Originally published Monday, November 10, 2008 at 12:00 AM

World Series of Poker | Riches will await 2 finalists

Four players remained in the World Series of Poker no-limit Texas Hold'em tournament after playing a marathon session Sunday that showed...

By The Associated Press

LAS VEGAS — Four players remained in the World Series of Poker no-limit Texas Hold'em tournament after playing a marathon session Sunday that showed few signs of ending quickly.

Each of the players left had taken a turn at the top, shifting chip stacks and jockeying with an eye toward a $9.15 million top prize.

The final two will start to compete for the WSOP main-event championship tonight.

Nine players — out of 6,844 entrants — were at the final table when play began Sunday.

The four remaining were Ivan Demidov, 27, of Moscow, with a chip count of 50.2 million late Sunday night; Peter Eastgate, 22, of Odense, Denmark, with a chip count of 46.1 million; Dennis Phillips, 53, of Cottage Hills, Ill., with a chip count of 20.1 million; and Ylon Schwartz, 38, of New York, with a chip count of 19.9 million.

The five players eliminated Sunday were Scott Montgomery (fifth place) of Perth, Ontario; Darus Suharto (sixth) of Toronto; David "Chino" Rheem (seventh) of Los Angeles; Kelly Kim (eighth) of Whittier, Calif.; and Craig Marquis (ninth) of Arlington, Texas.

Rheem, the most well-known player coming into the final table, busted out when Eastgate hit a pair of queens to upend the 28-year-old poker professional from a dominant hand.

"I put my heart into it and my heart is broken," said a visibly upset Rheem, who earned $1.773 million. "This one really hurts."

Montgomery, who made $3.097 million, said, "It wasn't quite as much money as I would have liked."

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