Moon Eclipses Ivey Late

Darvin Moon is doing his best to establish himself as a threat as the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event nears the November Nine pause. The 45 year old hovered in the top ten of the leaderboard until the final 15 minutes of play when he put a 5 million chip difference between himself and Billy Kopp to take the overall for the second day in a row.

But even with 20,160,000 in chips Moon isn’t even close to threat of the player whose name still strikes fear into nearly every remaining player;Phil Ivey.

“I’m going to hide in a corner when I get up against him,” admitted Moon. ”Everybody that’s made it this far has way more card experience than me. If Phil Ivey is on my left and even looks at me, I’m mucking.”

Ivey finished the night fourth in chips with 11,350,000 after cresting as high as 15,000,000 during Day 7 play. With 27 players remaining the goal for Ivey on Wednesday will be to make the November Nine and give himself a chance at the ever elusive World Championship bracelet.

While Moon might be nervous facing Ivey, 23 year old Kopp feels that he’s on top of his game and is ready for whatever challenges Wednesday brings.

“I’m not really intimidated by anybody. It’s my ballgame,” said Kopp. “I feel like when a good players gets good cards and runs well at the same time there’s no stopping him.”

Dennis Phillips' impressive run at a second final table appearance was cut short on Day 7 in one of the most painful ways possible. Getting all his money in with A K against the A K of Francois Balmigere gave Phillips reason to believe he’d be continuing on. The cards though didn’t cooperate and Balmigere made a flush to send last November’s third place finisher home in 45th.

The day started with 64 players and in the three levels leading up to the dinner break the fast play of previous days continued. Twenty-five players saw their tournament end before the players broke for 90 minutes. Another well known pro, Joe Sebok, also couldn’t survive another day as a short stack and he was sent home with $108,047 for a 56th place finish. Also sent home during the first three levels were Fabrice Soulier, Prahlad Friedman, Tom Schneider and Blair Rodman.

One player well known to poker fans that did survive was Antonio Esfandiari. He’ll return to Day 8 with a less than average stack of 4,470,000. His chip stack took a roller coaster ride throughout the day and he was as high as third in chips.

And despite starting the day with a short stack the last female player left in the field, Leo Margets, still has a shot at becoming the first female member of the November Nine. The Spanish TV hostess finished the day with 1,530,000, the second smallest stack. She is ahead of only Balmigere who bagged up 1,440,000.

Action resumes at Noon PT on Wednesday and will continue until the 2009 November Nine have been determined. Tournament officials are preparing for a long day and if the last level of the night Tuesday, which saw only two players ousted, is any indication the action may take as much as nine levels to wrap up. (Author - Lance Bradley)