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phil-ivey-wsop-main-eventWe all know that Phil Ivey is a remarkable poker player, after all this is a man that has total tournament poker earnings of over $8.5m and add on top of that the mind boggling sums he will have made in cash games you then begin to understand that we are talking about one of the all-time greats of this glorious game.

Come November 7th and Ivey will face his greatest challenge to date, the battle to become the WSOP Main Event Champion.  When all is said and done its WSOP bracelets that really matter to poker players.  Listen to them talk at the table or in an interview and they will brush off the millions in prize money as a by product, it’s the glory and acclaim from their peers that these guys really crave.

Just getting to the final table is an astonishing achievement, not just for Phil Ivey but also his eight fellow members of the ‘November Nine’, all the more impressive when you consider that 6,494 paid the $10,000 buy-in.

Such a large field can prove very difficult for the bookies to judge.  Who exactly are the favourites out of 6,494?  Obviously the world renowned pros will be fancied but in a game where luck or the ‘Poker Gods’ as some would have it plays a significant part the bookies must factor this in when calculating each player’s odds of winning the WSOP main event.

That is why Phil Ivey started out at 175/1 at our sister site PartyBets.com, even then that was considered quite a short price, it could easily have been double that but because this is Phil Ivey we are talking about the odds had to be shortened.  Indeed, this proved to be a wise choice because Ivey is now down to 5/1 to take that elusive Main Event bracelet.  Any of you who were wise enough to take him at 175/1 will be rubbing your hands with glee if he does succeed.

But Ivey is up against it, he’s one of the short stacks plus he faces some very stiff competition from the likes of Brit James Akenhead, Card Player Exec Jeff Shulman and France’s Antoine Saout.  And let’s not forget chip leader Darvin Moon, the logger from Maryland, USA who won his seat from a $130 satellite tournament.  If Moon were to win his story would surely surpass 2003 champion Chris Moneymaker’s rise to poker fame.

WSOP Main Event Chip Counts

Darvin Moon              58,930,000
Eric Buchman            34,800,000
Steven Begleiter       29,885,000
Jeff Shulman             19,580,000
Joseph Cada             13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel           12,390,000
Phil Ivey                     9,765,000
Antoine Saout            9,500,000
James Akenhead        6,800,000

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