This years version of the World Series of Poker is on intermission or hiatus or halftime or whichever term you prefer that quite frankly doesn’t exactly work.  In no other sport or hobby championship does such a huge part of the competition take place over a series of grueling consecutive days only to be put on pause for a few months.  The World Series and its November Nine is like no other event in the world in many respects, and the most recent alteration is no different.  Players that got off the airplane never having played more than their home game, or Texas Hold’em poker online all contended to be the next poker superstar and now only 9 will get off a flight in November to feel that excitement again.

It really doesn’t matter where they first played to learn poker they all seem to know how to play now. After besting over 7,000 players in the second largest World Series of Poker Main Event ever the November Nine is set.  They are also ready. But what’s that mean? In reality it’s ready, set…  wait.  While we all wait to see who runs best like Joe Cada, plays best like Jaime Gold (give the man his due though Paul Wasicka and Allen Cunningham were close seconds in the play the best category), or bluffs best like Chris Moneymaker, let’s take a glance at who will be in contention in a couple of months.

Here’s our first look at the profiles at the combatants that have outlasted and outwitted the rest of the field to vie for the World Championship in the biggest spectacle in poker (yes, bigger even than a Phil Helmuth entrance).

Our favorite going into the event is John Dolan.  The kid from Florida has been burning up the Gulf Coast games for some time now and was on nobody’s radar that is until he turned his short stack of two million in chips into one of the biggest stacks at the final table.  The kid showed a willingness to mix it up, perhaps some might even say a recklessness, on the bubble with everything to lose but keeping in mind he had everything to win, he went for it.  Dolan played every facet of tournament poker to a tee in the Main Event.  With the two days left in the field he basically grinded his way until the bubble.

Dolan’s effort in just making it to the bubble, might entitle him more to Michael Mizrachi’s nickname than anybody else.  The rest of the field mostly enjoyed a see-saw day or two of wide swing with the chipleader lasting for barely a level at a time, while Dolan was constantly looking up at the field.  That would change because as players tightened up, perhaps mindful of gaffes like Billy Kopp’s last year on the Novemeber Nine bubble, Dolan hit the accelerator.  Time will tell if he finally got another dose of run-good or if he just out-ran his opponents.  ESPN’s hole cams should have most of the answers.  Dolan has a little under 225k in live poker winnings (though he is guaranteed almost 900k for making the November Nine).

The oddsmakers have made Dolan the second favorite to win the Main Event behind the chipleader.  However, Dolan who has two World Series of Poker cashes this year probably made his case for player most likely to do what needed to be done by terrorizing the final table bubble.  “JRD312″ has over one million dollars in online cashes.  John Dolan also won a live tournament at the tail end of 2009 at the Winter Bayou Poker Classic.