About a week ago, Mark Newhouse eliminated Luis Velador, earning Luis the 10th place of the WSOP event to make the cut for November Nine. Mark Newhouse is the first to make it to the final table two years in a row since Dan Harrington did it in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Even though his return to the final table is amazing, he is not the only one causing a stir. There is van Hoof who is the second Dutchman to make it to the November Nine. There is also the Norwegian, Stephensen, who plans to use his victory in this event to fight for the legalization and regulation of poker back home. Let’s take a look at the highlights so far:

Newhouse returns

Mark Newhouse’s return to the final table is no mean feat. Let us calculate the odds of returning to the final table of the main event in 2013 were 706-1. With a larger field in 2014, the odds shot to 743-1. Put those together and the odds of making both events become 524,558-1. Compared to Harington’s odds back in 2003 and 2004, it was 20 times harder for Newhouse to make it to the final table back-to-back than it was for Harrington in 2003 and 2004.

Hup Netherlands hup

Holland’s second feature in the WSOP final table may not be as impressive as Newhouse’s back-to-back return but it is no mean feat on its own. The first Dutch man to make it to the WSOP final table main event was Michiel Brummelhuis in 2013. Now Van Hoof is back with the country flag. Van Hoof has lived in both Malta and Dublin and spent most of his time playing Pot-limit Omaha cash games.

Vamo!

Bruno Politano is last in chips with only $ 12.125 Million. He however, probably has more support in the final table than anyone else. He expects about 200 supporters to show up to the Las Vegas event.

Felix fighting for legitimacy

Stephensen only had two live cashes before the 2014 WSOP main event. He primarily plays online cash games using the code name ‘FallAtyourFeet’. He has positioned himself as an ambassador of the game back at home and is entering the final table second in chips with $ 32.775 Million. He has made up to $ 300, 000 in earnings playing online poker.

The misclick heard round the world

Even though Martin Jacobson’s misclick was not that important, his unintended limp from under the gun at the beginning of the unofficial final table of 10 sealed the fate of Team Media at the 25K Fantasy League. He started the final day leading in chips but eventually slid back into the middle after taking a few knocks. By the end of the night, he was eighth in chips and the following day, he admitted that he had meant to rise from under the gun rather than limp. He may have been utterly pushed to this point sharing the table with the best in poker!

Firstly Published on High Stakes News