Here are the 2009 November Nine: James Akenhead, Jeff Shulman, Phil Ivey, Antoine Saout, Darvin Moon, Joe Cada, Steven Begleiter, Kevin Schaffel and Eric Buchman. One of them will be $8.5 million richer sometime early Tuesday morning! (Photo by IMPDI for 2009 WSOP)
Ol’ LuckyDog still picking Shulman, despite second thoughts
In just a few hours, the final table battle to determine the 2009 World Series of Poker champion begins. And, gulp, I’m having last-minute second thoughts about my pick!
If you saw my latest column released Nov. 3, you know that I rationalized, through a process of elimination, that Jeff Shulman would emerge as the champ. And he still could.
The week before, my column about Phil Ivey declared him to be at poker’s highest level and poised for main-event greatness. All of that is still true.
And who’s to say that one of the other seven contenders — especially Darvin Moon, the massive chip leader — won’t cruise to victory? No one, I reckon.
The overriding truth is that this is a poker game, where the variables are immeasurable, where luck can outshine pluck, but skill still can win out in the end.
The other certainty is that this promises to be one of the most entertaining and probably THE most viewed poker show (ESPN Tuesday night) in history. Cards are in the air today at Noon, Vegas time, and they’ll play down to the final two. The heads-up battle starts at 10 p.m. Monday in Vegas.
So, I’ll stick with Shulman as my pick — unless Ivey triples up early, or Moon keeps catching monster hands, or, or, or…