The day that the poker community has been waiting for has finally arrived, as the November Nine reunite to determine this year’s “World Champion”.

Has the 100+ day delay been a success? ESPN says ratings are the highest they’ve been in two years, but that was when Hellmuth and Matusow were heavily featured in the coverage. The hoped for mainstream coverage talked about when this all began never really came through, as Lou Krieger mentions.

Play is scheduled to start today at 10am PT at the Penn and Teller Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas. For those that want to listen to the coverage, http://www.bluffmagazine.com/blufftvBluff Magazine and worldseriesofpoker.com will provide an audio stream along with constantly updated chip counts, using their Poker Tracker software. Nick Geber, Lacey Jones and a bunch of other guests will be in on the action. Jeffrey Pollack even writes a rare blog about tonight’s Hall of Fame ceremony, which will take place at about 7:15, just before play resumes from the dinner break. When heads-up play resumes Monday at 10pm PT, Erick Lindgren will receive his WSOP Player of the Year award (and whatever comes with that).

It was decided earlier last week that they will NOT redraw for seats, so here’s how they’ll be situated when cards go in the air (in case you forgot):
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It only took 22 hours, but the final table of the WSOP Europe at the Empire Casino in London finally has a result. After 484 hands, exactly half of which were headsup, saw John Juanda take down the title along with £ 868,800 ($1,543,395 US). Russians finished 2-3 at the final table as Stanislav Alekhin finished 2nd, and November Nine participant Ivan Demidov took down 3rd. Here’s how the entire final table came out:

1 £ 868,800 John Juanda
2 £ 533,950 Stanislav Alekhin
3 £ 334,850 Ivan Demidov
4 £ 271,500 Bengt Sonnert
5 £ 217,200 Daniel Negreanu
6 £ 171,950 Scott Fischman
7 £ 135,750 Robin Keston
8 £ 108,600 Toni Hiltunen
9 £ 81,450 Chris Elliott

Focus now turns toward the EPT London event, which drew an overflow field of 596 ponying up £5,200 with a guaranteed £1,000,000 to first. Over 100 remain as play continues on day 2, with the final table being held this Sunday. An interesting no-show turns out to be Dennis Phillips, chip leader at that other WSOP Main Event back in Las Vegas. He and his coach, Roy Winston(?), were planning on being in London, but it looks like Dennis showed up and then went back home.

More updates possible…

UPDATE: A commenter mentioned that Dennis’ mother passed away, explaining his leaving London. Apologies and condolences to Dennis and his family.

In a move that may or may not say anything about the state of poker on TV (or even just the state of TV for that matter), the show Stargate Atlantis is doing a little filming in Vegas today … at Planet Hollywood. Something about looking for a serial killer at a high-stakes poker game visited by aliens who hold the fate of the planet security in their hands. The Las Vegas pros at the table — Todd Brunson and Roy Winston(?).

Airs January 2 on the Sci-Fi Channel.

ALT HED: Extra, Extra!

Click below for the episode descrip:
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While the poker community focuses a great deal of attention on the Kentucky governor’s attempt at censorship and the potential for Rep. Barney Frank to do something with H.R. 6870 after it recently passed in the House Financial Services Committee, there are a few other poker news nuggets to pass on.

~Without so much as a press release to announce it, it seems that UltimateBet has signed Michael Binger as one of its newest team members. Oh, Michael, you too? Adam Levy has also joined the team, again with no official notice from the UB staff. The news came via Mean Gene’s UB Aruba blog and a picture posted from the welcome party.

~Short-Stacked Shamus gave his take on the recent issue of CardPlayer magazine in which Jeff Shulman said that CP was unaware of Scotty Nguyen’s unsportsmanlike behavior at the 2008 WSOP $50K HORSE event because of restricted media access at the final table. Disingenuous was the word over at Hard-Boiled Poker.

~It seems that the Eastern Europeans love them some internet gambling, and no recession will get in their way. A researcher with Global Betting and Gaming Consultants shows that a steady increase will continue because of favorable broadband and law changes, not to mention the Eastern Europeans’ “propensity to gamble.”

~Evidently, Senator John McCain likes him some gambling, specifically high-limit craps. How negative EV… The New York Times has looked into McCain’s ties to Indian gaming, and the gaming industry in general, and dug up some interesting info about lobbyists and McCain’s connections to them.

~The more I hear about WSOP “November Nine” chipleader Dennis Phillips, the more he seems like a great guy whose inner philanthropist has been able to shine with his $900K take-home money and potential for the $9.1 million first prize. In this episode of PokerRoad Radio released during the Borgata Poker Classic earlier this month, the guys sat down with Phillips and coach Roy Winston (huh?) where he explains that decision and his future plans.

Hmm, so whaddya know … I was apparently wrong in declaring the final tableists “too smart” to get outside assistance (from poker people, at least) in preparation for their big-time November sit-n-go. My only defense is that I musta been really drunk at the time when I was saying that stuff, so it probably doesn’t count.

From an announcement just in over the transom:

Dennis Phillips is pleased to announce that he will be partnering with Roy Winston and Joe McGowan of Oracle Poker Consulting in preparation for the 2008 World Series of Poker (W.S.O.P) Main Event. Dennis Phillips is currently the chip leader at the final table, where more than $32 million will be divided among the final 9 players. The final table will be played on November 9th.

Not sure of the financial details — maybe they took Oliver’s advice and partnered for free? — but regardless, one thing does have me reconsidering my position that it would be stupid to hire any poker coaches if you were one of the final nine:

Dennis Phillips is currently employed by Broadway Truck Center in Saint Louis, Mo. An amateur player, he won a $200 satellite into the Main Event of the W.S.O.P, where 6,844 players began.

Hmm, right, we should remember that. And we all know how sketchy the poker world can get at times, so why wouldn’t he want some folks intimately familiar with it on his side to help him navigate the pre-showtime waters?

Says Phillips on the matter:

“I’m confident in my game and don’t intend to change it, but I’m also smart enough to know that you can always learn more.”

Earl Burton has an interesting post up wondering why the sponsorship dollars for the WSOP main event final tableists haven’t been rolling in. While he leaves room for the possibility that it’s just a matter of time — I agree, as the kinda deals we’re talking about here don’t take place over a matter of days or even weeks — he also highlights an example that has me simply shaking my head:

A recent blog [sic.] on CardPlayer by a former guest on my “The Tournament Trail” show at Hold ‘Em Radio (http://www.holdemradio.com/), WPT champion Roy Winston, indicated that no one has contacted him regarding his offer of coaching for the Main Event.

Sorry, Roy, but I’m laughing. Because no one has contacted me, either, about my offer to put a Pokerati patch on them in exchange for guaranteed internet coverage! No offense, but whothefugk are you? A WPT champion? Big deal! The final nine — whether by luck or skill or some combination thereof — have outlasted 6,400 players to get to where they are. Have you ever done that? I didn’t think so.* Why would someone want to potentially mess their game up by receiving “coaching” from someone other than Phil Hellmuth (who clearly knows how to win WSOP final tables with any starting chip ratio) or maybe Erik Seidel? If I were one of the Nueve de Noviembre, I gotta say, I’d be feeling pretty good about my poker skills in general … and would be having many talks with the poker friends who helped get me there (The Arizona Posse, Batfaces, et al.) and probably just about any other poker player I ran into between July and November. But hire an outside coach? That would be like an athlete qualifying for the Olympics and hiring someone in the interim who happened to win a similar event in the Pan-Am games.

The story here isn’t on whether or not the final table delay was a right idea for the sake of marketing … it’s about how the remaining WSOP main event players are somehow smart enough not to fall for sales pitches from interlopers trying to get in on their action.

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