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On Sunday almost four months of waiting
was finally over as the November Nine returned to Las Vegas to move a step closer to deciding who would be crowned the 2011 WSOP Main Event Champion.

The goal yesterday was to play down to just three players who would then return to the Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino on Tuesday, Nov. 8th for the competition’s final conclusion.

Play began at 3:30pm ET and by 1:47am ET we had our final three players.

First player to bow out was UK’s Sam Holden, who was dealt A-Js and shoved all-in on Ben Lamb’s pre-flop under the gun raise. Unfortunately for him, Lamb held A-K and so Holden exited in 9th for $782,115.

Half an hour later, Anton Makiievskyi from the Ukraine followed suite. He was dealt K-Q on the small blind and after the table folded to him, decided to push all-in into Pius Heinz’ big blind. The German made the call with pocket nines and then struck gold on the turn on a K-J-J-9 board to eliminate Anton Makiievskyi in 8th for $1,010,015.

Makiievskyi, 21, was the youngest player at the table and next was the turn of the oldest player to leave in the guise of Badih Bounahra, 49 of Belize. Badly short stacked, Badih Bounahra pushed his A-5 and remaining 4,475,000 over the top of Martin Staszko’s 1,700,000 raise. Staszko then called with his A-9 to eliminate Badih Bounahra in 7th for $1,314,097.

An hour later, Ireland’s Eoghan O’Dea (A-9) found himself reduced to just 2,200,000 million chips after calling Ben Lamb’s (Q-8) re-raise shove with an 8 falling on the river to hand Lamb the double-up. Meanwhile, with the big blind now at 1 million chips, O’Dea was forced to shove his Q-6 pre-flop into Staszko’s pocket eights, and so was eliminated in 6th place for $1,720,831.

Two minutes later and he was joined on the rail by US pro Phil Collins, who was all-in with A-7 against Pius Heinz with 9-9. Despite the 6-5-4-9-7 board producing a sweat, Phil Collins was dispatched to the rail in 5th for $2,269,599.

It then took almost 5 hours before at 1:47am ET, Matt Giannetti (A-3) shoved his short-stack into the pocket kings of Ben Lamb and so was eliminated in 4th for $3,012,700.

With Giannetti’s exit, the final table broke with the overnight chip counts as follows:

Pius Heinz (Ger) 107,800,000
Ben Lamb (USA) 55,400,000
Martin Stszko (Cze) 42,700,000

The players will now enjoy a days break before returning on Tuesday at 9 p.m. EST to decide the final winner. Blinds will begin at 600k/1,.2m with an ante of 200k.

Thanks for the update. I thought O’Dea played a great bluff, but at the worst possible time. Still, he almost got those pocket Q’s to fold (unless Heinz was trying to elicit a weak call, but I doubt it — I think he thought he was beaten). I couldn’t understand Collins’ game at all, unless he was just trying to set people up with his limp-in strategy.

At this point, I would like to see Stszko win, if only so he can afford a few extra vowels in his name. But Heinz seems to be the one fated to win, at least from what I saw.