November Nine: James Akenhead

<img align="right" src=http://www.liquidpoker.net/staff/Pindarots/09/jamesakenhead.jpg style="margin:5px; border: 1px solid black;">In little less than 1 month time we'll know who will be crowned the new No-Limit Hold'em World Champion as the final table of the World Series of Poker Main Event is coming closer. As we did last year, we want to give you a preview of this final table by introducing all 9 players to you before it all starts. We'll start with the shortest stack today, James Akenhead and will end with the chipleader, Darvin Moon. The players will start with 120k/240k blinds with 30k ante.

These are the seatings like they will be when they start at November 7th:

Seat 1: Darvin Moon - 58,930,000
Seat 2: James Akenhead - 6,800,000
Seat 3: Phil Ivey - 9,765,000
Seat 4: Kevin Schaffel - 12,390,000
Seat 5: Steven Begleiter - 29,885,000
Seat 6: Eric Buchman - 34,800,000
Seat 7: Joe Cada - 13,215,000
Seat 8: Antoine Saout - 9,500,000
Seat 9: Jeff Shulman - 19,580,000

James "Mokka" Akenhead's was born in 1983 born in London. Both his parents were teachers, but Akenhead didn't follow their footsteps. Instead he dropped out of school because he was too lazy, a move he still regrets. He got to work for the railways and became the youngest train driver in England. In the meantime he started playing poker, and at some point he decided that there was more money to be made on the pokertable. He quit his job in 2006 and he played tournaments ranging from $100 to $1000 buy-in.

He cashed a few times in these smaller events and won a couple of side-events. This earned him a decent pay in the first 2 years, but his big breakthrough came in 2008, when he played the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event at the World Series of Poker. He managed to make it to the final table and even managed to end heads-up for the bracelet against Grant Hinkle. While Hinkle started with a big chiplead, Akenhead fought back and managed to get almost even in stacks when a cruc<A name="cutnews"></A>ial hand happened. With over 30 big blinds he managed to get it all-in preflop with against Hinkles . A sick flop and the on the turn ended his dreams of winning the bracelet.

However, it wasn't his only shot at a bracelet. He later cashed in the World Series of Poker Europe event 1 as he finished 39th, and this year he even managed to make it to the final table of the Main Event of the WSOPE. Unfortunately for him, a 9th place was all he could do, so a double Main Event-title will have to wait a little longer. Thus far he's earned himself $800,127 in tournament winnings before this Main Event, and he'll add at least $1,263,602 to that in November.

Akenhead's last day in the Main Event before the final table was a pretty rough one. He started the day with little over 8 million chips, but arrived 5 minutes late and within 15 minutes he lost a big part of his stack when he had KK against AA. He fought back and got his stack up to 12 million, before he got crippled once again, doubling up Antoine Saout with AK failing to hit against the 88 of Saout. Doubling up with KQ against AA, and later winning a few smaller pots, he ended the day with 6.8 million chips, which is what he'll bring to this final table. Winning this is a long shot as his stack is the shortest and his odds of winning this are estimated at 22:1. While he does have position on the chipleader, he's got Phil Ivey on his immediate left...

Oh, i thought it was an article about Durrr at first sight ^^

On October 12 2009 09:30 VanDerMeyde wrote: Oh, i thought it was an article about Durrr at first sight ^^

haha me too ^^

I could've used this pic:

would be nice if they made it november the ninth
feels weird being nov 7th

meh, 7th is a saturday though so i guess its better for the fish

sick dog

cant wait to see the uncut footage. so much more intense than just watching all the coinflips

On October 12 2009 11:15 Ket wrote:

LETS GO BRITAIN

LOL ket

PHIL IVEY

PHIL IVEY

i played with this guy alot last year in the wsop.. everyone was saying he was some phenom in the tourny games.. he was pretty good.

The hand in question, so sick.

akenhead is ok certainly not a prodigy from my experience

lol that hand

On October 12 2009 21:40 FrinkX wrote: akenhead is ok certainly not a prodigy from my experience

hes from britain, so he talks funny and probably isnt even that good

GO IVEY, FK AKENBRIT UP

how light should akenhead be calling that shove?

all pairs a10s+ ?

Kind of interested in getting into tournies more anyone know a good spot to get some basic ICM information?

should akenhead have much of a range that goes 1.2m-fold ?

Seems like a good bloke hope he does good and by that i mean top 3

god that is the sickest beat ever. thats what happens when 2nl stars douchers play in the wsop.

On October 13 2009 15:51 TheTank wrote: god that is the sickest beat ever. thats what happens when 2nl stars douchers play in the wsop.

63/37 sickest beat ever? right.

well in a HU match for a WPT-title its a pretty sick beat i think

donks win

Phil one time mothafucka

On October 13 2009 15:51 TheTank wrote: god that is the sickest beat ever. thats what happens when 2nl stars douchers play in the wsop.

Grant is actually really awesome, and not bad at poker. FYI aikenhead had been shitting on him that entire match and grant had raise/folded a lot. It was clear that Aikenhead was a better HU player.. so on break grant asked blair/mig/echo what he should be doing. They said to take advantage of his tight image and 4b him. Grant did it a cpl times and it worked, this time he got caught, but still had 40% equity to win.

lol AK, ITS A LOCK JERRY, ITS A LOCK!