It’s been a grueling two weeks for some of the world’s top poker players. There were over 7,000 players when the tournament began. They included 18 former world champions, close to 150 bracelet winners, and names known throughout the poker world. The whittling began immediately. At first, players dropped out left and right, but on day seven, only 27 players went to sleep with chips on the table. For eighteen hours, those 27 players hacked it out, finally drawing down to the nine who will play at the final in November.
Some of the big names who had been hopefuls dropped out without even cashing, while some complete unknowns made history. Breeze Zuckerman, who took the title of “Last Woman Standing,” was a completely new face. The journalist-turned-life coach from California’s story is very much a mystery with few clues aside from her PokerStars gear, which indicates where she got her entry fees from.
Matt Affleck was the last big name to go, but he didn’t quite make the final table. Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi ground his way up from the bottom, hit second place, and is now in seat five. Hailing from Miami, Florida, 2010 has been a great year for Mizrachi and his family. He won his first bracelet, and all three of his brothers also cashed in the main event, making them the largest sibling group ever to cash in a single WSOP event.
At the top of the list is Jonathan Duhamel, who hails from Quebec, Canada. At 22, he’s already established himself as a serious player. This is his third cash at this year’s WSOP, and if he were to take first place, it would be the first time a Canadian ever became Poker Player of the Year. He leads by almost 20 million chips over John Dolan, but we won’t find out the real results until November. Play resumes on Saturday, November 6th, with the final, heads-up table played on Monday, November 8th. For now, all of the players will be given $811,823 to keep them busy.
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