It's time for the next prediction. Let's go straight to the tape. His name is Steven Begleiter and he goes into the final table 3rd in chips with a healthy stack just under 30 million.

He's humorous and humble. He has no qualms about discussing his many poker failures. That's my kind of player. I can root for that.

Poker is something he does for fun with his "many" friends when he's not coaching soccer or dancing between raindrops in a minefield.

Raindrops? Dancing? Minefield? What? I hope for his sake that he can put aside this odd hobby for at least the next few months. Then, after, when he's making it rain with his millions of dollars he can dance between the drops to his heart's content.

Not sure about the minefield thing though but to each his own. Check out the video we shot with him as things were wrapping up a few weeks ago.



My crystal ball appears confused and sends ambiguous messages. 'Victory' repeats and echoes relentlessly. With confidence it tells me that Steven Begleiter will soon become a Champion.

However, since I took it in to get fixed, this crystal ball has difficulty distinguishing between sporting events. Steven Begleiter will soon be a champion; state regional junior ladies soccer coaching champion. Commendable indeed but lacking the $8.5M payday.

On the felt he's already won, he said so himself. The rest is gravy. He will have fun but will be nervous.

The final table will be a humungous freeroll for Begleiter. It seems he'll be more concerned with performing well for his friends who have a piece of his action rather than for himself - a team player in an individualistic game.

He will play well throughout the session but the lights, the cameras, the glitz, the glam, it will prove too much. One big mistake will cost him but he will go far.

Prediction: He enters 3rd and that is where I predict he finishes.

Steven Begleiter Main Event WSOP 3rd place finisher!

Good luck coach.

More WSOP 2009 November Nine Predictions:

• James Akenhead
• Eric Buchman
• Joseph Cada
• Phil Ivey
• Darvin Moon
• Antoine Saout
• Kevin Schaffel
• Jeff Shulman