November Nine

The November Nine is set.

As you may or may not remember the final table will be played in November. These are the luckboxes who will play for immortality, and will have to stew until then.

• DENNIS PHILLIPS, 53, St. Louis, Missouri, 26,295,000• IVAN DEMIDOV, 27, Moscow, Russia, 24,400,000• SCOTT MONTGOMERY, 26, Perth, Ontario, Canada, 19,690,000• PETER EASTGATE, 22, Odense, Denmark, 18,375,000• YLON SCHWARTZ, 38, Brooklyn, New York, 12,525,000 • DARUS SUHARTO, 39, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 12,520,000• DAVID RHEEM, 28, Los Angeles, California, 10,230,000• CRAIG MARQUIS, 23, Arlington, Texas, 10,210,000• KELLY KIM, 31, Whittier, California, 2,620,000

Kelly Kim nursed his short-stacked for a couple of hours to get there. Peter Eastgate is a Scandi, Ivan Demidov a Ruskie, and Craig Marquis our "gulf coast" horse.

Some observations...
-Joe Bishop when it was eleven handed had a friend buy his table a celebratory bottle of Dom Perignon. I guess the writing was clearly on the wall, he was headed to November. Yes, you know how the moosch works... he went out 11th, two away from a HUGE payday.

-Of course he won a few hundred thousand and the difference between Ninth and Eleventh can't be that much in prize money, but the scuttlebut around the industry is these Nine are going to be drenched in advertising come November. They are at the center of bidding wars that have already started and will simmer the next few months. Harrahs and ESPN are going to make these guys stars and they are click-clicking-click up the roller coaster right now.

-One guy, a Romanian, refused to talk to the representatives of the online poker sites unless they had 500k. Course that guy, like Joe Bishop didn't make it to the nine. Nor did sweetheart Tiffany Michele, or Brandon Cantu (both who threw around their big stacks like it was monopoly money--but doing so almost got them to the final table), or Phil Hellmuth, or Mike the Mouth or really anybody you may have heard of.

-The joke on Poker Road radio was that Chino Rheem (a marginal pro, maybe) will barely be able to pay off all his debts if he wins the Main Event. Must have convinced a lot of people he could play to get that deep in the hole but... wow. I thought I knew people that were stuck but that's stuck... Having to win the main event to break even? I'm sure that's an exaggeration, but maybe not when you factor in, he probably had backers help him get into the event, so most of that prize money probably isn't headed his way. And it makes sense what little is his, could be tabbed to pay off old loans. Ouch.

-Now, the first step for the November Nine is merely to stay alive. What happens if one of these guys, say Dennis Phillips, has a heart attack (besides his family likely suing Harrahs for moving it back) what happens to his chips? Or worse, say it's like a car accident or a death that has the slightest bit of suspicion--what's that going to do for poker? Suddenly, the Russian dude is the only one left standing, do they just give him first place?

You don't think these guys are going suddenly start looking over their shoulders. You don't think they are going to get a whole new type of harrasing phone call? Supposedly, Jaime Gold had to hire body guards when he was using chips as a seat during the main event because it was a cinch he was going to be in the final two or three and likely win. Or maybe he was just being Jaime Gold. Still, that was just paranoia that started overnight (justified or not). These guys got three months to deal with this. The dude who came in 10th might be the luckiest guy of the bunch. No strings with his prize money.

-These guys haven't won anything yet, though everyone else has already been paid. I wonder if Harrahs pays out everybody what 9th place would win. To give them something to tide them over (ignoring the pandering agents seeking a logo placement). If not, how many guys are going to leverage themselves straight into debt before the final table even starts? Seems like Chino may be a candidate. Apparently, there are some denegerates (shocker, I know) that are in this batch of relative unknowns that will be forever remembered as the First November Nine.

-The November Nine... terrible alliterative name that clumsily falls off the tongue. It's no "final four." It's seems like the victims of a massacre. The Dismembered November Nine. Played near halloween. 666 people win cash, the top nine, in selling their souls to the devil (as monkey calls harrahs), get dismembered in November. Well, I guess from that perspective it's a little catchy. Everybody loves a good horror movie. To continue with the conspiracy theories, November Nine is what? 11 9? Reverse of 911. Add 9 to 11 and divide by 3 (because why not? I mean it's going to get us to an answer we want some any arbitray reason will work, because that's how conspiracy theories are formed, so ummm... three months in between July and November, so three...) and you get... 666. Duhn-Duhn-DuHHHHN.

-In a few months, we get back -to-back huge events. An Election and a WSOP final table. Let's see how the hype machine matches up... because these guys pasts are going to be disseminated just like a candidates, and likely there are some much bigger skeletons in their closets. Hell, in the Jaime Gold year, Richard Lee would have been outed as a bookmaker long before the FBI raid if the press were able to dig in his past for three months. It's inevitably we'll see a "shocking" story about one of these guys any day now.

Shocking, Skeletons, 666, Dismembered November Nine, yeah that's poker after it's been sanitized for the masses. I can't wait until somebody takes what I wrote seriously, because if I can come up with that stuff mostly in jest, I'm sure somebody will go nuts about it. Maybe the Harrahs hype machine is already on it.

Comments

Since when did Arlington,Tx become part of the Gulf Coast? Boys yall are really reaching. Get him to wear some GCP gear.
Goondingy said…
Nice comments, I like the thought process...Arlington?

BE COOL!
Anonymous said…
Is Texas a Gulf Coast state? Yes.
Do we have plenty of readers from Texas? Yes.
Do we have readers from Arlington/Dallas and points west of that? Yes.
Actually, we are going to profile a Texas home/bar game soon, so we aren't stretching too far.

On top of that Cap'n, I believe you and bubble boy have said you are from around there or further west? No?

I think the really reaching part, would be the "states bordering gulf coast states" :).

-Wild Bill
Darrell said…
bill, could you post my last blog. i can view it, but it won't post. it is entitled darock back from vegas.
darrell

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