Event #65: $10,000 Main Event Day 8 | 2014 World Series of Poker

11-10-2014 17:40 UTC-7

Hand #1: Tonking Strikes First

donpeters

Level 35 : 200,000/400,000, 50,000 ante

Mark Newhouse had the button to start the hand.

Play folded over to Newhouse on the button, and he raised to 800,000. William Tonking called from the big blind, and the flop came down . Tonking checked, Newhouse bet 1 million, and Tonking called.

The turn was the , and Tonking checked. Newhouse checked back, and the river was the to pair the board. Tonking checked, and Newhouse checked.

Tonking showed the , and Newhouse mucked.

Tags: Mark Newhouse William Tonking

11-10-2014 17:40 UTC-7

Shuffle Up and Deal!

donpeters

Level 35 : 200,000/400,000, 50,000 ante

With the "shuffle up and deal" announcement given from last year's champion Ryan Riess, the cards are now in the air!

Level: 35

Blinds: 200,000/400,000

Ante: 50,000

11-10-2014 17:24 UTC-7

Minutes Away!

donpeters

The start of play is just five minutes away. The production crew is getting set up for the player introductions, and PokerNews will be live your way shortly.

11-10-2014 17:16 UTC-7

PokerNews Podcast Episode #257: 2014 WSOP November Nine Preview

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Rich and Donnie are joined by the legendary Mickey Doft to break down the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event final table in a massive NJOY November Nine Preview. At the end, Remko talks with ACOP High Roller winner Fabian Quoss.

You can subscribe to the entire iBus Media Network on iTunes here, or you can access the RSS feed here. The PokerNews family of podcasts is now available on Stitcher.

11-10-2014 15:33 UTC-7

Seat 1: Billy Pappas (17,500,000 -- 43 BB)

donpeters

Born September 28, 1984, William Pappaconstantinou, also known as Billy Pappas, is one of the best players in the world — foosball players that is! In fact, the 29 year old from Lowell, Massachusetts has been playing table soccer since 2003 and has won numerous titles including seven world championships.

“Foosball is such a freaky thing. If you play foosball and learn a little bit, you’re hooked,” Pappas explained of his foosball origins. “My parents played, my mom still plays. It’s a cool connection, me and my mom are super close.”

The son of a professional golfer, Pappas supported his foosball dreams buy taking several jobs, one of which was as a poker dealer at the Rockingham Park Poker Room in Salem, New Hampshire. Foosball may have been his passion, but poker soon became a relaxing hobby.

Pappas wasn’t even going to play the 2014 WSOP Main Event, but a friend convinced him to at the last minute. Obviously that proved to be a wise decision for the only true amateur left in the field.

"I'm in shock. I never thought I'd play in this event,” Pappas said. “It's been my dream, and I've been saying 'this year' or 'next year' for like 10 years, just to play in an event, period. Now I get to play this, and I've never expected this at all."

This year marked the first time Pappas ever played in the “Big One,” and prior to his deep run his most notable tournament cash was a fifth-place finish in a $580 no-limit hold’em reentry event at the 2013 WSOP Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club for $52,372.

Pappas’ road to the November Nine began on Day 1b, but it wasn’t an easy road to the November Nine. Pappas recently talked about that and more as a featured guest on the PokerNews Podcast, which you can listen to by clicking here.

Tags: Billy Pappas

11-10-2014 15:33 UTC-7

Seat 2: Felix Stephensen (32,775,000 -- 81 BB)

donpeters

Originally from Oslo, Norway, Felix Stephensen now calls London home. Born on July 22, 1990, Stephensen currently makes his living playing poker. He does so playing primarily online under the screenname “FallAtyourFeet,” and according to online tracking records, he is up more than $300,000 since 2011.

Stephensen, who is good friends with fellow Norwegian online pro Ola “Odd_Oddsen” Amundsgard, can usually be found at the $25/$50 pot-limit Omaha tables, though he has been known to take shots as high as $200/$400. As such, he has developed a strong reputation and loyal following in the online poker community.

As far as the live realm is concerned, Stephensen has just two cashes on his résumé. The first is a 12th-place finish in the 2009 Norwegian Championships £1,000 No Limit Hold'em Main Event for £3,585, and the other was a 92nd-place finish in the 2013 European Poker Tour Barcelona Main Event for €12,700.

Stephensen traveled to Vegas with friends to enter the World Series of Poker Main Event for the second time. Interestingly, he decided to pony up the $10,000 buy-in after winning a bet where he got 60-1 on $1,ooo that the Netherlands would beat Australia 3-2 in the World Cup.

Stephensen proceeded to swap seven percent with Amundsgard, who mad the trip to Vegas to support his friend. Along with Amundsgard, Stephensen, who sits second in chips, is an advocate for poker in his home country and hopes to reflect that in the November Nine.

“I really hope I can make poker a more accepted sport or profession in Norway, and I’d like to be a good ambassador for the sport," Stephensen said. "I’ve been doing this for a living for years, so people will see that it’s not all luck, it’s actually something you can be pretty good at and you’ll get results if you work hard.”

Tags: Felix Stephensen

11-10-2014 15:32 UTC-7

Seat 3: Jorryt van Hoof (38,375,000 -- 95 BB)

donpeters

Born November 15, 1982, Dutchman Jorryt van Hoof hails from the city of Eindhoven where he studied Industrial Engineering for a year before he decided to become part owner in a game store called GameForce. In 2003, van Hoof discovered poker, and while he prefers pot-limit Omaha cash games, he now finds himself as the chip leader of the 2014 World Series of Poker November Nine.

From a very young age, van Hoof has had entrepreneurial interests. At the age of 12, he played Magic The Gathering, and it was his involvement in that game, along with the fact that many of his customers frequently played the game, that brought him to poker.

Van Hoof's early poker knowledge stems from reading books, after which he further evolved his game by playing and discussing strategies with his friends. The Dutchman notched his first ever live tournament result at the Aviation Club in Paris in the Spring of 2005. Just a few months later, he played his first event at the World Series of Poker and earned his first cash in a $2,000 no-limit hold'em event where he finished 66th for $3,450.

While tournament poker is not Van Hoof's bread and butter, he managed to cash three times at WSOP times in 2007 and 2008, though after that he took a five year sabbatical from Las Vegas. At the 2013 Utrecht Series of Poker, in the Netherlands van Hoof won the €1,000 event for €32,205, and coincidentally last year's November Niner Michiel Brummelhuis finished seventh in that same event.

Against all odds, a Dutchman has now made the November Nine in back-to-back years, and as fate would have it Brummelhuis and van Hoof go way back as both were a part of the early poker movement in the Netherlands.

After having lived in Dublin for a year to fully focus on being a consummate professional, van Hoof moved to Malta, a country he lived in for many years. Van Hoof now lives back in the Netherlands where he spends most of his time playing PLO online under the moniker “TheCleaner11.”

Interestingly enough, van Hoof owes his online screen name to Justin “ZeeJustin” Bonomo. After playing against Bonomo under the screenname “Jorrytvh,” Bonomo was asked if he knew who he had played against and responded, "I don't know, but he cleaned me out.” The rest is history.

Tags: Jorryt van Hoof

11-10-2014 15:32 UTC-7

Seat 4: Mark Newhouse (26,000,000 -- 65 BB)

donpeters

Some have said his odds of reaching back-to-back final tables was 524,558-1, but that’s just what Mark Newhouse did when he became the first player ever to make the November Nine twice. Most everyone agrees Newhouse’s appearance at the final table ranks as the biggest November Nine storyline especially since he sits third in chips and is primed to improve upon his ninth-place finish in 2013.

Originally from Chapel Hill, NC, Newhouse now splits his time between Los Angeles, CA and Las Vegas, NV playing primarily cash games. A former student at Appalachian State, Newhouse is now a professional poker player who has been playing in the WSOP Main Event every year since 2006. While he’s been successful in 2013 and 2014, it wasn’t always that way; in fact, in his first five years all he managed was a 182nd-place finish in 2011 for $47,107.

Newhouse first came to poker prominence when he earned over $1.5 million for winning the World Poker Tour Borgata Poker Open in September 2009, but admitted that he wasn't the smartest person with his money following the big win, as you can see from what he told PokerNews in a Where Are They Now? interview.

"I made a lot of very poor decisions over the next couple of years," Newhouse said. “I have made nearly every mistake you can make in this business and learned from all of them. I am doing my best to do the right things these days and things are going pretty well for me now. The road to rebuilding is a much longer and slower one than the road of destruction, but with a healthy lifestyle, a hard work ethic, a little discipline, and the experience of past mistakes my goals don't seem all that far away.”

Newhouse has clearly rebounded in a big way the last couple of years and now finds himself in the exclusive company of Dan Harrington, Johnny Chan, Doyle Brunson, and Stu Ungar as some of the players who’ve made back-to-back WSOP Main Event final tables.

Tags: Mark Newhouse

11-10-2014 15:31 UTC-7

Seat 5: Andoni Larrabe (22,550,000 -- 56 BB)

donpeters

At 22 years of age, Spanish poker pro Andoni Larrabe is the youngest player in the 2014 World Series of Poker Main Event November Nine. Larrabe, who now lives in London, sits fourth in chips at the final table with 22.5 million and is the first Spaniard since Carlos Mortensen in 2001 to make the Main Event final table.

Larrabe, who lists reading, martial arts, meditating, and hanging out with his friends as among his favorite hobbies, now travels the live circuit, but before that he played multi-table tournaments online under the screenname “pollopopeye.” It was under that name that he captured two Spring Championship of Online Poker (SCOOP) titles. The first was in 2012 SCOOP Event #8-H$1,050 No-Limit Hold’em, which earned him $229,212.80, and the other in the 2013 SCOOP Event #17-M $215 NLHE 6-Max Turbo Super KO for $65,926.79.

Prior to his deep run in the Main Event, for which he is guaranteed at least $730,725, Larrabe had $341,266 in live tournament earnings. That included $92,418 for an 11th-place finish in the 2012 European Poker Tour Grand Final in Monte Carlo and $218,710 for a win in the 2013 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em.

As far as the WSOP was concerned, before making the November Nine Larrabe had just $20,000 in WSOP cashes, all of which came in a one-week period during the 2013 WSOP. His first-ever WSOP cash came when he placed 284th in Event #54: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $1,894, which he followed up with a 46th-place finish in Event #57: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $14,333. A few days later, he placed 104th in Event #60: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $3,841.

"I feel pretty excited. It's a sensation between confusion, because I think I don't realize what I have just done, and excitement and happiness,” said Larrabe. “It's a lot of sensation all at the same time.”

Tags: Andoni Larrabe