November Nine Set As Play Finishes For The Summer At WSOP 2013

David Benefield is still in with a shot at claiming a first big live event

JC Tran is a clear favourite going into the final table

Event 62 – $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event

For all 27 who started day 7, this would be the last day of play for the summer at the WSOP but nine of them would be making a return in November with their eyes on some very serious money.

Despite taking the chip lead on day 6 Yevgeniy Timoshenko will not be coming back for the final table, having shoved his last 14 big blinds in with . Jan Nakladal from the Czech Republic made the call with and went on to pair his jack and bust the Jovial Gent from the main event in 22nd place.

Anton Morgentstern had taken over as chip leader towards the end of day 6 but had a torrid time of it on Monday. A lost race against Mark Newhouse saw Morgenstern’s go down to , and not long afterwards a cooler hand against the same player resulted in another big loss for the German. Morgenstern liked the flop with his but Newhouse was sitting on and another big pot left Morgenstern teetering on the edge. The end came for him when he 3 bet all in pre-flop with but ran straight into Fabian Ortiz's and the last of what was a very big stack at the start of the day was lost for a 20th place finish.

As Morgenstern was on the way down, David Benefield was moving in the opposite direction and a series of nice pots returned him to being in a comfortable position after starting the day as the shortest stack.

With a few more eliminations such as Chris Lindh in 16^th and double bracelet winner Rep Porter in 12^th, the final table bubble loomed and an agonizing 10^th place finish was about to be claimed by someone. Mark Newhouse was the shortest at this point but a fearless approach to busting saw him gain enough chips to draw roughly level with David Benefield and Carlos Mortensen as the three most in danger. Little was going right for Mortensen and a clash with chip leader JC Tran resulted in him being the one to miss out on a final table appearance.

Mortensen had min raised from the cut off with and been called by Tran in the big blind, and the two took a flop of . Tran check called Mortensen's continuation bet then shoved when the appeared on the turn. With second pair and the nut flush draw Carlos Mortensen got the last of his chips in, but Tran had hit his gutshot with and Mortensen needed a club. The on the river changed nothing and that was the last card to be dealt at the main event until November. It was an unhappy end to several days' work for Mortensen but he does at least get $573,204 for his troubles.

So that leaves us with our official November Nine and an interesting one it is with five different nationalities being represented. JC Tran will be the favourite to win due to having both the biggest stack and the best tournament record with two WSOP bracelets and a WPT player of the year title to his name. It has been a remarkable comeback for Tran who had just six big blinds in front of him at one point during day 3, only to then go on and spin it up to a chip leading 38,000,000 stack by the end of play.

When the last nine players return to the Rio in November the final table will look like this:

JC Tran                          (USA)                        38,000,000     

Amir Lehavot                 (Israel)                      29,700,000     

Marc McLaughlin          (Canada)                  26,525,000     

Jay Farber                      (USA)                        25,975,000     

Ryan Riess                    (USA)                        25,875,000     

Sylvain Loosli                (France)                   19,600,000     

Michiel Brummelhuis   (Holland)                 11,275,000     

Mark Newhouse            (USA)                        7,350,000       

David Benefield             (USA)                        6,375,000      

That brings the curtain down on another summer of WSOP action for now, although there are still bracelets to be awarded later in the year. Enghien in France will play host to a further seven bracelet events in October as a pre-cursor to the big one when the main event plays out to a conclusion in November back in Las Vegas.