalyst for a year’s worth of corporate sponsorship, publicity tours, countless interviews, lucrative endorsements and serious TV time in the world’s major poker tournaments. It is the dream of every poker player, from the battle-hardened pros to the amateur recreational players who try to qualify for the $10,000 buy-in event by winning cheap online tournaments.
With its world-wide popularity boom over the last few years, poker is no longer just a great American pastime, but a global phenomenon. More than half the final table are from overseas. Along with the four Americans, there is a Vietnamese-born Canadian, an Englishmen, a Dane living in the UK, a Russian and a South African.
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