Poker | 9 players earn seats at WSOP final table

LAS VEGAS — The World Series of Poker's main event has been dealt its final nine. As for a winner, come back in about four months.

These players aren't household names yet — save one or two among obsessed card fans — but with months of publicity and time to mull their game and study their opponents, nobody will sit down at the final table as an unknown.

"The beauty of it is, I survived," said Kelly Kim, a 31-year-old professional poker player from Whittier, Calif., who squeezed into the final nine holding about 2.6 million chips — but a mere 1.9 percent of the chips in play and more than 23 million behind the leader. "I get to play another day — anything could happen. It's truly amazing."

Tournament officials doled out ninth-place money — $900,670 — Tuesday to each of the finalists, and were expected to meet with the new faces of no-limit Texas Hold'em.

They will play Nov. 9 and 10 for a top prize of $9.12 million in a 1,500-seat theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, where magicians Penn & Teller normally perform.

No doubt, the cash alone could be life altering. But the potential for each player, given the newfound celebrity, is uncharted territory for the series. Several players spoke to agents and representatives from poker Web sites throughout the series, parlaying success on the felt into sponsorship deals.

It is also unclear how playing the final table four months from now will affect the game itself, though the seesaw way the players' final 11-hour, 38-minute session ended left none of the finalists with a dominant chip lead.

The leader, with about 26.3 million chips, 53-year-old Dennis Phillips of the St. Louis suburb of Cottage Hills, Ill., held about a 1.9 million-chip lead over Ivan Demidov, a 27-year-old semiprofessional player from Russia.

"I'm having a blast — I live for this," said Phillips, a trucking account manager who won entry into the main event by winning a satellite poker tournament at Harrah's St. Louis.

Winners of qualifying satellite tournaments have their $10,000 buy-in to the main event paid for them. Each player, whether they won a satellite tournament or paid their own entry, sat down with 20,000 in chips when the main event began July 3.

The rest of the nine, in order of their stacks, included Scott Montgomery, a 26-year-old Canadian from Perth, Ontario, with nearly 19.7 million chips and Peter Eastgate, 22, of Denmark, with about 18.4 million. The other finalists, who had stacks of about 10 million to 13 million chips, were Ylon Schwartz, 38, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Darus Suharto, 39, of Toronto; David "Chino" Rheem, 28, of Los Angeles; and 23-year-old amateur Craig Marquis of Arlington, Texas.

Kim trailed as the nine emerged from a field of 6,844 players to reach the pinnacle of poker, simultaneously tired, relieved and ecstatic when the final cards fell Tuesday morning.

"Everybody was scared they weren't going to make the final table," Marquis said.

Dean Hamrick, a 25-year-old from East Lansing, Mich., was eliminated in the last hand Tuesday morning when his ace-jack failed to beat the pocket queens of Marquis.

Hamrick was eliminated in 10th place and earned $591,869.

"It's the worst you're ever going to feel to win half a million bucks," Hamrick said. "I guess at least it's a good story."