WSOP 2011 Main Event: Counting Down to Nine

They started with a field of 6,865. The action starts today with 22 players left and will end when we are down to nine. Those nine, the "November Nine" will then get a four month break before playing for all the marbles.

Of the 22 left, none of them have names that the average poker fan will recognize. Well, there is Phil Collins (not that Phil Collins) and Christopher Moore (not that Christopher Moore) and more than a few people who actually make their living playing card games, but no one whose ever been in a t.v. commercial...yet.

The chip leader is chubby Ukrainian Anton "Snack Daddy" Makiievskyi. I can't imagine many people want to see this guy win it all - he doesn't have a lot of charisma and won't attract many new people to the game. Except maybe in the Ukraine. The current second place player, good-looking young Irishman Eoghan O'Dea from would be a far more popular champ. In third spot we have Khoa Nguyen - with a name like that he must be from...let's see...Calgary?! Go, Khoa! Khoa is the last Canadian standing.

The players left (with chip counts) are:

1 Anton Makiievskyi. Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine (21,045,000)
2 Eoghan O'Dea. Dublin, Ireland (19,500,000)
3 Khoa Nguyen. Calgary, Canada (16,435,000)
4 Andrey Pateychuk. Russia (16,245,000)
5 Ben Lamb. Tulsa, Oklahoma (14,690,000)
6 Phil Collins. Las Vegas, Nevada (13,805,000)
7 John Hewitt. San Jose, Costa Rica (13,265,000)
8 Ryan Lenaghan. New Orleans, Louisiana (10,415,000)
9 Matt Giannetti. Las Vegas, Nevada (8,920,000)
10 Konstantinos Mamaliadis. Durban, South Africa (8,195,000)
11 Pius Heinz. Germany (7,510,000)
12 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov. Himki, Russia (7,075,000)
13 Scott Schwalich. West Carrollton, Ohio (6,920,000)
14 Martin Staszko. Trinec , Czech Republic (6,380,000)
15 Bryan Devonshire. Henderson, Nevada (6,190,000)
16 Sam Barnhart. Little Rock, Arkansas (4,935,000)
17 Samuel Holden. Sussex, , Great Britain (4,740,000)
18 Gionni Demers. Jackson, New Jersey (4,655,000)
19 Kenny Shih. Azusa, California (4,530,000)
20 Lars Bonding. Las Vegas (4,140,000)
21 Badih Bounahra. Belize City, Belize (3,835,000)
22 Chris Moore. Countryside, Illinois (3,040,000)