Tampa's John Racener In World Series Of Poker Final Showdown

After 13 hours of play (including breaks), Tampa Bay’s John Racener remains in the final table at the World Series of Poker, along with Canadian Jonathan Duhamel.

Seven players were eliminated from the November Nine during the marathon final table play, including amateur Soi Nguyen from Santa Ana, CA (9th place, $811,823), Matthew Jarvis of Surrey, British Columbia (8th, $1,045,743), Jason Senti, from St. Louis Park, MN (7th, $1,356,720), John Dolan from Bonita Springs, FL (6th, $1,772,969), Michael “the Grinder” Mizrachi from Miami, FL (5th, $2,332,992), Filippo Candio of Sardinia, Italy (4th, $3,092,545), and Joseph Cheong, who ended in third place, collecting $4,130,049 in prize money.

Finalist Duhamel eliminated Cheong on what turned out to be the final hand of day one on the final table, to lead to tonight’s showdown.

Duhamel, from Boucherville, Quebec (a suburb of Montreal) will begin play tonight with 188,950,000 in chips, while Racener, from Port Richey, begins with 30,750,000.

With a 6 to 1 chip lead, the Canadian is the favorite to take the championship. Racener certainly has his work cut out for him.

But Racener’s a smart player. He’s been playing with a short stack through the last couple of eliminations, and managed to survive. With just a bit of luck, we won’t be surprised to see him take Duhamel’s chips, and bring home another championship to Tampa Bay.

Twitter – Jonathan Duhamel, John Racener