It’s no surprise the World Series of Poker is about to wrap up yet another year of successful tournaments. This year marked the 40th year for the World Series of Poker which began back in May and will soon wrap up come November as the Main Event returns with the ‘November 9’ (more on that in a bit). There were 57 events in this year’s WSOP as two new tournaments were added to the mix in 2009 as well as a new sponsor (Jack Link’s Beef Jerky). The ‘40th Annual No-Limit Hold’em’ event was added in honor of this being the 40th year for the WSOP with a whopping (no surprise here) $40,000 buy in. Another special tournament played in this year’s series was the annual ‘Ante Up For Africa’ event which was started back in 2006 by Don Cheadle and Annie Duke. Thus far the efforts made from this tournament have raised over 2 million dollars and will only continue to grow in the future.

Thanks to ESPN we all get the privilege of watching the coverage of these tournaments as well as the rest of the World Series of Poker in the comfort of our own home. Which brings me to the Main Event and the ‘November 9’ that are set to resume play come November 7th as ESPN will once again bring us the coverage as the new world champion will be crowned. Last year’s winner, Peter Eastgate, will not be able to defend his crown this year as he felt short of making the final table (he’s got a couple million reason to be fine with that). Though there is one poker pro that is stealing the headlines and who of which is already a living legend, is Mr. Phil Ivey. Okay so no secret on that one but Ivey has his best shot ever to win the Super Bowl of poker tournaments. Ivey is currently sitting in seventh place right now with a total of 9,765,000 chips. The players who will join Ivey at the final table consist of (no particular order) Darvin Moon, James Akenhead, Antoine Saout, Eric Buchman, Steven Begleiter, Joseph Cada, Kevin Schaffel, and last but not least fellow poker pro Jeff Shulman.

Speaking of Jeff Shulman, his father Barry Shulman, just edged out Daniel Negreanu for the Main Event title of the World Series of Poker Europe. If Jeff would go on to win the WSOP Main Event here in America I would just have to guess it would be the first time a father and son won both events in the same year (just a hunch). The World Series of Poker usually never disappoints and this year was no different. Every year we get the best of the best competing it out for hundreds of thousands of dollars and to me it doesn’t get any better than that. Stay tuned come November 7th as the November 9 returns to the felt to battle it out for this year’s Main Event champion. If you decide to play some poker in the meantime, best of luck to you and if all else fails just run good my friends.