The ultimate goal for every poker player is to make the November Nine of the WSOP Main Event. Doing so not only puts a lot of money in your pocket, it also garners you a certain amount of fame that wouldn’t be achievable in any other event.

If you make the Main Event final table, prepare to have your name Googled a gazillion times, to have countless articles written about you, and to have people analyze your play endlessly.

Prepare to also be in the spotlight for the following year’s WSOP! Everyone wants to see if you can cash another event; was your final table the real deal or did you just get lucky?

We’re about half way through the 2011 WSOP. Let’s take a look at how the November Niners from 2010 have fared so far.

2010′s Main Event champion, Jonathan Duhamel, is back in 2011 and looking for another bracelet. He might not top his grand prize of $8,944,310 from last year, but he wouldn’t mind coming close. The only event that he has cashed so far, however, is Event 8.

He went quite deep in Event 8, which featured No-Limit Hold’em for $1,000. A whopping 423 people cashed, and he placed 54th for $9,738. He was eliminated by Michael Trujillo after pushing Q8o and getting called by K7s. No suck out occurred and Duhamel said “Good game!” before leaving.

John Racener placed 2nd in the 2010 Main Event, winning $5,545,955 for his efforts. Of last year’s November Nine, he has cashed the most so far this year. He has made the money in two tournaments, and one of them was a final table!

His first cash was in Event 15, a $1.5k Pot Limit Hold’em tournament. He was eliminated in 39th place for $4,802. In his final hand, he got in his chips preflop with AJo against Charles Ritchie’s QQ and couldn’t hit the board.

Racener came close to another bracelet as he made the final table of Event 23, a $2.5k Eight-Game Mix tournament. He was eliminated however, in 8th place, during Stud 8/b. He got his money in good against Eric Buchman, but he was unable to hold. His consolation prize was $24,797.

Joseph Cheong, who placed 3rd in last year’s Main Event for $4,130,049, has yet to make the money in WSOP 2011. He is currently playing Event 31, which is a $3k Pot Limit Omaha tournament. It is Day 1 right now, and at the time of writing, Cheong was sitting as a short stack at around 10bb.

The fourth place finisher in 2010′s WSOP Main Event was Filippo Candio, who received $3,092,545 for his efforts. Candio has managed to make the money in one tournament so far this year, his lone cash coming in Event 13. Candio won his first table in this $1.5k Shootout tournament, which meant that he was guaranteed to win at least $4,998. He was unable to win his next table, however, and never made it to Day 3.

Michael Mizrachi, the 5th place finisher in last year’s Main Event for $2,332,992, has yet to money an event this year. He came close in Event 29 which is scheduled to pay 42 players, but he unfortunately busted in around 55th place. You can bet that he will be playing several more events, though, so it’s only a matter of time before he finally cashes.

Last year’s 6th place finisher received $1,772,959 and goes by the name of John Dolan. Dolan has two cashes so far this year. The first came in Event 4 when he placed 47th for $15,814. His second cash came in Event 15, the same Pot Limit Hold’em event that Racener cashed. He fell slightly short of Racener, busting 71st for $2,912.

That rounds out the cashes for the 2010 November Niners so far this year. Jason Senti, Matthew Jarvis, and Soi Nguyen are yet to be seen in the list of WSOP cashes, but I would wager a pretty penny that they’ll be out in full force for the second half of the series. Will one of the November Niners win a bracelet this year? Be sure to stay tuned to FTR to find out!