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Jonathan Duhamel has the button in Seat 4.
Soi Nguyen, the player pegged as "the amateur" by ESPN during its broadcasts, raises to 1,175,000 from middle position. Everyone else folds, allowing Nguyen to drag his first pot of the final table.
John Dolan has the button in Seat 3.
From the hijack seat, Jason Senti moves all in for the second time today. And for the second time today, it gets through. Add the blinds and antes to Senti's stack again, up to 9.55 million now.
Joseph Cheong has the button in Seat 2.
Matthew Jarvis opens to 1.175 million from early position. Joseph Cheong reraises from the button to 2.675 million and action folds back around to the original raiser Jarvis. He makes the call and the flop comes down 
and Jarvis is to act first.
Jarvis checks to Cheong, he checks behind to see the 
come down on the turn. Jarvis takes his time on fourth street before he slides out a bet of three million even. Cheong makes the call.
The 
is the river card. Jarvis takes his time once again. He fires out two tall stacks of chips with some extra on top for a total of 4.275 million. Cheong pauses for a few moments and then announces that he is all in, drawing a massive uproar of cheers from the audience. Jarvis doesn't snap call, but rather maintains the same pose he has been the entire hand. After a couple of moments, he mucks his hand and Cheong is awarded the pot.
Jarvis is knocked down to 7.8 million while Cheong rises to 33.775 million.
Jason Senti has the button in Seat 1.
Action folds to Senti. He open-raises all in, quickly inducing folds from both of the blinds. Senti now has 8,475,000.
Soi Nguyen has the button in Seat 9.
The table folds around to Matthew Jarvis, and he opens the pot to 1.175 million. The rest of the players quickly pass out of the way, and Jarvis is off to a good start, dragging the first pot of this final table.
Level: 36
Blinds: 250,000/500,000
Ante: 50,000
Jack Effel just summoned the voice of mixed martial arts and the UFC, Bruce Buffer, to the stage to get play underway. Buffer wasted little time.
"The gladiators of the cards have taken their seats on the green felt battlefield of champions," he told the audience. "This is the moment you've all been waiting for. It's time! Shuffle up and deal!"
From Clark County, here we go!
The pomp, the pageantry and yes the cirucmstance of the 2010 November Nine is underway. Each player is being introduced in seat order around the table, starting with Jason Senti. They are walking in through the lower ring of the theater accompanied by a "ring girl" who is holding up a red circular sign with the player's name and seat number. We're told that each player was allowed to choose his own introduction music but unfortunately from the stage we can't hear the music very well.
Jack Effel, as usual, is the MOC today. He brings a level of enthusiasm to the proceedings unmatched by anyone in the industry.
We're getting close to the beginning of the festivities here in the Penn & Teller Theater. The November Nine are all on stage in their seats for some photos and the gallery on the stage -- reserved for friends and family -- is full. Notables in attendance on stage: Barry Greenstein, Tom Marchese, Sorel Mizzi, Carter King, J.C. Tran, Nam Le, Karina Jett, Claudio Rinaldi and of course the entire Mizrachi clan.
The lower ring of the theater has been curiously empty since fans started streaming in to take their seats an hour ago. Most of the general public are in the second and third rings. Probably the last order of business before we get started is figuring out who is supposed to occupy those lower-ring seats -- and getting them into the theater.
The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino is abuzz once again, and it's poker that's drawn the crowds inside today for the penultimate time in 2010. Walk down the long hall from the Amazon Room towards the Penn & Teller Theater and you'll see the first signs of life as a line of wall-leaners begins to form along one side of the corridor. A middle-aged woman wearing a "Grinder" hat. A group of face-painted frat boys huddled around a cooler. A young couple talking over each other in machine-gun Italian. Sasquatch. The line is growing by the minute, and this hallway will soon be packed with poker fans, friends, and family ready for the biggest show in town.
When last we left these halls, the Wall of Bracelets in the Pavillion was all bare except for one shiny piece of World Series of Poker jewelry. There, alone on the stage, the bracelet sat waiting for its new owner as the Main Event field was slowly whittled down from its starting field of 7,319 players. Two weeks of poker were required to shrink that number down to a manageable nine, each of them given a check for more than $800,000 and a Vegas-bound plane ticket with today's date on it. We're left with just our November Nine, then, a promising final table from which will emerge our new World Champion of poker.
Bios of our nine finalists are posted below for you to peruse, and there are a ton of interesting story lines to be found as you dig deeper into the intel.
The eyes of the poker world are on Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi today, the most accomplished pro at this table and the closest thing 2010 has to Phil Ivey at this final table. Speaking of Ivey, Grinder has a shot at taking one of the legend's records away from him before it's all said and done. Closing in on $10 million in career earnings already, a first- or second-place finish this weekend would move Mizrachi ahead of Ivey and into the top spot as the winningest poker player ever. Ever. And boy, would that Main Event bracelet look nice on the mantle next to his other piece of Championship hardware from 2010, the one-off $50,000 Players' Championship bracelet.
The other eight will all be battling for their first WSOP bracelets, and it's anyone's guess who'll be there for the final heads-up showdown on Monday. Among them we have another sponsored pro (John Racener), a pair of Canadians (Matthew Jarvis and Jonathan Duhamel), a college dropout (John Dolan), an online monster (Jason Senti), a South Korean (Joseph Cheong), an amateur (Soi Nguyen), and an Italian (Filippo Candio), the first from his country to make it this close to a Main Event bracelet.
It's the Super Bowl of poker, and it's today! We'll be back with all of the action just before noon local time, and we'll be bringing you every single hand in real time. Get comfortable, grab yourself some popcorn or a tasty beverage of your choosing, and get back here before the cards go flying.
