Home / Poker News February 2011 / Foxwoods November Nine Reunion – Ben Hopkins wins
Foxwoods November Nine Reunion – Ben Hopkins wins
Posted by: Jo Martin - Fri, 2011-02-11 04:39
The Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Mashantucket played host to a truly unique event the other day: a $15k freeroll, to which all the 2010
WSOP November Nine members were invited. The tournament wasn’t just a November Nine Reunion: no fewer than 30 players bellied up to its tables, all of them specially invited. Among the participants there were 18 randomly selected Foxwoods money finishers, as well as ESPN’s Lon McEachern, Kasey Thompson and Foxwoods’ own Bernard Lee.
Joseph Cheong – who had advanced all the way to 3rd place in the WSOP final – was the first of the November Nine to bite the dust. Responsible for his elimination was Michael Mizrachi who called his pocket 4s with K,Jo and proceeded to make a pair of Ks on the board.
The chips that Mizrachi picked up through this elimination were put to good use almost immediately as The Grinder went on to eliminate several other players. Soy Nguyen was the next November Nine victim, followed to the rail by an extremely chatty Jason Senti.
John Racener was in a hurry from the get go. He had a plane to catch in the afternoon and he was determined to finish the tournament in time for that, one way or the other. He doubled up a couple of times during the early going, but eventually still faded away around the 15-player mark.
At the halfway mark, plenty of November Niners were still standing. Mizrachi delivered a nasty punch to Jarvis to unseat him from the top of the chip counts. John Dolan got bounced in the meantime by Jonathan Duhamel.
Mizrachi waved good-bye to the table at the 7-player mark. He collected $500 for his efforts. The battle among the November Niners continued as Matthew Jarvis managed to eliminate Jonathan Duhamel in 5th place.
As the pros were obviously having tons of fun pestering each other, the amateurs lurked in the shadows. Eventually it was one of these amateurs, Ben Hopkins, who rose to victory, besting Jarvis heads-up for the $5k top prize.
