Phil Ivey Headlines the Main Event Final Table

Poker News - July 16, 2009 - Written by Bruce

Poker great Phil Ivey has made it through a field of 6,494 players and reached the Main Event Final Table. Ivey is widely considered to be one of the top poker players in the world. When the WSOP Main Event started nearly two weeks ago even Ivey would tell you that it would it be quite a feat to make it down to the final nine players. The Main Event is the biggest poker tournament in the world and the one that all poker pros want to win the most. If you asked the all the top poker players to pick the best poker player in the world, Ivey would be the name that came up the most. Him making the final table is absolutely incredible. The final table players, known as the November Nine, will come back and resume play on November 7th. Over the nearly four month break there will be quite a buzz surrounding the anticipation of Phil Ivey at the final table.

Over the years Ivey has had great success in the Main Event finishing in the top 25 four times now since 2002. He routinely plays in the biggest cash games in the world and is no doubt one of the top cash game players. Even though he doesn't play tournaments as much as some other poker pros he still has had incredible results. Phil has already won two world series events this year giving him seven for his career. That is the 6th most ever won in world series history. He also has eight World Poker Tour final tables and one victory winning the LA Poker Classic in February 2008. He won nearly $1.6 million and his 8th final table is the most by anyone in WPT history. He has won over $12 million in tournaments including this year's performance. All of the players who have made this year's final table are guaranteed to make at least $1.2 million.

Ivey will be the person everyone is talking about for the next four months. He is currently in 8th place with almost ten million in chips. He is well behind the current chip leader Darvin Moon who has a huge stack with just under 59 million in chips. Moon is well ahead the second largest stack which belongs to Eric Buchman who has a chip stack of almost 35 million. Even though he is starting out as one of the shortest chip stacks Ivey definitely has a chance to win with only nine players left. It has been an amazing run so far for Phil Ivey but we will have to wait until November to find out if he can win his first World Series Main Event.