What a day!!! Finally at 05:40 am in the Rio All-Suite, Las Vegas, we have discovered the identity of the November nine, who will come back to play out for pokers most prestigious prize the Main Event champion.

Starting two weeks ago, 7,319 players took to the felt dreaming of earning the highest accolade in the world of poker. To become the World Series of poker Main Event winner and all the adulation that comes with it. Many have fallen along the wayside with tales of bad beats aplenty, stories of missed opportunities and dreams shattered. Alas, we have the have the final nine players, who will battle it out for the championship title and the first prize of $8,944,138. The final table and chip counts:

Jonathan Duhamel   (CAN)   65,975,000
John Dolan      (US)                46,250,000
Joseph Cheong   (US)           23,525,000
John Racener      (US)           19,050,000
Matthew Jarvis    (CAN)         16,700,000
Filippo Candio    (ITA )           16,400,000
Michael Mizrachi    (US)         14,450,000
Soi Nguyen        (US)               9,650,000
Jason Senti          (US)             7,625,000

After 18 hours of poker on the final day the nine have been set and the unlucky final table bubble man was Brandon Steven whose AK missed the board against Jarvis’s QQ to see him eliminated in 10^th place. To rapturous applause Brandon trudged away from the TV table, but with a consolation prize of $635,011 to go in his back pocket, he can rightly be very proud of his achievement. The day had started with 27 players, it had a distinctly International feel about it with poker players from the US, Canada; Sweden, UK; Italy, Netherlands; Denmark and Norway making up the field.

However, the Scandinavians were quickly shown the exit door, followed shortly after by the sole UK and Dutch representatives. Leaving one sole European in the final nine, Filippo Candio from Cagliari, Sardina Italy. The US contingent is holding a strong hand with six out of the remaining places and Canada making up the final two spots. The remaining players will now resume play on the 06^th November, when we will see the players whittled down to just two. Only one amateur player remains, that is Soi Nguyen who is a sales professional back in Santa Ana, California.

In the final nine is also Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi, whose three other brothers also cashed in the Main Event. Quite some achievement for all four brothers to cash and now Michael will be looking to push on to victory. Michael already has the Poker Player Championship bracelet and will be an absolute shoe-in for a share of World Series Player of the Year award. Frank Kassela will be watching anxiously, as with his two bracelets already secured he remains in pole position.

Still plenty of questions to be answered in this years World Series Main Event, like will Canada pick up its first Main Event winner? Will The Grinder be immortalised in poker world history? Can an amateur take down pokers biggest prize? So many stories still to be told and history to be written, we will all find out in November.