The 2010 World Series of Poker is down to the final two as Jonathan Duhamel and John Racener go head to head Monday night at the Rio Masquerade Stage in Las Vegas.
The two outlasted 7,319 WSOP contestants in all, the second highest ever in the event’s 40 year history. In seat 1 will be Duhamel, a native of Quebec, boasting a stack of over 188 million in chips. Facing an uphill climb is his opponent, John Racener, whose 30 million in chips represents only 14% of the chips in play. The winner will take home $8,944,310 in prize money, and be awarded the most coveted achievement in all of poker, the World Series of Poker Main Event Championship bracelet.
The November Nine came to a stunning climax when Duhamel eliminated former chip leader Joseph Cheong in what turned out to be the last hand of a grueling 13-hour session, ending at 1:49am on Sunday. Cheong, who had a nearly insurmountable chip lead before losing a big hand to Duhamel, went home with $4,130,049 in prize money for his third place finish. Filippo Candio finished fourth, and Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, the only established pro in the group, finished fifth. John Dolan, who began the day in second place, played mostly conservative and finished a disappointing sixth. Seventh place finisher Jason Senti began the day with the second shortest stack, but moved ahead of Matthew Jarvis, who finished eighth. Rounding out the final 9 was Soi Nguyen, the only true amateur at the table.
Heads-up play between Duhamel and Racener will resume on Monday, November 8th at 8pm Pacific Standard Time, and will continue until one of them is crowned World Champion. Television coverage of the final table will air on ESPN on Tuesday at 10pm EST.