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The November Nine: Ivan Demidov

Chip Count: 24,400,000

Ivan Demidov is a 27 year old poker player from Moscow, Russia. He is the second Russian player in two years to make the final table after Alex Kravchenko finished 4th to eventual winner Jerry Yang.

Demidov does not consider himself to be a professional player, rather a 'semi' professional, even though he plays the game for a living. He has made most of his money playing online. Previous to this years WSOP he's had two small cashes, one in a small Russian PLO event and a 3rd place in one of the preliminary events at the 2007 WPT Five Diamond Classic worth $21,710. At this years WSOP he had one cash in Event 44 ($1000 NLHE w/Rebuys) which, considering he played most events, is not a great result.

That has all changed however now he has made the November nine. Asked if he is ready for the spotlight he replied that he's not sure and that he is mainly a private person. He plans to move straight back to Russia and carry on with his normal routine, as is the plan with most of the November 9. He has kept the size of his gambling a secret from friends and family who were not really into the game, but soon got very interested when he told them he had won a guaranteed $900,000 with the chance of winning $9m!

Although he is coming into the final table second in chips, he feels that he did not play his best poker on the final day due to how prestigious the tournament is. He neglected a lot of big moves in favor of playing tight and sometimes scared, but was still able to run good in some big pots.

Early on in the day he won a big pot when he raised to 330,000 UTG and got called twice before the button moved all in for 1.84m. Demidov was the only player to make the call and flipped Ac Qs against his opponents 9h 9s. The flop was an interesting one, Jh Jd 10s but it was the Qc on the turn that won the pot for Demidov when his opponent missed on the river. That hand put him up to nearly 5.5m.

He won a bigger pot right towards the end of the day when he called a pre flop raise of 700,000. The flop came 10c 7h 3s and both players checked. The 5c came on the turn and Demidov bet 1m after his opponent checked who then made the call. The river came the Qh and Demidov this time bet 2m and again got quickly called. Demidov showed 10s 10d for a flopped set and it was good enough to beat his opponents AQ and take down an 8m pot.

Since getting to the final 9 he says the Russian forums have gone crazy and that he's not sure how his life is going to change. One thing is certain though, it definitely will.

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