ESPN’s 2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table Broadcast Has Begun

The time has finally arrived for ESPN to resume broadcast of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event. Coverage starts Tuesday, October 20 with the playing field whittled down to 64. And unless you were in Vegas when it happened, this is some poker playing you are not going to want to miss. Just because you already know who actually made it into the November Nine does not make this coverage any less thrilling.

For example, Phil Ivey is of course the fan favorite in the November Nine, but when the field was at 64, he wasn’t the only big name poker pro to make it that far, with Jeff Shulman, a final tabler in 2000, and James Akenhead, part of Dutch Boyd’s infamous “Hit Squad”, right there at the felt with him.

And then there are the poker celebs still in the running as of Tuesday night’s broadcast. So unless you watch the coverage, you’ll never know how far Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, made it, and how he got busted out. You also won’t believe the winning streak of unknown Darvin Moon, a logger from Maryland who doesn’t even consider himself an active poker player, who is currently the chip leader at the start of the final table, with 1/3 of the chips in play.

While offline poker players and fans (and those at the site he sponsors, Full Tilt Poker) are surely rooting for Phil (who headlined the night’s broadcast), many online poker players have another favorite in Antoine Saout who satellited in through WSOP final table sponsor, Everest Poker.

The age spread, incidentally, is also pretty amazing at the 2009 WSOP Main Event Final Table – as we will all see starting November 7, also on ESPN – with the oldest player, Ken Schaffel at 51 and the youngest player, Joe Cada at 21 who, if he wins, will be the youngest WSOP Main Event champ in history.