Posts Tagged ‘2014 November Nine’

Martin Jacobson: Surprise 2014 WSOP Main Event Winner

Wednesday, November 12th, 2014

When looking through the 2014 November Nine, not many people gave Martin Jacobson a realistic chance to win. After all, he was sitting with 14.9 million chips – just the eighth-largest stack out of the remaining nine players. But through a combination of incredible poker skills and running good, Jacobson worked his way out of this hole and on towards the 2014 WSOP Main Event title.

By the end of the first day, when only three players remained, Jacobson, put himself in second place. His final opponents were Norway’s Felix Stephensen and Netherlands’ Jorryt van Hoof, with the latter holding the chip advantage.

Many would have picked van Hoof to win simply because the poker coach had the chip edge, looked confident and was playing aggressively. However, he lost a huge pot against Stephensen during three-handed play and things went downhill from here.

Once he busted out, it was Stephensen (58.5m chips) facing off against Jacobson (142m chips) for the title. Based on winning pots alone, this was a pretty even matchup, however, the difference-maker was Jacobson’s ability to win the big hands. The end was rather anti-climatic since it took the Swede just an hour to beat Stephensen.

Regardless of how easy the heads-up match was, Jacobson’s come-from-behind victory will definitely go down in WSOP lore. Furthermore, he’s also the first Swedish player to win the Main Event. Want more history? How about the fact that his $10 million payout ranks just behind Jamie Gold ($12m) in Main Event history.

His live tournament winnings have now surpassed $14.8 million, which moves him up to ninth place on the all-time money list. Jacobson also passed Chris Bjorin to become Sweden’s biggest all-time winner as well. Check out how the entire Main Event final table fared below.

2014 WSOP Main Event Final Table Payouts
1. Martin Jacobson – $10,000,000
2. Felix Stephensen – $5,147,911
3. Jorryt van Hoof – $3,807,753
4. William Tonking – $2,849,763
5. Billy Pappaconstantinou – $2,143,794
6. Andoni Larrabe – $1,622,471
7. Dan Sindelar – $1,236,084
8. Bruno Politano – $947,172
9. Mark Newhouse – $730,725

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Can 2014 November Niner Andoni Larrabe follow in Mortensen’s Footsteps?

Wednesday, July 16th, 2014

13 years ago, Carlos Mortensen battled through a field of 613 players to win the 2001 WSOP Main Event and $1.5 million. Mortensen has remained the only Spaniard to win the world’s most prestigious poker tournament, but that could possibly change come this November.

That’s because Basque native Andoni Larrabe is in the 2014 November Nine this year, and he’s actually got a decent shot to win. For starters, Larrabe isn’t doing too badly in the chip count as he’s currently fourth with 22.5 million. This may place him quite a ways behind the current leader, Jorryt van Hoof (38.3 million), but it by no means puts him out of contention.

Another thing that Larrabe has going for him is that he knows what it feels like to be a winner. The 22-year-old navigated through a PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $5k side event and on towards the $218,710 prize. Along the way, he topped a 195-player field and defeated famed pro Justin Bonomo heads-up. Larrabe also lays claim to an 11th place finish in the 2012 EPT Grand Final ($92,418).

Of course, there are some things working against this young player too. For starters, Larrabe has admitted in interviews that he’s been pretty nervous during his deep run in the 2014 WSOP Main Event. And now that he’s officially on the final table, the pressure won’t get any lighter. Plus Larrabe said that he made some definite mistakes en route to his November Nine run. But then again, at least the Spaniard is aware of the mistakes that he’s making. Moreover, we can expect him to be working to fix these leaks over the next 3+ months.

Larrabe will definitely be a fun one to watch when the 9-player final table reconvenes on Novemeber 10th. The first-place prize is worth $10 million while there are several other multi-million dollar payouts available too.

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Maria Ho not Worried about Last Woman Standing Honor

Sunday, July 13th, 2014

Back in 2007, Maria Ho took 38th place in the WSOP Main Event, which made her the “Last Woman Standing.” Now, seven years later, Ho has earned this honor once again since she’s the only female player alive in the 2014 WSOP Main Event.

Going into Day 6 of the Main Event, there are just 79 players left from the original 6,683 entrants. Ho happens to be one of these players, though she’s on the fringe of busting out with 435,000 chips (79th place). Even still, she doesn’t seem to be thinking about anything other than the November Nine.

Ho told PokerNews that it was an honor to receive the Last Woman Standing title again and interest more ladies in the game. This definitely won’t be enough to satisfy her, though. “I’m playing for something that’s much, much more than that, right,” she said. “There’s bigger goals ahead for me in terms of how I wanna finish here.”

The famed female poker pro also explained the difference from her 38th place effort in 2007 and what she’s done this year. Ho said that not many players really knew what they were doing in ’07, and she “knew just a little bit more” about what she was doing. The 31-year-old added that she’d like to think her game has improved up to her 2014 Main Event run.

Ho needs to hope for a little luck if she’s going to make a realistic run at the November Nine. Assuming she can pull off the feat, it would make her the first female November Niner in history. However, her 435k chips are quite a ways off of the current leader, Mark Newhouse, who has 7.4 million chips.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kRDpHckYwA

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