James Akenhead – WSOP 2009 November Nine

January 2, 2010

James Akenhead is a rather famous professional poker player in the UK, Akenhead is no stranger to live tournament play, or the World Series of Poker so making the Novmember Nine for the WSOP 2009 is not a total suprise. A member of the Hit Squad, Akenhead has 20 live cashes under his belt, including 3 first place finishes and just under $700k in career earnings. Sitting precariously in the lowest chip stack position, Akenhead will surely be looking to make an early move when the November 9 reconvenes.

Name: James “Mokka” Akenhead
Age: 27
DOB: N/A
Astrological Sign: N/A
Hometown: London, England, United Kingdom
Total Live Tournament Winnings: $691,767
First Place Finishes: 3
Total Cashes: 20
WSOP Cashes: 2
WSOP Bracelets: 0

James Akenhead is a professional poker player hailing from London, England. His poker career has been fairly successful, especially considering he began only 4 years ago and has already amassed nearly $700k in live tournament cashes. Coming this November, however, that will all change as James Akenhead has secured himself a seat in the 2009 WSOP Main Event’s November Nine, guaranteed to go home with at least $1.2 million.

Akenhead has probably already come to terms with the fact that he could very well be the first to exit stage left when the final table commences on November 7, 2009. His sits oh-so precariously in the shortest chip stack position with just 6.8 million to his name. A far cry from Darvin Moon’s leading stack of 58.93 million.

The United Kingdom is surely proud of their young poker star, whose exploits over the last few years have been notably praise worthy. His first finish in the money was little to brag about, coming in a late 2005 Hold’em Series where a 12th place finish earned him just $439. Since then, however, the cashes just seem to increase.

In 2006, James Akenhead took five live tournament cashes, exponentially growing with each finish – $3.5k, $4.6k, $6.4k, $9.1k and $14.6k. The last two were 1st place finishes at the Caribbean Poker Classic and Ultimate Poker Challenge.

James Akenhead has seen incredible success at the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour over his short career. He’s cashes 6 times in the GUKPT, reeling in over $100k combined.

Akenhead is no stranger to the World Series of Poker, either. The largest cash of his career came on May 31, 2008 in NL Holdem Event #2 of the WSOP. Akenhead nearly took the bracelet, but fell just shy against eventual winner Grant Hinkle. His 2nd place finish was worth $520,219. Though he did not take the bracelet, James did manage to outlast Chris “Jesus” Ferguson (3rd) and Theo Tran (4th).

In September of that same year, James Akenhead found himself seated in the WSOP Europe, where he finished in 39th place at Event #1 NL Holdem for $6,104.

Akenhead is a member of Team Full Tilt Poker, and will be joining his fellow Full Tilt Pro Phil Ivey at the final table of the 2009 WSOP Main Event. He will also be joining Antoine Saout as the only two non-US players to make the November Nine.

Akenhead’s WSOP experience will jump substantially in November as he finishes him run at the final table. His career earnings are guaranteed to nearly double with a minimum $1.2 million cash; with the potential to jump by $8.5 million.

James Akenhead is a member of the “Hit Squad”, alongside fellow poker pros Praz Bansi, Chaz Chattha, Sunny Chattha, and Karl Mahrenholz. When a question of ‘profit sharing’ among the Hit Squad arose, Akenhead quickly responded, “We help each other now and again, but we’re not a business; we’re just a group of friends that travels together and supports each other. You always want someone on the rail cheering for you and they’re always there.”

Here is the WSOP 2009 Final Table November Nine, in order of current chip leads … check out our profiles for more on each player

Darvin Moon – 58,930,000
Eric Buchman – 34,800,000
Steven Begleiter – 29,885,000
Jeff Shulman – 19,580,000
Joseph Cada – 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel – 12,390,000
Phil Ivey – 9,765,000
Antoine Saout – 9,500,000
James Akenhead – 6,800,000