In 2014, the November Nine concept of saving the final table of the WSOP Main Event was exploited to the greatest extent possible. One player put in a ridiculous amount of work, spent months in the lab, and exceeded every expectation as one of the best comebacks in World Series of Poker history saw one of the biggest winners of all time.
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Early Events
With 65 events taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada, the 2014 World Series of Poker (WSOP) began with a female winner in the first open bracelet event. Vanessa Selbst’s triumph in the $25,000-entry Mixed Max No Limit Hold’em (NLHE) event earned the American $871,148 as she took down Jason Mo heads-up to win the title.
Selbst was a phenomenal player and, for many years, was known as the best female poker player ever. She had previously secured bracelet wins in 2008 and 2012, with this one being her third as she continually dominated the tables. Despite being at the top of her game, the former PokerStars Team Pro retired a few years later to raise a family. She now works as a successful hedge fund manager but comes out to play poker on occasion.
Other stars of 2014 included multiple WSOP Bracelet winners, George Danzer and Dominik Nitsche. The American Danzer took two wins on U.S. soil in the $10,000 Razz and $10,000 Seven-Card Stud 8 events and added a third during the WSOP Asia-Pacific A$5,000 8-Game Mix. After reaching two other final tables, Danzer was announced as the 2014 WSOP Player of the Year.
Nitsche also won two bracelets, the German triumphing in the WSOP Circuit National Championship and in a $1,000 NLHE event. His achievements were double that of Phil Ivey, but Ivey’s single win in the $1,500 Eight-Game Mix got all the headlines, as it drew him level on 10 bracelets with Doyle Brunson and Johnny Chan. It was also Ivey’s record-setting fourth mixed games bracelet.
Big Ones on Top
There were more winners from countries who, until this point in poker history, had never seen one of their players lift WSOP gold. Alex Bolotin won the first bracelet for Belarus in the $1,500-entry NLHE Shootout event for $259,211, while Junzhong Loo won a debut Malaysian title in the WSOP Asia-Pacific A$2,200 NLHE event for $94,019 USD.
Justin Bonomo won the first of his three WSOP bracelets. The tournament poker legend took down the $1,500-entry NLHE Six-Max event for $449,980. Surprisingly, Bonomo would not win another bracelet until 2018, when he would take home two in what became known as the ‘Year of Bonomo’. Other big names did win in 2014. The 2009 world champion Joe Cada won big again, claiming the $10,000-entry Six-Max NLHE Championship for over $670,000, John ‘Johnny World’ Hennigan took home the Chip Reese trophy by winning the $50,000-entry Poker Players Championship for $1.5m and Daniel Colman was the biggest winner as the million-dollar Big One for One Drop returned.
Colman beat Daniel Negreanu heads-up to claim the $15.3 million top prize, then proceeded to give a near-mute winner’s interview. Talk about painfully shy! Colman’s heroics at the felt in the event were legendary, however, and Kid Poker’s runner-up prize of $8.2m wasn’t too bad, either.
Not Finishing Where?
As the WSOP Main Event of 2014 began, one player made a determined declaration. The previous summer, Mark Newhouse had reached the final table, then busted first, meaning he’d collected the min-cash for coming ninth in July then waited three months only to be the first man to leave, therefore missing out on any extra money. In 2014, he was desperate to avoid only this fate, posting on Twitter: “Just bought into the Main Day 1c. Not ****ing finishing ninth again.”
After 6,352 players in 2013 took on ‘The Main,’ a slight increase led to 6,683 entries in 2014. With the absence of Doyle Brunson, which was confirmed via Texas Dolly’s social media account, the 1976 and 1977 world champion stayed at home to look after his ill wife. He was possibly right to miss the Main Event based on the fact that no former champion cashed, It wasthe first time the entire roster of former winners had bricked the big one since 2002.
Maria Ho took the honors of the longest-lasting female player, cashing for $85,812 in 77th place, while other luminaries such as Brian Hastings (64th for $103,025) and Dan ‘Cowboy’ Smith (20th for $286,900) also came close to the final table. Mexican player Luis Velador bubbled the final table in 10th place for $565,193, before the final nine were set – with Mark Newhouse present!
Four months later, Newhouse, not the shortest stack this time, coming in third in chips, looked highly unlikely to finish in ninth place. Incredibly, he got off to a terrible start, dropping short before a board of J-4-2-2-J landed. Newhouse, holding pocket tens, moved all in on the river believing William Tonking hadn’t hit the board. He wasn’t wrong, Tonking having been dealt pocket queens. Tonking made the call and Newhouse finished in ninth place for the second consecutive year running this time for $730,725 – the chances of which were around 524,558 to 1.
Van Hoof is On Fire!
Heading into the action with nine remaining, it had been Dutchman Jorryt van Hoof who led, with the player known as ‘TheCleaner11’ – so-called after “cleaning out” Justin Bonomo online, according to the American – on 95 big blinds. Easily the second most popular player at the final table, the chant ‘Van Hoof, Van Hoof, Van Hoof is on fire!” likely still reverberates around the walls of The Rio more than a decade later.
The most popular player at the final table was, without a doubt, Bruno Politano. The first Brazilian to make the final for years, Politano’s exit in eighth was a crusher for coverage of his lively rail, with his queen-ten losing a flip to Felix Stephensen as the Brazilian went to the rail with $940,077.
Departures for Dan Sindelar (7th for $1.23m) and Andoni Larrabe (6th for $1.62m) followed as Van Hoof carved through his opponents. A third elimination in a row looked likely when Van Hoof got it in with pocket jacks, and Stephensen committed his stack with ace-eight of diamonds, but an ace on the flop gave the Norwegian player a vital double-up and diluted Van Hoof’s dominance at a pivotal stage of proceedings.
Soon, with Van Hoof so dominant, it was becoming vital for the others to win any pots when they had a lot of chips invested. Swedish player Martin Jacobson doubled up through Billy Pappaconstantinou when his pocket fives more than survived a coin flip, hitting another five on the flop. Pappaconstantinous’ chip stack was cut to shreds, and soon he departed in fifth for $2.14m when his pocket sevens fell to Van Hoof’s pocket jacks.
Former Chef Slices Through the Opposition
With four players remaining, just one more needed to bust before the final three players took their leave for one last night’s restless sleep ahead of the final showdown. William Tonking was the unfortunate player to leave outside the podium, winning $2.84m when his pocket deuces were slain by Jacobson’s pocket tens – a hand that was to become iconic later in proceedings.
Early in the proceedings the next day, Jacobson won another big one, his pocket aces triumphant on a board of T-7-5-K-Q against Stephensen’s king-jack, as the Swede played value betting perfectly. Stephensen was suddenly extremely short but a short time later got a full double up when Van Hoof didn’t believe the Norwegian had a pair. Van Hoof had lost his lead and a big chunk of his chips in the process, and soon, he was on the rail. Van Hoof shoved with ace-five, was called by Jacobson with ace-ten.
“Jacobson called that so quickly, it was as if he knew he was ahead.” Said Norman Chad on comms. A flop of T-5-2 was followed by the two black queens as Van Hoof became the latest chip leader heading into the final table to fail to convert that lead into the win.
Jacobson didn’t actually know that he was ahead in that hand, but no-else did as much final table preparation as the Swedish former professional chef. Jacobson went into the lab for the entire four months between making it to the final table in eighth place and the November showdown, running endless simulations to go through as many different scenarios as he could. As the final duel approached, Jacobson had an almost 3:1 chip lead over his fellow Scandinavian opponent Felix Stephensen and that soon grew to a 5:1 advantage. 
The Champion’s Final Bow
Jacobson raised all-in with pocket tens pre-flop and Stephensen made the call with the inferior ace-nine of hearts. A 69% chance to win, Jacobson went to his rail having played one of the best final tables in history, happy to leave his fate to the cards. A flop of T-9-3 made Stephensen a less than 1% shot to survive.
“You’re buying dinner, then,” Stephensen said to his fellow Scandinavian.
“It’s not over yet!” laughed Jacobson, but it was all over on the turn, as a king fell to proclaim Jacobson the world champion and the winner of a $10 million top prize, the biggest since Jamie Gold took home $12m in 2006.
“Martin Jacobson completes his masterpiece to become the 2014 world champion! Pocket tens deliver $10m to Jacobson. He was so good with the big stack and so good with the short stack.” eulogized Lon McEachern, and it was a worthy tribute.
“You can’t play perfect poker but Martin Jacobson was near spotless.” agreed Norman Chad.
Jacobson had converted months of laborious work into the greatest prize in poker. As Stephensen slunk away with $5.14 million as runner-up, one of the best winners in Main Event history was crowned as the Swedish former chef Martin Jacobson cooked the opposition.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Martin Jacobson | Sweden | $10,000,000 |
| 2nd | Felix Stephensen | Norway | $5,147,911 |
| 3rd | Jorryt van Hoof | Netherlands | $3,807,753 |
| 4th | William Tonking | United States | $2,849,763 |
| 5th | Billy Pappaconstantinou | United States | $2,143,794 |
| 6th | Andoni Larrabe | Spain | $1,622,471 |
| 7th | Dan Sindelar | United States | $1,235,862 |
| 8th | Bruno Politano | Brazil | $947,077 |
| 9th | Mark Newhouse | United States | $730,725 |
2013 WSOP Main Event 2015 WSOP Main Event
About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.