It took 28 hands to bust the first player among the November Nine.
That happened when Soi Nguyen, from Santa Ana, CA was dealt and lost the biggest race of his life against Joseph Senti’s . He was basically in a coin-flop situation, holding two overcards against a pair. But the flop made things much worse, as the board came . Senti flopped a set of queens. However, Nguyen still had four outs with an inside straight draw. A jack would give him the pot and put him right back in the race for the world championship.
Unfortunately for Nguyen, the deck did not bring a much-needed miracle. The and gave the 15 million pot to Senti and made Nguyen first elimination at the final table.
Nguyen, who enjoyed his first major tournament cash ever in this event, collected $811,823 in prize money for ninth place.
“Back to my real world, I guess,” Nguyen replied when asked what’s next for the 37-year-old salesman who works in medical supplies. “I want to thank all the people who supported me. The last four months have been really crazy and I would not have made it this far without them….it’s been the greatest four months of my life. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.”
As of 2:30 pm PST, the current chip leader remains Jonathan Duhamel, from Quebec.
Play will continue all day and night until only two players remain. Heads-up play will resume on Monday, November 8th at 8 pm PST when the final two will play down to a winner. Coverage of the final table will air in a two-hour telecast on Tuesday at 10 pm ET on ESPN.
The winner of this year’s Main Event, the second largest in the 40-year history of the WSOP with 7,319 entrants, will take home $8,944,310 in prize money and the most coveted token of achievement in all of poker, the World Series of Poker Main Event Championship Bracelet.
Who will win? Keep it here for all the latest news, chip counts and photos from the finale to find out and be sure to tune in to ESPN’s telecast on Tuesday at 10 PM ET to see how it all unfolded.