2011 November Nine: The online legend Phil Collins

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 Phil Collins, AKA “USCphildo” online.

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

Besides Ben Lamb the most well-known player remaining in the Main Event is Phil Collins. However, most poker enthusiasts wouldn’t know him by his given name, but rather by his online moniker of “USCphildo” where has tallied an impressive resume that includes over $3 million in career online tournament winnings. Amazingly almost all of Collins’ online scores were five-figure affairs, making him the true definition of an online tournament grinder!

Prior to his deep run in the 2011 Main Event Collins has had only marginal success in live tournaments, but all that changed now that he is a member of the 2011 November Nine. With a good seat at the table Collins has an excellent chance to win the WSOP Main Event, and should Ben Lamb stumble early Collins has to be considered the odds on favorite considering the table draw.

The 26 year-old Collins is also a very professional player; he takes poker very seriously, was married at a young age and is not considered a “partier” by the poker community. With a strong local support system that includes some of the best poker players in the world as friends he’ll also have some extensive experience to draw upon as he prepares for the November Nine.

I’m going to put Collins at 4-to-1 win the Main Event -the same odds I gave Ben Lamb and Eoghan O’Dea -all three I consider equally likely to win the tournament.