The November Nine – Bios for the WSOP Final Table

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They’re being called the November Nine – the nine players who reached the final table of the World Series of Poker’s main event and will come back to the Rio in Las Vegas on November 9th to compete for the first prize of more than $9 million.

Here’s a look at the nine people who will become some of the world’s most famous poker players in the coming months.

The chip leader is Dennis Phillips (26,295,000), 53, who won his seat in the main event through a $200 qualifier at a Harrah’s casino near his hometown of Cottage Hills, Illinois, a suburb of St. Louis. He’s an account manager for a commercial trucking company.

The cash will be Phillips’ first at a WSOP, although he has cashed two circuit events – for a total of under $5,000. Phillips has only been playing poker for four years.

In second place come November will be Ivan Demidov (24,400,000), a 27-year-old from Moscow who nearly final tabled another WSOP this year. He took 11th in Event No. 44, The $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with Re-buys event, cashing for just under $40,000. Last year, he played in the Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic and took third for $21,710.

This year, he’ll try to beat the performance of fellow Russian Alex Kravchenko, who took fourth in the ’07 main event. Demidov, who calls himself a “semi-professional” player, bought his way into the field with $10,000 cash and considers himself primarily an online player.

In third is Scott Montgomery (19,690,000), who may enter the final table as one of the most accomplished players left, at least in terms of tournament cashes. Actually, 2008 is a bit of a heater for the 26-year-old from Perth, Ontario, Canada, who has been a poker professional for the last two years.

He has five substantial cashes under his belt, including deep runs in the WSOP’s Event No. 2, one of the $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold’em events, and Event No. 7, a $2,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em events. He cashed nearly $55,000 in those two events. He also played 16th in Event No. 25, the World Championship of Hears Up No-Limit Hold’em, earning more than $36,000.

Earlier this year he took fifth in the L.A. Poker Classic, a World Poker Tour event, for nearly $300,000. And just this month he finished fourth in Event No. 6 of Bellagio Cup IV, a $5,000 buy-in event, for $36,000.

Peter Eastgate comes into the table fourth in chips (18,375,000). He is from Denmark and is considered a top online cash game player at Ladbrokes. The only significant tournament performance on his record before this is ninth-place finish in last year’s Irish Open, when he won more than $60,000.

At just 22, Eastgate has been playing for just three years and will look to become the youngest main event winner in history. Phil Hellmuth was 24 when he won the ME in 1989.

Ylon Schwartz (12,525,000), 38, of Brooklyn, New York is in fifth place. He will also be among the favorites based on experience alone – he has 11 WSOP event cashes since 2005. But this will be by far his biggest score to date. He took home a $28,000 payday for a cash in the 2006 WSOP. And he took third in the WPT finals in 2005, cashing for nearly $50,000.

In an interview at pokerlistings.com, Schwartz says he has been gambling for 25 years – doing the math that would take him back to the age of 13. He said he played chess on the street at that age, and has been playing games for money ever since – including pool, darts and backgammon.

Just behind Schwartz is Darus Suharto (12,520,000) who cashed the 2006 main event for $26,000. That’s the only live tournament cash on his record. He got into the main event by turning an $80 buy-in into a main event seat through a series of satellites.

Suharto, 39, is an accountant from Toronto, Canada, and says he has been playing poker for just three years.

In seventh is David “Chino” Rheem (10,230,000), who has the most tournament money cashed of any of the players remaining, with more than $600,000 in live earnings. More than half of that came in the 2006 WSOP when he took second in the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em with Re-buys event for more than $327,000. He also made a final table this year, taking fifth for $93,000 in Event No. 4, the $5,000 Mixed Hold’em event.

Rheem is 28 and lives in California now, but he is originally from Miami. Interestingly, a newspaper article says there is still a warrant out for Rheem’s arrest on a 2003 misdemeanor charge. He’s also served four months in jail on other charges.

Just behind Rheem is Craig Marquis (10,210,000), who has earned his fourth WSOP cash, despite the fact that he says he took up poker just last year. He finished 18th in Event No. 17, the Hold’em Shootout event.

The 23-year-old from Arlington, Texas, is a college student and actually led the main event field heading into Day 7. He also busted Dean Hamrick, the man who bubbled the final table.

The short stack will be Kelly Kim (2,620,000), a 31-year-old from Whittier, Calif. He has a long string of tournament cashes on his record, the biggest coming in 2006 when he took third in an L.A. Poker Classic event for more than $62,000.

Kim, now a professional poker player, was a business analyst before he quit to play poker full time.

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