Recently in 2008 World Series Category

They called them the Million Dollar Men, the November Nine and the PokerStars Six. But everyone knew that when the smoke cleared there could only be one of them left standing. And now we know his name.

The 2008 World Series Main Event champion is 22-year-old Peter Eastgate, from Odense, Denmark.

It took four hours of tense heads up competition against Ivan Demidov, from Moscow, Russia to reach this point, with records being smashed left and right along the way. The World Series Main Event has never had two players from outside of the United States going heads up for the title; there's has never been a final table lasting so long; tournament blinds have never before reached one million; and perhaps most impressive of all, Eastgate is the youngest ever world champion. At just 22 years old, he has knocked two years off the previous youngest mark set by Phil Hellmuth in 1989.

At around about 2.30am Vegas time, Demidov announced that he was all in looking at a board of 2d-Ks-3h-4c-7s. He might have felt good about doubling his dwindling stack as he table 4h-2h for two pairs. But Eastgate was going nowhere except into the winners' enclosure. He flipped Ad-5s for the wheel -- a straight ace through five -- to take the title and a first prize of $9,152,416.

"When I got my opponents all in, my hands held up every time; I was very fortunate," said Eastgate. "They were eight tough opponents," he added, referring to the vanquished competitors through two days of final table competition. Craig Marquis, Kelly Kim, David Rheem, Darus Suharto, Scott Mongomery, Ylon Schwartz and Dennis Phillips all hit the rail in yesterday's titanic struggle. But that's to say nothing of more than 6,700 others who came to Vegas clutching $10,000 back in July, whose chips are now all in front of Eastgate.

In truth, this heads-up battle was one way traffic, with Eastgate admitting that the deck was definitely with him today. In two key pots, he made a diamond flush with 7-4 and he turned a full house with pocket threes in another pot worth upwards of 10 million. Yesterday he'd also found small pocket pairs to oust opponents, beating Schwartz with pocket fives that made a full boat on the river, and removing the final table chip leader Dennis Phillips with pocket threes, flopping a decisive set.

That brought us to the final two, and most commentators agreed that Demidov and Eastgate deserved to be the ones to go head-to-head for the bracelet. Demidov, who also made the final table of World Series Europe this year, clearly remains a class act despite finishing second today. "I was trying to get my opponent to make mistakes. He makes very few mistakes," said Eastgate. "We will see a lot more of him in the coming years."

Demidov took his defeat as you might expect. He was crushed to take second, but comforted by the $5,809,595 he will cash out of the Rio cage. Demidov final tabled the World Series Europe Main Event this year while waiting for the Main Event of the World Series in Las Vegas to finish in November.

"When someone runs good like me, it helps," he said tonight after his finish. "I felt a lot more confident."

The deck did not treat him as well tonight. "I couldn't connect with a hand," he said. "I lost every big pot, when I tried to bluff, he had always had a hand."

For now, though, it's all about this young record breaker from Denmark. It was his first cash in a World Series event, and only his second final table in a major tournament. But he's already shooting for the very top: "I'm going for 11 bracelets," he said.

Why not 12?

Every World Series final table has carried with it a sense of anticipation, but none quite like the one we watched today.

It was an historic final table four months in the making. Nine men from around the world reconvened after an extended poker vacation. They walked into the Rio Hotel and Casino Penn and Teller Theater this morning knowing that when they left tonight, they would know if they still had a chance at winning poker's most coveted prize and nine million bucks.

Tonight, we know who among those nine men have that shot.

Denmark's Peter Eastgate and Russia's Ivan Demidov will return to this theater Monday night to play heads up for the World Series bracelet.

Among the November 9 who started here today were six members of the PokerStars family. The Million Dollar Men were better known as Dennis "FordMan1954" Phillips, Darus "Dennis_TO" Sahurto, Ivan "hasuling" Demidov, Ylon "TenthPlanet" Schwartz, David "Chino" Rheem and Peter "Isser" Eastgate. They faced off against off against Craig Marquis, Scott Montgomery, and Kelly Kim.

Although the event started slowly, it quickly turned to a bloodbath. Marquis was the first to go after opening-shoving pocket sevens into Scott Montgomery's A-Q. Marquis loved the 7c-Ah-Td flop. Just to keep the audience engaged, tournament director went through the long recitation of ways Montgomery could suck out.

"He could catch running aces. He could catch running queens," etc, etc.

He failed to mention the possibility of running jack-king. He should've mentioned that. Sure enough, the Jd on the turn and Ks on the river and Craig Marquis went from overwhelming favorite to the ninth place finisher in the 2008 World Series of Poker, earning $900,670.

Kelly Kim and his short stack gave the Cinderella story lovers an opportunity to root for a comeback. After surviving well past when anybody thought he would, Kim finally gave up the ghost, getting pocket fours all-in against three players. He was out-flopped by Darus Suharto's 9c-Tc and Kim went out in eighth place for a $1,288,217 payday.

Still alive were all of the PokerStars Million Dollar Men. With six out of the seven left in the field, it was only a matter of time before one had to go. That man was David "Chino" Rheem. An early favorite among prognosticators, Rheem had a hard time finding consistent traction today. Finally, he got his short stack all-in, and got it in good. Rheem open-shoved with As-Kc and got a call from Peter Eastgate in the small blind. Eastgate held Ah-Qd. As always, everything looked fine until the flop: Qs-5s-7d. Rheem bricked twice and was eliminated in seventh place $1,7772,650.

"I would have changed the last hand," Rheem offered, when asked if he would have done anything different. "One hand I got unlucky and that cost me my bracelet. But that's poker."

That, of course, is poker, and now Rheem returns to the cash games and tournament circuit with a reputation only enhanced by this World Series experience. "I'll try to stay positive and say there's always next year," he said. "But the odds, you know..."

Rheem gets a hug from Suharto on his way out

While the stories of these eliminations were worth reporting, the big story of the day had been Dennis Phillips' epic fall from the chip lead. Starting with more than 25 million chips, he'd fallen below ten million and looked ripe to exit early. It took getting A-Q in against Ylon Schwartz' Q-Q and flopping an ace to get back in the game.

Phillips celebrates, Schwartz endures

Chino Rheem's exit left Darus Suharto as the short-stack in the event. Suharto found himself in a position in which he had to start looking for good opportunities. When Scott Montgomery opened for a standard raise at the 250,000/500,000/50,000 level, Suharto shoved all in for a little more than 8 million. He held Ah-8c.

Though he sat with a Terminator look behind his shades, a close up camera highlighted his heavy breathing. To the outside observer, it was impossible to say whether he was putting it on or in fact nervous. Montgomery decided it was time to look up Suharto. He made the call with a half smile, turning over As-Qd. Suharto winced. He knew he was in trouble.

Though neither player paired on the flop, it was soul-crushing anyway: K-J-2, all spades. Montgomery's ace of spades was just begging for one more of its kind. It came on the turn. The 4s gave Montgomery the nuts. Suharto's magnificent run at the 2008 World Series of Poker was finished. He earned $2,418,562.
Suhrto reflects

Suharto reflects on his final hand

Of all the things that happened today, and there were many, the most startling came next. In a raise, re-raise, all-in battle, Montgomery pushed and got snap-called by Demidov.

In what would become the biggest pot of the tournament yet (worth around 50 million by our count), Montgomery turned over a startling Ad-9d. Not as surprising was Demidov's Ks-Kd. Montgomery had Demidov's 24,435,000 covered. The crowd called for their man's ace or their man's king as the dealer laid out a perfectly frightening 6d-4d-6c flop, Two diamonds and the three remaining aces remained for Montgomery.

He missed twice, sending Demidov into an uncharacteristic dance around the stage. At once, he was the new chip leader.

Demidov rakes in his chip lead

Montgomery went out a few hands later, getting one-outered on the river by Peter Eastgate. He finished in fifth place for $3,096,768.

Four-handed, play slowed down dramatically before finishing the night in one-two-punch fashion.
First, Peter Eastgate raised pre-flop to the now-standard 1.5 million. Schwartz called from the small blind. Both players checked a flop of 2s-Kh-8h and after the Kd came on the turn, Schwartz checked but Eastgate bet another 1.75 million. Schwartz called.

The river was the 5d and again Schwartz checked, Eastgate bet 4.6 million and Schwartz moved all in, for 12.5 million more. Eastgate called and tabled pocket fives, hitting his full house on the river and beating Schwartz's A-10, for ace high. Schwartz's fourth place finish earned him $3,774,974.

With three remaining, crowd favorite Dennis Phillips was the prohibitive short stack.

After Demidov folded his button, Eastgate raised from the small blind, called in the big by Phillips. The flop came Jc-4d-3s and Eastgate led out for 1.5 million. Phillips moved all in over the top, his entire stack worth 15,275,000 sliding into the middle. But it didn't even get there before Eastgate called and flipped pocket threes for the flopped set. Phillips showed 10-9 off-suit. "I couldn't keep on folding!" he declared.

In his exit interview, Phillips said, "We've had a real blast. Who would've ever thunk it? Now I get to play golf tomorrow. McFadden's everybody!" and off to the bar they went.

Peter Eastgate returns tomorrow with 79,500,000 to Ivan Demidov's 57,725,000.

Live coverage from the final table of the World Series of Poker will resume at 10pm local time Monday. Join us here as we watch history as it happens.

All photography by Joe Giron/IMPDI

The PokerStars video blog team talked frequently with PokerStars players during the World Series, meeting great characters who had interesting stories. Perhaps the best stories though are reserved for the ‘PokerStars Six’, the half dozen PokerStars players who made it to the last table of the World Series. The ‘November Nine’ will play to a winner in November.

Here's what Darus Suharto had to say in the moments after he made the final table.

Watch WSOP 08: Darus Suharto WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

Dennis Phillips told us that in the last few days of the World Series that the ESPN crews were calling him "red hat." With his autographed St. Louis Cardinals baseball cap not hard to spot in the crowd. Otherwise, the accountant from Missouri is humble enough to blend into any poker tournament.

That all changed in the last hours of the World Series when Phillips emerged as the chip leader. Now he plans to go back to work for four months and look forward to what will be one of the biggest days of his life.
Here's what he told our video blog team as he got ready to go home.

Watch WSOP 08: Dennis Phillips WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

Perhaps better known online as ‘TenthPlanet’, Ylon Schwartz is no stranger to live poker. A regular on the East Coast live poker scene, Schwartz has been around long enough to have paid his dues. Now the chess expert, lover of all games, and PokerStars, is looking to get away for a while.

He took a few minutes to talk to us before escaping to places unknown in preparation for the November final table. Here's what he had to say.

Watch WSOP 08: Ylon Schwartz WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

It's one thing to be one of the top five cash game players from your home country but it’s another thing to be at the final table of the 2008 World Series of Poker. PokerStars player Peter Eastgate happens to be both of those things.

In the blur that followed the minutes after making the final table, a stunned Eastgate talked to our video blog team. Here's what he had to say.

Watch WSOP 08: Peter Eastgate WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

David "Chino" Rheem is a young up-and-comer in the poker world. The PokerStars player had a big contingent of the game’s famous players on the rail cheering his every play as he made the final table.
The Californian talked to the PokerStars video blog team as he stepped away from the World Series for a 117-day break. Here's what he had to say.

Watch WSOP 08: David Rheem WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

In minutes that followed PokerStars player Ivan Demodov's making it to the final table he was still in shock. After coming all the way from Moscow to compete in his first major live tournament, Demidov could barely find the words to explain what had just happened to him.

Now, Demidov is set to become a superstar in Russia and around the poker world. Here is what he had to say in the moments after making the final table.

Watch WSOP 08: Ivan Demidov WSOP Finalist on PokerStars.tv

In the Rio Amazon Room, there is no Monday. There is no July. Time and date are irrelevant. There is no news from around the world, lamentations about the economy, or even the usual banal discussion of the weather. It took rain in the desert to get anyone to notice the sky. In the thunderdome that is the World Series of Poker, all that matters is life and death at the World Series of Poker table. Once the fallen are carried out and given their due seconds of respect, all that remains is hope for the living.

This has been the case during the days that are defined by number instead of name. Through four day ones, two day twos, and the subsequent days three, four, five and six, even numerologists were stymied. Here, the calendar read Day 7 and that meant only 27 people remained with their life-blood chips. Everyone knew that two-thirds of that number would walk away with at least a quarter million bucks, but a lifetime of what-ifs about what could've been. Nobody could predict or control who would be here at the end of the night. All we knew is that nine people would be able to walk out of this room tonight with their chins up and their eyes set on a $9 million prize.

From here on out, they will be known as the November Nine--the final nine of 6,844 runners who started the 2008 World Series Main Event and emerged tonight with the right to come back in four months and fight for the championship bracelet. Among those players are the PokerStars Six, a tough combination of PokerStars players who will be part of history in November.

In all, PokerStars players have already cashed for more than $9 million combined in the Main Event. The PokerStars Six will have their chance at a total of another $32.6 million that's up for grabs in November.
Here is a look at the PokerStars players who will return to compete for poker's biggest prize.

Dennis Phillips -- (2,620,000)--Dennis Phillips is an accountant from St. Louis, Missouri who has done his home town proud. His has not yet been seen without an autographed St. Louis Cardinals cap and speaks fondly of his Show-Me State roots. Phillips is a regular at Harrahs St. Louis and plays live there as often as he can. It cost him $200 to get into this Main Event. He plans to leave Vegas and go back to his job for the four months between now and the final table in November. That, and he said, "play a lot of poker." Not a bad plan for the World Series chip leader.

Ivan Demidov -- (24,400,000) -- Ivan Demidov is from Moscow Russia. "We're having a good year," he says of himself and his countrymen. This year, he placed 11th in the $1,000 rebuy event. Both a tournament and cash game player, Demidov is a 27-year-old online semi-pro. A friend and backer helped him raise the $10,000 to get into the event. The 2008 World Series is his first major live tournament. Demidov has a degree in math and is looking to bring home the big numbers for mother Russia.

Peter Eastgate -- (18,375,000) -- Peter Eastgate is a 22-year-old PokerStars player. He is known as a fearless but volatile player, among the top five online pros in Denmark. He mainly plays high-stakes cash games - $200-400 short-handed or heads-up. Jacob Rasmussen, who came 5th at EPT4 Dortmund, was asked if Peter Eastgate was the next Gus Hansen. He said, "Not really. It's more like Gus Hansen is the first Peter Eastgate." Eastgate has said all along he won't think about the final table until he makes it. Now, he has.

Ylon Schwartz -- (12,525,000) -- A native New Yorker -- born in Manhattan and now living in Brooklyn -- Ylon Schwartz is a chess whizz and a poker player with 11 previous cashes in World Series events dating back to 2005. He's equally at home playing chess in the super-competitive games in New York's Washington Square Park, idling the time in Golden Nugget low limit ring games or tearing up the major poker tournaments in the east coast casinos of Atlantic City and Foxwoods. You can find him playing as TenthPlanet on PokerStars.

Darus Suharto -- (12,520,000) -- Darus Suharto is from Toronto, Canada. He is an accountant who loves his job so much, he would find it hard to quit, even if he won the World Series Main Event. He would like to find more time to play poker, but because he spends so much time working, most of his tournament poker experience comes from playing online. He qualified for his seat on PokerStars and has already forgotten about his modest cash from the World Series in 2006.

David “Chino” Rheem -- (10,230,000)-- David “Chino” Rheem has had a great year, taking 5th place in the $5k NL tournament in June for $93,624. The 28-year-old from Miami, Florida has enjoyed a string of tournament successes recently including five WSOP cashes in the last three years. This includes $327,981 in the 2006 $1,000 NLHE event. In the main event David was among the chip leaders each day, and rallied superbly when a series of bad hands almost eliminated him in the latter stages but bounced back to make the November Nine.

Team PokerStars Pros were also out in force at this year's WSOP, including former world champions Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer and Joe Hachem, as well as poker legends Daniel Negreanu and Barry Greenstein. Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin lasted longest with a 64th place finish for $96,500. Three other Team PokerStars Pros also cashed - Hevad Khan (240th) for $35,383; Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier (370th) for $28,950 and Vanessa Rousso (625th) for $21,230.

Kara Scott, presenter of the PokerStars European Poker Tour, was sponsored into the main event by PokerStars and was thrilled - in her first ever WSOP - to make 104th place for $41,816. Kirill Gerasimov from Russia and Jan Heitmann from Germany, also both backed by PokerStars, both cashed in 439th and 585th place respectively. PokerStars also sponsored celebrities such as Jason Alexander from "Seinfeld", Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon, "ER" actor Mekhi Phifer, MMA fighter Chuck Liddell, MLB greats David Wells and Orel Hershiser and Indy stock car racer Gualter Salles.

This feels at the same time a conclusion and delayed satisfaction. We will all leave this giant convention center tonight with a feeling that we are finished. Yet, we all know that in four short months the real contest will begin with the biggest money and fame on the line.

So, at this hour we cannot say goodbye. We can only say goodnight and see you later. It's been yet another astounding World Series for PokerStars and the PokerStars Blog. Over the course of the next several months you can expect to see a lot more on the PokerStars Six. Until then, thanks for reading and congratulations to all the PokerStars players for their performance here at the 2008 World Series.

By the PokerStars World Series blog team in Las Vegas...

It had to happen and now it has. We have reached three tables in the World Series main event.

Three tables, 27 players, one more day until we reach the final nine. Along the way, there were all the twists and turns we expect as we reach the business end of these monster tournaments. We had vast crowds, mountains of chips, huge checks being written and countless stories. We even had a rainstorm.

But when the clouds cleared we were left with a sharper picture of where this thing is headed -- and as ever, PokerStars players feature heavily in any reportage.

What started as a 79-strong field of players at noon ended with three tables in less than twelve hours. Among the remaining 27 are eight PokerStars players. Here they are with their approximate chip counts.

David “Chino” Rheem -- (8,280,000)-- David “Chino” Rheem is having a great time since he arrived in Vegas. Not only did he take 5th place in the $5k NL tournament in June for $93,624, he also won a super satellite back in April for a $25,700 seat in the WPT Five Star World Poker Classic. Generally, the 28-year-old from Miami, Florida has enjoyed a string of tournament successes recently including five WSOP cashes in the last three years. This includes $327,981 in the 2006 $1,000 NLHE event.

Chris Klodnicki -- (6,245,000)--Chris Klodnicki is a 23-year-old professional poker player from New Jersey. He started playing six years ago after getting some instruction from his brother. After running over home games and the poker scene in Atlantic City, Klodnicki turned pro. After a couple of unsuccessful World Series tries, Klodnicki returned this year to play. After coming runner-up to Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein in the Razz event, Klodnicki has made a massive run through the Main Event field.

Brandon Cantu--(4,740,000)--PokerStars player Brandon Cantu is both a World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker winner. The latter of these he won back in June 2006 as a 25-year-old, taking $757,839 for first place in what was then the largest non-main event field in WSOP history, a $1,000 buy-in hold 'em tournament. More recently, his WPT crown at the Bay 101 Shooting Stars in March of this year swelled his bankroll to the tune of $1 million. Now, he’s looking at the possibility of a $9 million payday in the World Series Main Event.

Darus Suharto -- (4,510,000) -- Darus Suharto is from Toronto, Canada. He is an accountant who loves his job so much, he would find it hard to quit, even if he won the World Series Main Event. He would like to find more time to play poker, but because he spends so much time working, most of his tournament poker experience comes from playing online. He’s looking to improve on his modest in-the-money finish from last year.

Owen Crowe -- (3,800,000) -- Known as “ocrowe” to just about everyone in the online poker world, Owen Crowe is a 26-year-old professional poker player. Famed for a monster year in 2006, it’s been a good World Series for the Canadian who took over $81,000 last month in a $1,500 no limit hold’em event for his eighth place finish. Now he’s already better than that in the Main Event and guaranteed $257,334 as he goes into the final day of play before the final table break.

Ylon Schwartz -- (3,655,000) -- A native New Yorker -- born in Manhattan and now living in Brooklyn -- Ylon Schwartz is a chess whizz and a poker player with 11 previous cashes in World Series events dating back to 2005. He's equally at home playing chess in the super-competitive games in New York's Washington Square Park, idling the time in Golden Nugget low limit ring games or tearing up the major poker tournaments in the east coast casinos of Atlantic City and Foxwoods.

Tim Loecke -- (2,280,000) -- From Highland Park, Illinois, Loecke is a 37-year-old who still maintains his Iowa farm boy roots. He once said, “I used to milk 70 cows a day as a kid.” Now he is a director of sales who dreams of winning big enough money that he can use it for such things as restoring the little league baseball program in his hometown, Greeley, Iowa.

Phi Nguyen -- (1,020,000) --Phi Nguyen is no stranger to the World Series and as a double bracelet winner, winning the $2,500 no limit hold’em event in 2003 and the $1,500 hold’em shootout a year later, the Californian would be one of the favourites were it not for a short stack. He has impressive form this year having narrowly missed out on the final table in the $1,000 no limit hold’em, finishing tenth for $36,176. He also has numerous World Series and WPT cashes to his name and career winnings of $1.3 million.

The few became fewer today. This beleaguered poker bastion known as the Amazon Room got smaller and smaller and its surviving 79 occupants endured another day of triumph and trauma. The camp was small as players took their seats at high noon and by 11:30pm what remained were just a handful of tables with thousands of wide spectator eyes fixed upon them.

The whole room had taken on a different atmosphere today, with the tables from previous days gone and the area of action reduced table by table towards the main stage. It was quite a day, one of ups and downs for those playing under the PokerStars banner, headed by Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin, with the likes of sponsored player Kara Scott equally popular with the railbirds.

PokerStars player Kara Scott

But on days like these surviving the cut depends on chips, cards, courage and that all important bit of luck. For much of this week Kara had the chips, the courage and didn’t need the cards, but that last bit of luck drained away this evening, her magnificent main event performance ended fittingly in front of the cameras and crowds on the feature table, her KQ running into AT on an AK4 flop to mark the end of an effort worth $41,816 for 104th place.

It was not all about goodbyes. Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin, who already has a final table to his name this year, continued his pursuit of the ultimate second making a powerful start, bouncing his way up into the millions.

Victor Ramdin

Victor excelled, flying as high as the three million mark before a harsh dose of tournament reality struck, costing him much of his fortune. He ended the day with just under a million, certainly enough for a player of his calibre to return to make his mark on Day 6.

As we find year on year it’s not just the quantity of PokerStars players that impresses, but also the quality.
Romanian player Cristian Dragomir has enjoyed a somewhat meteoric rise up the chip lists from day one to now. His story is one of the ultimate spin-up, having won $1.87 on a freeroll four years ago which he gradually increased into thousands. In a nice parallel he’s done the same here. At the end of day one he had 55,000, a day later he was up to 193,000. Yesterday that figure was 824,000 and then in the first couple of levels this afternoon he jacked that up to 2.5 million. He returns tomorrow slightly down at 1.8million.

Cristian Dragomir

His story could potentially be a big one, not least in his native Romania.

"It's huge," he said. "I just read on the internet that I'm going to be on the news. All my friends back home are rooting for me. It's massive."

Brian Tatum, from Illinois, is making the most of his first trip to Vegas. He plays at PokerStars like it's his "morning cup of coffee" according to his girlfriend Joanne and he's on the mother of all caffeine rushes.
A mention also for Andrew Brokos who stormed towards the chip lead late today, ending with 4 million to bag and tag. Brandon Cantu, David Rheem, Greg Byard, Larry Wright, Geert Jens, Owen Crowe and Ylon Schwartz are all among those flying the flag for PokerStars heading into Day 6.

Brian Tatum

But where there is joy there is also loss. There’s something ingrained onto the DNA of poker players that sees success as nothing short of total victory. Whilst a top 100 finish right now seem an incredible feat, years down the line a poker player will look on it more as a missed opportunity. The very best players operate in different circles to the rest of us mere mortals.

A total of 79 players survived today's onslaught, the trials and tribulations of a day that was more intense than yesterday but will come nowhere near the pressures of tomorrow when the perimeter will move even closer as we arrive at the last 27.

By the PokerStars blog team in Las Vegas

Wow. Seriously, wow.

We may have already used that word to start a previous post from today, but it becomes no less applicable in the duplicate. Wow. Seriously, wow.

Day four started an hour late after yesterday's extended bubble shenanigans, but we ended up unplugging our laptops a full level early tonight after the carnage of one of the fastest moving days in recent World Series memory. There were 474 players returning to the Amazon Room at the outset, with the idea of playing deep into the money. With 38 minutes still remaining in level 19, the tournament staff carried out a mercy killing on the day of slaughter. There were only 189 players remaining. It had been brutal.

Immovable and irresistible in that clutch of survivors is Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin. Ramdin is the man in form and has cashed in the past four tournaments in which he has played, including a final table in the $1,500 HORSE event last week. He is now well chipped up going into day five of the biggest tournament of the year.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin

Much of Ramdin's day took place under the studio lights of the ESPN feature table, and it'll be worth tuning in to the broadcast. Ramdin ended with 1,325,000 in chips and a reputation even further enhanced. It's going to be a pleasure to follow his progress tomorrow, and probably much further.

For the final hour of the night, Ramdin was joined on the television table by the PokerStars sponsored player Kara Scott, who continued her fairytale World Series.

Scott, from Brighton, England, is no stranger to the television cameras, and regularly wows poker audiences as the host of the television production of the PokerStars European Poker Tour. Now she's wowing American poker audiences for her play rather than her presenting skills and finished with 247,000 and the guaranteed largest payday of her career.

Expecting similar huge cheques to hit their bank accounts in the coming week are the regular list of PokerStars players that have owned this main event. As ever. PokerStars player Darus Suharto, from Toronto, Canada, cashed for a small amount in the main event in 2006, but is now staring at a much larger payday, provided he can translate his 1,428,000 chips into a similar amount of real money come Monday (or November).

PokerStars player Darus Suharto

Felix Osterland (1,470,000), another PokerStars player, this time from Germany, is neck and neck with Suharto's, alongside Alex Outhred (1,377,000) and Ylon Schwartz (820,000).

Of course, such is the nature of the game that one player's progression often means another's departure, and among those ending their World Series assaults today were the duo of Team PokerStars Pros with the most recognisable user-names in the business: ElkY and RaiNKhan. Bertrand and Hevad, as they are known to the Grospellier and Khan families, respectively, both perished today, but did not go home empty handed.

Team PokerStars Pro Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier

ElkY took $28,950 for his 370th place, but suffered a couple of coolers -- set versus straight, among them --to end his charge.

A few hours later, RaiNKhan's deep drive halted when he ran pocket nines into Tiffany Michelle's K-Q, a queen flopping.

Those two were joined in the cashiers' line by a whole host of PokerStars players, who have already made very good indeed on their meagre satellite entry fees.

There will be no more days like these, at least not this year. No more days of a mathematical fog hanging over the main event as you try to calculate numbers and chip averages, or consecutive days of new faces whose enthusiasm knows nothing of the repetition that preceded them, a retread of the same path.

Tomorrow things will be clearer and what we see will be what we get.

Day 2A finished with 466 players. The final numbers from Day 2B are not yet official, but the field looked to be a little more than 800 strong at day's end. That will leave us with still more than 1,000 players going into Day 3, including more than 100 PokerStars qualifiers and Team PokerStars Pros.

Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin

Among those Pros still in the field is Victor Ramdin, a one-time World Poker Tour winner looking for his first bracelet. Since arriving half an hour late for his day one appearance the man from the Bronx hasn't looked back and instead has set a path towards the chip lead which shows no sign of slowing. At the midway point today Victor hovered around the 250,000 mark. At the close of play that figure was more like 305,000.

Team PokerStars Pro ElkY

ElkY made a big move from 5,400 to 121,000 in one level tonight, something that no one could believe until they saw for their own eyes a stack swollen in numbers and colour. Few ever discount the Frenchman but down so close to the felt it was hard not to write him off. Such a stunning comeback bodes well for the Team PokerStars Pro going into day 3.

Also coming back tomorrow to represent Team PokerStars Pro will be Chris Moneymaker, Hevad Khan, John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso and Noah Boeken, each of whom made it through their respective second days with enough in their armoury to have a chance, although with the field beginning to narrow, time and opportunity will grow short.

Sponsored players Kara Scott and Kirill Gerasimov also deserve a mention, having made their way through the treacherous swings of today's five levels. EPT presenter Kara started on 111,000 and swung up and down throughout the day (despite a case of food poisoning) to finish on 66,000. Kirill on the other hand continues to play the World Series of his career, amassing chips in his typically understated style, and will return tomorrow with 160,000. In the dying moments of the day Hevad Khan registered an almost Balboa-like comeback hitting quad threes to spin up his meagre looking stack to 88,000 - more of a fighting weight.

That's the story of the Team PokerStars Pros and sponsored players, but it also proved a big day for a number of the PokerStars players remaining in the field.

Steve Chung nearly didn't make it to Vegas because he nearly didn't make it to Macau, where the satellite tournament that he won was being contested, in PokerStars' brand new live card-room. But against the odds, he got there, played the game, won his seat and was close to 300,000 chips for much of the day, good for a sniff of the tournament chip lead.

Steve Chung

PokerStars player Alberto Fontrytzner, from Madrid, Spain, got his chance under the ESPN studio lights today, but played badly there (in his own estimation) and will probably only make the final edit running kings into aces. Thankfully, his table was moved and he began to prosper, so much so that he appeared as a blip on our radar set to detect big stacks and sat behind nearly 250,000 for the late hours.

Andrew Brokos, from Baltimore, has taken it calm and steady to reach close to 200,000, while Bill Purle, from Berkshire, England, first consolidated and then improved on his overnight stack. Purle knocked a player out during the evening session, to take him past the 240,000 mark and keep him well in contention. Brandon Schaefer, meanwhile, is always smiling no matter what, and 220,000-odd is as good a reason as any. Finally Bryan Tiffin, our man out to make a score, ended the day still in it on 45,000.

The World Series math is hard to understand for an outsider. This 2008 event had four day ones. It has two day twos. More people competed in the second half of Day 1 than the first, and consequently, the second Day 2 will be more populated than the first Day 2. Follow?

No? No worries. We will get through this together.

Days 1A and 1B came together today to form the 1,252-player Day 2A. By the end of the night, fewer than 500 of those competitors remained in the Amazon Room. The survivors now have one day off while more than 2,000 Day 2B players battle on Wednesday. Then all of the remaining players will come back for Day 3 on Thursday at 12pm.

Five Team PokerStars Pro players started Day 2A. Three survived. Barry Greenstein worked a short stack to near perfection most of the afternoon, but in the end couldn't last the day. His exit was preceded by Victoria Coren's, the lady having her set of threes cracked followed by running jacks into aces. Having better days were Noah Boeken, Vanessa Rousso, and John Duthie all of whom have chips going into Day 3.

Team PokerStars Pro Noah Boeken

Team PokerStars Pro John Duthie

Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Rousso

Not only is Team PokerStars Pro fighting on to Day 3, but the list of PokerStars sponsored players is getting pretty impressive. EPT Season 2 Grand Final Champion Jeff Williams didn't have a lot of chips to start the day, but ran it up to 100,000 at one point. If not for getting all-in pre-flop with queens against AQ and coming out the loser, Williams would be huge-stacked tonight. Instead, he'll be looking to double up when he returns on Thursday. Sponsored player Alexander Kravchenko will be headed to Day 3, as well.

Jeff Williams

All of this managed to take place within hours of the PokerStars Burlesque Party, the most lavish World Series party in recent memory. Headlined by burlesque star Dita Von Teese, the party drew thousands of people and had a line out the door all night long.

On tap to play tomorrow for Team PokerStars Pro are Bill Chen, Chris Moneymaker, ElkY, Hevad Khan, Joe Hachem, Isabelle Mercier, and Victor Ramdin.

The early flights of Day 1 made it look as though this year's World Series might not be as big as last year's. Saturday called that pessimism into doubt. Today erased it completely as the Rio filled with the final flight of Day 1. By the end of it all, a calculator spit out the final number.

The 2008 World Series is being contested by 6,844 players, all fighting for the lion's share of the $64,333,600 prize pool. Of those players who started, 666 (seriously...) will walk away with at least $21,230. The last person standing--four months from now--will bank $9,119,517.

The road to that money though is a long one. Before we can even consider the final nine players who will return in November for the final table, we must get ourselves through the next couple of weeks. That means getting through the next few days. After a day of rest we will be back for Days 2A and 2B.

You will recall us mentioning before, PokerStars sent 2,008 players to the 2008 World Series Main Event. Hundreds of those players, not to mention more than a few members of Team PokerStars Pro, remain among the field going into Day 2. We can't think about what will happen in the next round of play, though, without taking a look back at what happened today.

The hallways were sweaty this morning as the final runners made their way to the Amazon, Tropical, and Brasilia rooms. Among those fighting through the crowd were Team PokerStars Pros Dario Minieri, Hevad Khan, and Victor Ramdin. Dario exited in the last level of the night, but Khan and Ramdin finished strong.
Those Team PokerStars Pros will join Barry Greenstein, John Duthie, Vanessa Rousso, Bill Chen, Chris Moneymaker, ElkY, Joe Hachem, Noah Boeken, Isabelle Mercier, and Victoria Coren in Day 2.

David Wells

Finally tonight, we saw some special faces in the crowd. Pro baseball player David Wells UFC legend Chuck Liddell, and television producing great Sam Simon all made their way into the Rio, and unfortunately back out tonight.

Chuck Liddell

One of the greatest stories coming out of the World Series so far is the friendship between Team PokerStars Pro Chris Moneymaker and a player named Donald Hobbs. Moneymaker and Hobbs became friends last year when Moneymaker visited Hobbs in the hospital after a car crash. Since then, Hobbs has become his protege and both players are playing the main event. Moneymaker finished with a nice stack yesterday. Today, a random draw put Hobbs on the featured table alongside Poker Brat Phil Hellmuth. Hobbs exited with two minutes left in Day 1, but left with more than a few stories to tell.