World Series of Poker Final Starts

08th November, 2009

The long awaited final table of the World Series of Poker finally got under way this afternoon, as nine of the best poker players in the world sat down to dance at the felt.

The new layout of the tournament, which sees the final nine have to wait four months before they can battle it out for the record cash sums, is in it's second year and is without it's fans.

But it does mean that it becomes an even bigger spectacle, as Full Tilt sponsored Phil Ivey, Jeff Shulman and the UK poker player James Akenhead are amongst the player spurred on by a packed crowd full of some of the best poker players the world has ever seen.

With the likes of Doyle Brunson ring side to watch the action, there were two early casualties with the horribly short-stacked Akenhead fluking the river in one all-in move, only to see another two go badly wrong. The Brit bowed out in ninth place, with a take home pay cheque of over $1,200,000 for the pleasure.

Next out was Kevin Schaffel, who had earlier made Akenhead play with some all out win or die action, but he was no match for Eric Buchman, who laid down four-of-a-kind Kings to seal Schaffel's fate.

Bookies favourite Phil Ivey is currently in fifth place, looking to grab the estimated $8.5m first prize.