Final Table Features Experience at the 2009 World Series of Poker Europe
The online poker players who made the final table at this year’s World Series of Poker Europe were seasoned, professional poker players. Their survival and skill proves that poker is more than just a game of luck, and requires depth of knowledge and well-honed psychological insight. The nine players and their chip stacks included: 1. Jason Mercier - 3,198,000 2. James Akenhead - 1,398,000 3. Praz Bansi - 1,160,000 4. Barry Shulman - 1,090,000 5. Markus Ristola - 784,000 6. Antoine Saout - 701,000 7. Matt Hawrilenko - 674,000 8. Chris Bjorin - 518,000 9. Daniel Negreanu - 438,000 Mercier, with the biggest stack already had won a European Poker Tour championship. He eliminated many players over the course of the online poker tournament and was chip leader for hours before it got down to the final nine. James Akenhead is one of the November Nine who will be competing at the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Even final table in Las Vegas. He also won bragging rights for knocking Doyle Brunson out of the tournament. Antoine Saout is also among the November Nine in this year’s Main Event. Small stack Daniel Negreanu has four WSOP bracelets to his name and is a well-known poker star. Several other players were previous WSOP bracelet winners too - Matt Hawrilenko, Praz Bansi, Chris Bjorin, and Barry Shulman, whose son Jeff, publishes Card Player magazine and is among the Las Vegas November Nine.