WSOP Main Event November Nine Betting Angles and Pick

On Sunday, Oct. 30, the final nine in the World Series of Poker Main Event, dubbed the November Nine, will convene at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas to play down to a winner.

The eventual champion will be crowned Tuesday, Nov. 1 in a live finale that will air on ESPN. Each remaining player is guaranteed $1 million and the eventual winner will bank a colossal $8 million.

Here are the nine players remaining, along with their chip stacks and odds courtesy of bet365:

Cliff 'JohnnyBax' Josephy
74,600,000 in chips (149 BB)
5/2 betting odds

Cliff Josephy already has two WSOP bracelets, one in 2005 in Seven Card Stud and one in 2013 in No Limit Hold'em. He was once one of the top online poker players in the world and has over $4.1 million in career online winnings, according to PocketFives. Add to that another $3.6 million in live winnings, according to the Hendon Mob, and the fact that he's the chip leader, and you can see why he's favored. He'll be a major force from the get-go.

Qui Nguyen
67,925,000 in chips (135 BB)
4/1 betting odds

Qui Nguyen holds the second largest chip stack entering the November Nine restart. The only Las Vegas resident at the final table, he only has one previous WSOP cash. He entered three WSOP events this year and hit it big by making this Main Event final table. His lack of live poker experience could make it tough, but there's an 18,550,000-chip (37 BB) drop-off between Nguyen and the third-place stack of Gordon Vayo.

Gordon Vayo
49,375,000 in chips (98 BB)
5/1 betting odds

Vayo was very busy at the 2016 WSOP. He entered 21 bracelet events and cashed in eight of them, or 38 percent. That's a phenomenal cash rate for large-field poker tournaments. He has 26 WSOP cashes to his credit, $1.4 million in career online winnings and had $1.5 million in live tournament winnings entering the Main Event. At 27, Vayo is the youngest player at the final table, which could help him during the tournament's grueling three-day finish.

Kenny Hallaert
43,325,000 in chips (86 BB)
5/1 betting odds

Kenny Hallaert is getting the same odds to win as Gordon Vayo, but is starting with 12 percent fewer chips. He's one of four non-Americans at the final table and one of two players from Europe. He's already run deep in the World Series of Poker Main Event twice, exiting in 123rd place last year and 323rd in 2011, a remarkable feat considering the enormous fields. I'd want better odds on Hallaert, though, than 5/1.

Michael Ruane
31,600,000 in chips (63 BB)
9/1 betting odds

Coming into the 2016 WSOP Main Event, Ruane had just $44,000 in career live winnings. He's from New Jersey, one of three states that regulates online poker in the U.S., so a win in the Main Event could ignite a Garden State poker boom. This is his first WSOP Main Event cash. Ruane seems like a value at 9/1, although his lack of live experience and middle-of-the-road chip stack will be challenging to overcome.

Vojtech Ruzicka
27,300,000 in chips (54 BB)
9/1 betting odds

Ruzicka is the first player from the Czech Republic to make the Main Event final table since Martin Staszko in 2011. Staszko came into that year's final table with the largest chip stack and finished as the runner-up to Pius Heinz. Ruzicka has excelled on the big stage before, winning the 2013 Deauville High Roller on the European Poker Tour and booking over $1.1 million in live winnings overall. You'd be paying a premium at 9/1 to get him over Griffin Benger at 10/1; Benger has nearly the same chip stack and a better poker track record.

Griffin 'Flush_Entity' Benger
26,175,000 in chips (52 BB)
10/1 betting odds

If you're looking for a horse to back who's not one of the chip leaders, look no further than Griffin Benger. You're getting a ton of value at 10/1. 'Flush_Entity' is a former No. 1-ranked online poker player who has $6.5 million in career online winnings. He's a former PokerStars Shark Cage champion and EPT High Roller winner. Josephy and Benger are about as well-rounded as you'll find in poker.

Jerry Wong
10,175,000 in chips (20 BB)
25/1 betting odds

He might be low on chips, but Wong has plenty of live poker experience. He finished third in the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event three years ago for $750,000, which represents just over half his career live winnings. And he's made a deep run in the WSOP Main Event before, finishing 309th in 2012. He'll be in the big blind the first hand back on Oct. 30, which will put a major dent in his chip stack right away.

Fernando Pons
6,150,000 in chips (12 BB)
40/1 betting odds

The short stack entering the November Nine restart is Spain's Fernando Pons, who has just 12 big blinds. He's never cashed in a WSOP event before. If Pons finishes fifth or higher, he'll record the largest-ever WSOP Main Event score by a Spaniard. This is poker and anything can happen, but Pons will have his work cut out for him; he'll essentially be in push-or-fold mode from the start.

My Pick

I'm going with Cliff Josephy to win and Griffin Benger for value. Josephy is the only former bracelet winner at the final table. His track record and experience in the poker world speak for themselves. With 100 days between the November Nine play-down day in July and the resumption of the Main Event the day before Halloween, 'JohnnyBax' has had plenty of time to prep with some of the game's top minds. He's not going to give away chips and will put pressure on his opponents with his stack, forcing them to make tough decisions.

Benger gives us great value at 10/1. He's as experienced as it gets both live and online and has a middle-of-the-road chip stack. Benger will be smart, yet aggressive with his chips. One early double-up or big hand would put him among the chip leaders.

Projected finish with payouts

1. Cliff Josephy - $8,000,000
2. Griffin Benger - $ 4,658,452
3. Gordon Vayo - $3,451,175
4. Vojtech Ruzicka - $2,574,808
5. Qui Nguyen - $1,934,579
6. Michael Ruane - $1,463,906
7. Kenny Hallaert - $1,250,000
8. Jerry Wong - $1,100,000
9. Fernando Pons - $1,000,000