Main Event Day 8: When Nine Become Two!

It has been a final table like none you've ever seen. Hundreds upon hundreds of poker fans, clutching homemade banners and air horns, their voices raw from hours of cheering, the auditorium shaking on its foundation with every big pot won.

The 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event is back and the November experiment, it must be said, has worked pretty darn well so far.

This, Day 8 and the penultimate one of the '08 WSOP ME, is sport and spectacle mixed into one glorious mélange. It's 350 of Dennis Phillips' closest friends flown in from St. Louis all wearing the same St. Louis Cardinals hat and white buttoned shirt, chanting Phillips' name with seemingly boundless energy.

It's Kelly Kim's rival faction, nearly as loud as Phillips' cheering section and determined to prove that though Kim may be the short stack, with barely 10 big blinds to his name, when it comes to fan support he's anything but an underdog.

It's card playing that lives up to the hype repeatedly over the first 15 hours of this epic, landmark final table. It's suck-outs. One-outers. Cooler hands. Heartbreak and happiness - an ESPN exec's best-case scenario. Showgirls. Doyle Brunson roasting Dewey Tomko. Johnny Chan in tears. A crowd that boos Phil Hellmuth lustily - and they boo Tiffany Michelle, too.

It's David "Chino" Rheem lashing out at a reporter during his post-elimination press conference, so heartbroken after a brutally tough final-table experience that sees him walk away with more than $1.7 million and still feel shortchanged by the experience.

Best crowd ever.

It's poker in its best, most crowd-pleasing, fan-friendly, mainstream-media-appeasing, almost-a-sport form. It's the culmination of that 117-day break and the moment the November Nine (and the rest of the poker world) have been waiting for since late July. The World Series of Poker. The Main Event. The final table. And it played down to its final two contestants over 15 hours on Sunday at the Rio in Las Vegas.

The crowds came early Sunday morning, lining up outside the Penn and Teller Theater long before the tournament's scheduled 10:23 p.m. resumption, and when the gates finally opened they packed the joint, filling the requisite delays with the kind of cheering normally reserved for your favorite team in the playoffs.

And when Jerry Yang finally kicked off the final table with the old "Shuffle up and deal," they cheered louder still.

In particular, Phillips' legions of faithful supporters would not be denied, even as their golden boy, "Poker's chipleader" if you believe the signs, took a nosedive off the starting blocks and quickly surrendered the chip lead to Ivan Demidov.

The Marquis moment!

Kelly Kim's crowd cheered too - and loudly, as their favorite found pocket kings while down to scraps to double up and stay alive. Louder still when Craig Marquis shipped it in with pocket sevens against Scott Montgomery's A-Q. Marquis would flop a set, but Monty would hit runner-runner to make the broadway straight and send craigmarq packing in the nine spot, good for $900,670 from the prize pool.

Guaranteed at least $1,288,217 now, Kim would waste no time in getting it in with a pocket pair of fours, garnering calls from three players, including Demidov and Darus Suharto, the latter of whom took the pot on a 9-6-2-A-Q board holding T-9 to outkick Demidov's 9-5. Kim was out in eighth place and took with him not only seven figures but the second-loudest cheering section in the room.

Phillips, meanwhile, would regain some of his early luster, doubling through Chino Rheem with queens against jacks, and then doubling again through Ylon Schwartz after pulling some ill-advised trickery with A-Q and sucking out with a flopped ace against Schwartz' pocket queens.

Kept it real.

A few hands later, the bad beat express would continue as Rheem got all-in with A K against Peter Eastgate's A Q. The flop brought a queen and Rheem was suddenly behind for his tournament life. The turn and river bricked and Chino was history, out in seventh place and taking home $1,772,650 for his time.

Thus, the field broke for dinner, and when they returned the action remained paused as Dewey Tomko and Henry Orenstein (the inventor of the hole-card cam, among many other things) were officially inducted into the Poker Hall of Fame, with such luminaries as Texas Dolly, Hellmuth, Chan, Jack Binion and Chris "Jesus" Ferguson on hand to take part in the festivities.

Festivities concluded, the cards returned to the air and, very quickly, Darus Suharto found himself relieved of his duties as November Niner. Suharto made an ill-advised all-in shove with A 8 over the top of fellow Canadian Scott Montgomery's opening raise and, when Monty's A Q turned the nut flush, was out in sixth place.

Suharto, who won his way into the Main Event in an $80 PokerStars satellite, claimed $2,418,562 in prize money on his way out the door. Not a bad return on the investment.

Spiked!

Then it was Scott Montgomery's turn. The second Canadian at the final table, Montgomery is a maniac at the tables, a ticking time-bomb, and he exploded in epic fashion shortly after Suharto made his exit. First, Montgomery doubled up Ivan Demidov in a massive pot after bluff-shoving with A 9 and seeing Demidov call with kings.

Then, crippled, the Full Tilt Poker pro shipped with A 3 and got a call from Eastgate, who tabled pocket sixes. Aces on the flop and turn gave Montgomery the advantage, and after Phillips copped to folding one of the remaining sixes, Montgomery needed only to fade the one-outer to survive. He couldn't. The river brought the case six and Monty was out the door, busto in fifth place and earning $3,096,768 for his efforts.

Action continued four-handed for a stretch and then something weird happened. People just started gifting Peter Eastgate their chips under the most bizarre of circumstances.

Didn't know it was Christmas!

First, Ylon Schwartz shipped his last $12.5 million on a K-8-2-K-5 river with naught but ace-high. Eastgate, holding pocket fives for the boat, had an easy call (although he made it look difficult), and just like that Schwartz was done, $3,774,974 richer and the tournament's fourth-place finisher.

A few hands later, Dennis Phillips bluff-shoved his way to oblivion, shipping for $15 million on a J 4 3 flop with T 9 (!!!) and getting a snap call from Eastgate, who with pocket treys had flopped bottom set.

The hand was over by the turn and Phillips' ten-high couldn't improve enough to beat his rival, instead earning him a third-place finish and a $4,517,773 reward.

And then there were two. Eastgate and Ivan Demidov will return at 10 p.m. on Monday evening to play out the battle, with Eastgate holding $79,500,000 of the chips in play and Demidov $57,225,000. Blinds are $300,000/$600,000, so both players are extremely deep-stacked and, barring any unfortunate coolers, it could be a long night.

Long, short or in-between, PokerListings.com will be on the scene to provide comprehensive coverage of the thrilling conclusion to this epic event. Hit us back on Monday night as we finally award the bracelet!

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