Despite the recession, the 2009 WSOP still enjoyed a fairly good run as the said event had attracted not only some of the world’s famous poker pros but also a number of celebrities. Last year’s WSOP was held in Las Vegas, Nevada at the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino. All in all, 57 WSOP bracelets were given out as well as the huge first prize of the final table, the $10,000 NLH Main Event.

The Events

The 2009 WSOP had 57 events all in all, and the games included Texas and Omaha Holdem games, and they both have no limit and pot limit games. Aside from these two, the 2009 WSOP had also offered seven card stud as well as mixed events, and as expected, the H.O.R.S.E. and Razz events were also offered. The Main Event though, which is the most anticipated event of all, was, of course, the World Championship No Limit Holdem tournament which had a buy-in fee of $10,000 where Joe Cada took home the grand prize worth more than 8 million bucks.

The November Nine of the 2009 WSOP

Nine lucky players got into the Final table of the Main Event, some of them big names in the poker world while others newcomers to the scene like Darwin Moon. Although much hope has been placed on Moon winning the grand prize, especially since he has one of the biggest stacks of chips, the first prize and the championship title went to Joe Cada, as stated above, but Moon got to take home the second prize worth five million dollars though.

Other players in the November Nine include Antoine Saout who landed the third place and took home the prize of more than three million dollars. Eric Buchman won the fourth place, earning him 2.5 million dollars, while Jeff Shulman bagged the fifth place and almost two million dollars in cash prize. Sixth place went to Steven Begleiter and seventh place goes to Phil Ivey, and they took home 1.5 and 1.4 million dollars respectively. Kevin Schaffel got the eighth place and won 1.3 million dollars, and lastly, James Akenhead, at ninth place, won 1.2 million dollars.

The Main Event’s Final Table started last November 7, 2009, and it saw one of the poker circuit’s biggest prize pools. Last year’s Final Table had seen a total of 364 hands, 88 hands of which came from heads up plays.