29/07/2011, Poker Tournaments

The 2011 WSOP November Nine who will play the final table of the most prestigious poker tournament in the world at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas were finally decided.

The nine players who will return to Las Vegas on November 5th are:
1st Martin Staszko- 40,100,000;
2nd Eoghan O’Dea – 33,900,000;
3rd Matt Gianetti – 24,700,000;
4th Phil Collins – 23,800,000;
5th Ben Lamb – 20,800,000;
6th Badih Bounahra – 19,700,000;
7th Pius Heinz – 16,400,000;
8th Anton Makiievskyi – 13,800,000;
9th Sam Holden – 12,300,000.

So let's meet these luckiest nine poker players:
Martin Staszko, 35 year-old, is a professional poker pro from Trinec, Czech Republic. He is the first player from the Czech Republic to ever make the WSOP Main Event final table. Staszko is a professional poker and chess player, with four cashes at the 2011 WSOP prior to the main event, and a 11th place finish at the 2010 EPT Deauville Main Event for $50,000. His playing style is smart and aggressive.

Eoghan O'Dea, 26 year-old, from Dublin Ireland, is the son of the famous poker player Donnacha 'The Don' O'Dea and it looks like he inherited his father's talent in poker. Donnacha finished sixth in the 1983 WSOP Main Event and 9th in the 1991 WSOP Main Event. The young O'Dea learned the game when he was only a teenager and won the 2008 iPoker ECOOP III, the first live tournament he ever entered, for $315,000. His poker achievements include two second place finishes at the WPT Marrakech, for $378,227 and at the Ladbrokes Million VII, for $260,000.

Matt Gianetti, 26 year-old, from Austin, Texas, is a professional player in both live and online tournaments. His poker achievements include eleven cashes at the 2006 WSOP events and a $65,000 win in the 2006 WPT Championship, where he finished in 35th place. Gianetti's live tournament career earnings exceed $500,000.

Phil Collins, 26 year-old, from South Carolina, also plays online and in live tournaments. His impressive career earnings count almost $3.5 million. The forth player in chips at the 2011 WSOP Main Event plays online as “USCphildo”.

Ben Lamb, 26 year-old, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has already won a WSOP bracelet this year, in addition to a 12th, an 8th, and a second place finish. Lamb is the “WSOP Player of the Year” who has already collected over $1.3 million in cashes at this year's WSOP alone. His impressive live tournament career include six first place finishes and over $2.5 million in 34 cashes.

Badih Bounahra, 49 year-old, from Belize, will be the oldest member of the November Nine. He is an amateur poker player with a single WSOP cash from a 51st place finish in a $2,000 buy-inNo-Limit Hold'em event in 2009. In 2008, he collected over $30,000 for finishing the first in Latin American Poker Tour.

Pius Heinz, 22 year-old from Germany, is one of the youngest contenders for the 2011 WSOP Main Event title. Heinz, who is known on the internet as MastaP89, became the first German player ever to make a WSOP main event final table. He has only one cash in a major live tournament, from making the final table of this year's WSOP and finishing in 7th place at the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event. His biggest cash ever was the $61,000 first place prize at the 2010 Full Tilt Poker Sunday Mulligan event.

Anton Makievskyi, 21 year-old, from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, is the youngest player at the 2011 WSOP final table. Makievskyi is the only Ukrainian player ever to win a gold bracelet in a WSOP event. Makievskyi is the eight player on the chip leader-board.

Samuel Holden, 22 year-old from Sussex, UK, plays online and in live tournaments as well. He has achieved three cashes in the UKIPT events, and a 5th place finish in the PokerStars' Sunday Million for $54,390. His total online winnings exceed $285,000.

The 2011 November Nine players are from seven different countries. Four of them are the first players from Belize, Czech Republic, Germany and Ukraine to ever make a WSOP final table. The final battle of the most prestigious poker event in the world will take place on November 5th at the Rio in Las Vegas - Penn and Teller Theatre.