And Then There Were NINE

Last year, middle of July, nine brave individuals sat down to start another interesting tale to be added to the history books on WSOP battles. The prize money was not peanuts either, more than eight million dollars were at stake, but maybe more than the money, most of the nine (if not all) had one thing in mind, the bracelet. Action would only stop once a champion has been hailed. The 9th place (yes, last placer) would have no reason to weep, after all, he would still get $525,934- which, even at this day and age, still would be able to buy a lot of things.

Chip leader at the first day's start (first day of the Finals) was Hilm, with about 23,000,000 in terms of chips, but Lam was within breathing distance, only three million away. This may interest you, these nine souls came from five nations. Hilm and Kalmar are from the UK, Rahme was from South Africa, Canada boasted of Tuan Lam, Alex Kravchenko hails from Russia, while Yang, Childs, Rain Khan and Lee Watkinson represented the USA. Truly a monumental year for WSOP, I don't know about you, but I still prefer seeing a field composed of various nationalities over that of a field where almost all come from a single country.