Heartbreak for Mark Newhouse as he improbably finishes ninth in the Main Event for the second year running
Oh dear.
Making the November Nine and going out in ninth must be a pretty shattering experience. You make it to the biggest final table of your life, get paid out ninth place money, and then have to wait three months just to bust out without any extra cash. Oh, and you have to watch as one player carves out a space for himself in the poker history books.
So this tweet from Mark Newhouse at the start of this year’s Main Event was pretty amusing.
‘Just bought into the main event day 1c. Not fucking finishing 9th again.’
Incredibly, Newhouse enjoyed another amazing run and became the first player to make back-to-back November Nines. What’s more, instead of returning to Vegas in November with a short stack, Newhouse went back with 26,000,000 chips – good enough for third place. No one thought he’d bust in ninth again, and a lot of people were tipping him to use his experience from last year to take the ultimate prize in 2014.
But, unbelievably, Newhouse finished ninth again, busting out 56 hands in to the final table when he bluff-shoved a board of 2♦-4♣-J♥-4♥-J♣ with pocket Tens. After tanking for a short while William Tonking made the call with Queens to send a shell-shocked Newhouse to the rail. Talking afterwards Newhouse said he saw the river as ‘an opportunity that didn’t work out.’ It must have been heartbreaking for Newhouse, but it meant that everyone else was guaranteed extra cash.
Show me the money
Next to depart was Brazil’s Bruno Politano, who shipped Q-T on the button and was looked up by Felix Stephensen in the big blind with pocket Sevens, which held. Six hands later Dan Sindelar joined him on the rail when he got unlucky against dominant chip leader Jorryt van Hoof. Sindelar shoved over Hoof’s three-bet with pocket Jacks and Hoof looked him up with A-3. The 7-2-A-3-Q board was very kind to the Dutchman.
Andoni Larrabe was another short stack and decided to take a spin with T♣-J♣. Once again it was van Hoof who tanked and made the call with K♥-5♥. His run-good continued as he flopped King-high to leave Larrabe needing runner-runner cards which didn’t materialise.
Van Hoof had over half the chips in play for a long period of time and the other four players found it hard to make any sort of inroads. Then a huge collision took place with Martin Jacobson’s pocket Fives besting popular amateur player Billy Pappas’ A-J. Both players had around 24m at the start of the hand, and it was Jacobson who sat back down with a smile after flopping a set. It left Billy Pappas with less than an ante and he was eliminated in fifth next hand.
William Tonking had briefly taken over the chip lead after eliminating Mark Newhouse but didn’t get anything else going and saw his chip stack dwindle until he was forced to make a move with pocket Twos. Martin Jacobson made the call from the small blind and tabled pocket Tens to send the last American player to the rail.
With the bracelet guaranteed to come to Europe – with Dutch, Swedish and Norwegian players left – play was halted three-handed with the stacks tantalisingly close. Hoof ended as chip leader with 89,625,000 but the dangerous Jacobson must now be considered the favourite for the bracelet with 64,750,000. Stephensen brings up the rear with 46,100,000.
If you stayed up to watch the action – or caught it from six-handed on this morning – you’ll know that these three players were the strongest on the final table and it promises to be a masterclass in aggressive poker tonight. Action kicks off at 2am UK time, with ESPN showing the action live. If you don’t have ESPN you can buy a day pass for ESPNPlayer.com for £1.99.
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