Final Table Set for World Series of Poker

The main event of the World Series of Poker is down to the final table of nine players. Too bad they won’t be playing the final table for another three and a half months. Dennis Phillips of St. Louis is the chip leader with more than 26 million chips. The $10,000 main event of the WSOP started with 6,844 players and was whittled down to the final nine players who will now take a long break and come back for final table action in November.

The winner will take home over $9 million dollars.

The nine players are all unknowns but now they have over three months to get sponsors and for ESPN to promote them. A total of five players from the United States, two from Canada, one from Russia and one from Denmark will be approached by a number of sponsors before the November final table.

ESPN convinced Harrah's Entertainment, owners of the WSOP to change the final table so that it can be televised just after completion. The winner will be determined early on November 11th and ESPN will air the final table that night. A week earlier ESPN is going to air a one hour special promoting the final table.

"This year, all nine players who made the final table will become household names, and are guaranteed life-changing prize money to go with their fame and place in poker history," said World Series of Poker Commissioner Jeffrey Pollack.

The chip leader is Dennis Phillips who won his entry by winning a $200 buy-in satellite tournament at Harrah's casino in St. Louis. "It's just amazing to make it to the final table," Phillips said. The short stack at the final table will be Kelly Kim who has just over 2 million in chips and well behind all the other players.

"My goal was to finish ninth, and I can't believe I'm still alive to play another day," Kim said. "I'm a realist. Based on the chip count, things don't look good, but I'm just happy to be part of the final table."

First place pays $9.12 million followed by $5.79 for second, $4.5 million for third, $3.76 million for fourth, $3.09 million for 5th, $2.4 million for 6th, $1.77 million for 7th, $1.3 million for 8th and $900,670 for 9th place. The total prize pool for the main event was over $64 million.