2011 November Nine: Mr. Run Good AKA Ben Lamb

Each year the final table of the World Series of Poker brings together an interesting mix of poker players, and 2011 is no different in that regard. With three top US poker pros; four, young, talented, international players that are looking to make a name for themselves; and two older, yet seemingly more inexperienced, players rounding out the November Nine.

In this series I’ll take a look at each of the November Nine and weight their chances of winning the WSOP Main Event based on their play, their chip count, and their seating assignment. Next up on the list is Ben Lamb.

But first here is a look at the chip counts and seating assignments for each player:

• Seat 1: Matt Giannetti from Las Vegas, NV – 24,750,000 chips
• Seat 2: Badih Bounahra from Belize City, Belize – 19,700,000 chips
• Seat 3: Eoghan O’Dea from Dublin, Ireland – 33,925,000 chips
• Seat 4: Phil Collins from Las Vegas, NV – 23,875,000 chips
• Seat 5: Anton Makiievskyi from Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine – 13,825,000 chips
• Seat 6: Sam Holden from Sussex, UK – 12,375,000 chips
• Seat 7: Pius Heinz from Cologne, Germany – 16,425,000 chips
• Seat 8: Ben Lamb from Tulsa, OK – 20,875,000 chips
• Seat 9: Martin Staszko from Trinec, Czech Republic – 40,175,000 chips

Don’t let the title of the article fool you, Ben Lamb is no luck-box, the young pro has been tearing up the high-stakes cash games and tournament trail for a few years now, and is considered one of the best young players in poker amongst his peers.

Lamb was brought to the attention of the general poker public thanks to his spectacular 2011 WSOP run -which obviously isn’t over quite yet!

Lamb won his first WSOP bracelet in the $10k PLO Championship where he booked an $816k win, and this was on the heels of his runner-up finish in the $3,000 PLO tournament! Lamb then went on to final table the $50k Players Championship, and in all cashed five-times in the 2011 WSOP, bringing his career total to 13 WSOP cashes.

This is Lamb’s second deep Main Event run; in 2009 Lamb finished in 14^th place in the Main Event pocketing a $633k payday, a number he has already surpassed as he is now guaranteed at least 9^th place in the 2011 tournament.

Lamb has not only been running good with the cards he is dealt, but he is also running really good with his seat position at the final table, which is why despite a 20 million chip-stack he has to be considered one of the favorites to win the 2011 Main Event. Because of all of these factors, I’m putting Lamb at 4-to-1 to win the Main Event.