After 57 tournaments in Las Vegas, four more held in London, and a grand total of 157 days (counting the delay to the November Nine), the 2009 World Series of Poker has come to an end. While there are many things that will be memorable about this year’s schedule, perhaps the best way to look back at the 2009 WSOP is by the numbers.
One of the biggest statistics comes from our new world champion’s age. After last year’s winner, Peter Eastgate, ended the nearly 20-year reign of Phil Hellmuth as the youngest ever, it only took one year for Joe Cada to knock Eastgate off the top of the rankings for the Las Vegas event. Cada should be able to hold this record for some time; at 21 years, 11 months, and 21 days old, he passed up Eastgate by 340 days (this does not take into account Annette “Annette_15” Obrestad’s win at a day under 19 in the inaugural WSOP Europe).
All totaled, the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table was the longest in WSOP history. On Saturday, the nine men played for 14 hours and 55 minutes before determining the final two players. On Monday night, Cada and runner up Darvin Moon came back and battled for another two hours and 21 minutes before determining a champion. The grand total of 17 hours and 16 minutes eclipses the previous record of 14 hours and 30 minutes, set at the 2005 WSOP Main Event final table won by Joe Hachem.
A total of 276 hands were dealt during final table play on Saturday night alone, ensuring another record would be set in total hands played. During last year’s final table, 274 hands were played before Eastgate recorded the championship. Moon and Cada went nearly 90 hands to amass a grand total of 363, and a new record, before Cada was able to grab the championship this year.
James Akenhead, who traveled from England to battle it out at the WSOP Main Event final table, did not receive any additional money for finishing in ninth place. He did, however, seal his name in history along with Antoine Saout as only the second and third players to final table both the WSOP Main Event in Las Vegas and the WSOP Europe in London in the same year. In 2008, Ivan Demidov pulled off the trick (finishing in third in London and the runner up in Las Vegas); Akenhead (ninth in both) and Saout (seventh in London, third in Las Vegas) were able to add their names to that list this year.
While many in the Penn and Teller Theater were rooting for Phil Ivey to take the Main Event title, the acclaimed pro does have something to hold onto from his 2009 run. With the seventh place prize of $1,404,014 and his other two bracelet wins, the man considered by many to be the finest poker player in the world increased his lifetime tournament earnings to $12,236,714. This leaves the Full Tilt Poker pro only slightly over $190,000 behind fellow top professional and PokerStars sponsored player Daniel Negreanu for the most money earned in a career.
Finally, the WSOP crossed an important threshold. With the $174,013,315 in prize pools paid out to winners this year, the WSOP crossed the $1 billion mark in prize pools in its history. In the past four years, there has been approximately $685 million in prize pools generated; in the years from 1970 to 2005, only $354 million was generated. The grand total of prize pools in the history of the WSOP now stands at $1,041,266,592.
With the end of the tournament early this morning in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the 2009 WSOP has come to a close. Fret not, though, as it is only roughly 200 days until the cards will fly again.
