WSOP ME: November Nine

Final Table Set for Historic 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event.

** Latest Update
After 12 days of grueling Main Event competition at the record-setting 39th annual World Series of Poker Presented by Milwaukee's Best Light, the stage is finally set for the most prestigious night in poker history.

Dubbed "The November Nine" the participants will have 117 days before they return to Las Vegas, where they will vie for the title on what is literally poker's largest stage - inside the Rio's state-of-the-art, 1,500-seat Penn & Teller Theater.

** Latest Update
Kelly Kim was eliminated from the World Series of Poker in eighth place, one hand after Craig Marquis was eliminated in ninth. Kim was a big underdog and short on chips coming into the final table of the no-limit Texas Hold 'em tournament, but he won an extra $387,547 for holding out one hand longer. A 31-year-old poker professional from Whittier, Calif., Kim won $1.29 million. Kim went all-in before the flop to protect his big blind, one of the minimum bets used to call the action. He lost with a pair of fours to a pair of nines for Darus Suharto.

David "Chino" Rheem has been eliminated from the World Series of Poker final table, finishing in seventh place. Rheem was a clear favorite to double up with ace-king when the money went into the middle, but Peter Eastgate hit a queen on the flop to take away the advantage from the 28-year-old poker professional. Eastgate, a 22-year-old professional from Odense, Denmark, took an 8 million chip lead over Dennis Phillips on the hand for second place. He was 11 million chips behind the leader, Ivan Demidov.

** Latest Update
Play is Suspended One Last Time
With the elimination of Dennis Phillips in 3rd place, we have reached another suspension in play -- the last of the 2008 World Series of Poker. Phillips got a standing ovation from the 300-strong army of identically clad supporters, but he will not be coming back tomorrow to play for the bracelet. That honor belongs to two men: the Russian Ivan Demidov, and the Dane Peter Eastgate. If Eastgate wins, he will break Phil Hellmuth's record as the youngest Main Event winner ever. The action started slowly today. Everyone had predicted that short-stacked Kelly Kim would be the first player out, some time during the first orbit of play. Instead he held on long enough to see Craig Marquis eliminated in 9th place, and in brutal fashion, when his pocket sevens fell to Montgomery's ace-queen on a 10-A-7-J-K board. Kim went out on the very next hand, as he was practically all in for the 400,000-chip big blind before the cards were even dealt. The 7th place finisher was David "Chino" Rheem, who never seemed to get much going at today's final table. He got his chips in good with ace-king against Eastgate's ace-queen, but was unable to overcome a queen on the flop. Darus Suharto was another player who got all of his money in preflop with an ace, but in his case he was the dominated player, tabling ace-eight against Montgomery's ace-queen. Montgomery wound up making the nut flush by the turn to send Suharto to the rail in 6th place. The most brutal elimination of all was that of Montgomery hiimself in 5th place. His ace-three was taken out by Eastgate's pocket sixes on a board of A-Q-4-A-6, with Phillips telling the table prior to the river that he had folded a six. Eastgate was also responsible for eliminating Ylon Schwartz in 4th place by making fives full of kings on the river against Schwartz's unimproved ace-ten. Schwartz tried to bluff-raise Eastgate off of his hand on the river, but Eastgate correctly made the call. The final elimination, of course, was Dennis Phillips in third place. His bluff-raise on the flop was picked off by Eastgate, who had flopped bottom set. Phillips was unable to improve from there. The unofficial day-end chip counts are: Ivan Demidov - 79,500,000 Peter Eastgate - 57,725,000 Eastgate should have the button when we re-convene at 10pm local time tomorrow for Hand #170 of the final table. Join us then!