The November Nine: Kelly Kim

<img src="http://www.tlpoker.com.br/staff/Raidern/kellykim.jpg" align="right" style="border:1px solid black; margin:5px;">This is the start of a small series of posts in which we introduce the nine finalists of the upcoming WSOP Main Event final table. We will start it with <b>Kelly Kim</b>, who is the owner of the smallest stack among the remaining contenders and is way behind the other guys. Kim has only 2 million chips, eight million less than <b>Craig Marquis</b> who is 8th in chips.

Kelly Kim is a 31-year-old professional poker player residing in Whittier, California. Kim started playing poker in college, where he was studying Arts in Economics. Sometime after graduating, things started to get more interesting for him in Poker, and he decided to give it a shot at it as a full-time profession. Even though until last summer Kim never scored really big, he has collected a lot of cashes in various tournaments. The first important cash of his career came in the 2003 Grand Slam of Poker, a series of tournaments that took place in Gardena, California. Kim won one of the No Limit Hold’em events, defeating <b>T. J. Cloutier</b> and <b>Chad Brown</b> at the final table.

Prior to the WSOP 2008, the best results of Kim’s career came in the <b>2006 L. A. Poker Classic</b>, a WPT series. Kelly Kim final tabled one of the events and finished in 17th place in the Main Event. He earned a bit over $100,000 in that series. Kim's story with the World Series of Poker started in 2005. He cashed for the first time in the world series that year, and to make things better his cash was in the Main Event. Then in 2007, Kim got two more cashes in the series, earning over $20,000 that year. Apart from those results, Kim has more than 30 cashes in No Limit Hold’em events. He has over $350,000 in tournament winnings over the course of his career. We are obviously not considering his results at this year's WSOP.

Kelly Kim is very realistic about his chances at the final table: <i>“It’d be different if I had 15 million chips - I know I’m a huge underdog and I know I need to get lucky. I’m a tremendous favorite to finish 9th, but the fact that I’m still alive is enough for me. I’m not going to move in on the first hand, I’m a very good short stack player.”</i> It’s gonna be tough, but as we know things change really fast in poker, and his experience in tournaments can help him to prolong his life in the tournament.


<i>The November Nine consist of</i>:

Dennis Phillips - 26,295,000
Ivan Demidov - 24,400,000
<a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/news/598458/The_November_Nine:_Scott_Montgomery">Scott Montgomery</a> - 19,690,000
<a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/news/596579/The_November_Nine:_Peter_Eastgate">Peter Eastgate</a> - 18,375,000
<a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/news/594748/The_November_Nine:_Ylon_Schwartz">Ylon Schwartz</a> - 12,525,000
<a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/news/590965/The_November_Nine:_Darus_Suharto">Darus Suharto</a> - 12,520,000
<a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/news/589000/The_November_Nine:_David_Rheem">David 'Chino' Rheem</a> - 10,230,000
<a href="http://www.liquidpoker.net/news/585045/The_November_Nine:_Craig_Marquis">Craig Marquis</a> - 10,210,000
Kelly Kim - 2,620,000

right on, good luck kim.

orky soul plz

What are the blinds when they return to play?

....studying Arts in Economics?

On October 13 2008 18:33 thehoboking wrote: What are the blinds when they return to play?

They will start with $120,000-$240,000 blinds and 30.000 ante for the first 21 minutes (that's what was left of lvl 33). The blindlevel after that will be 150k/300k with 40k ante.

9BB is enough to change things, just need to get coaching on how to win flips xD... He won 350k over the course of what ? 6-7 years ? This is not very impressive, could have made more with his degree imho.

On October 14 2008 07:30 Sheitan wrote: 9BB is enough to change things, just need to get coaching on how to win flips xD... He won 350k over the course of what ? 6-7 years ? This is not very impressive, could have made more with his degree imho.

Who knows how his cash games have turned out though, if he plays any. Plus I'd rather be playing poker for a living then having a real job. I would be satisfied making the same amount of what I could be potentially making working 9 - 5 sitting in a poker room, but hey thats just me.

You have to deduct the buy-ins too... And grinding poker all day is not something you want to do believe me. Playing 4-5h/day is fun but more than it turns into a pain in the ass.

he just admitted he's not going allin first hand (under NO circumstances!). free blind stealing monies?

350k of 'tournament cashes' over that many years of playing a lot is fucking worthless. Especially since he was apparently playing during the early boom years when a trained dog could have had 'various cashes' in the tournament scene. He's probably not even up on tournaments til this luckbox. I have about 60k in 'tournament cashes' on the live scene for an abbreviated half year, and that's probably up only slightly over 10k. Which all amounts to a whole lot of worthless for the time spent. Hate how articles or t.v glorifies simply the total cash won.

But hey good for him for luckbox folding his way to the FT.

On October 14 2008 17:35 iakim322 wrote: 350k of 'tournament cashes' over that many years of playing a lot is fucking worthless. Especially since he was apparently playing during the early boom years when a trained dog could have had 'various cashes' in the tournament scene. He's probably not even up on tournaments til this luckbox. I have about 60k in 'tournament cashes' on the live scene for an abbreviated half year, and that's probably up only slightly over 10k. Which all amounts to a whole lot of worthless for the time spent. Hate how articles or t.v glorifies simply the total cash won. But hey good for him for luckbox folding his way to the FT.

Dude, it's just information, you do with it what you want but everybody with half a brain knows that doesnt tell the whole story (you need to deduct buyins and online or cash game winnings or losses are not included). It's impossible to know how much he's up or down, the only information that is known is his tournament winnings, so I think stating those is better than not stating anything at all.

"so I think stating those is better than not stating anything at all."

Yea I guess you're right about that I suppose. But about the half a brain part...it's not really that. It's just lack of being in the poker world setting and because I hang around of people who are part of the ignorant of poker, play 25 dollar home games even though they make 80-90k/yr, just watch poker on t.v crowd...it's a pet peeve of mine to see idiots like norman chad wet his pants over some guy who has avg'd TWO wsop cashes in a year!!! Or some shit like that. Because when he does stuff like that, a lot of people (not necessarily flat out dumb people) don't know any better.

You should add the list "The November Nine consist of:" And do it the same way as in the Craig Marquis article.
Will be nice when all nine has their presentation.