November 9th is finally here. After a three month break from the 2008 WSOP Championship No Limit event the tournament will begin playing to its conclusion this afternoon. Nine players have waded their way through 6,844 other players to make the final table in this poker tournament. Each player has already pocketed $1 million dollars and will be playing for a first prize of over $9 million dollars.

Either way it goes this has been a heck of a ride for everyone involved.

The chip leader is 53 year old trucking account manager Dennis Phillips from St. Louis. Phillips is sitting on a hefty $26 million in chips and he certainly won’t be in any rush to get involved early. Next in line is Ivan Demidov who plays poker semi-professionally and hales from Moscow. Demidov is sitting on a cool $24 million in chips and is armed and dangerous.

Next in line is Scott Montgomery, 26, of Perth, Ont., with about 19.7 million chips,

After Scott there is Peter Eastgate, a 22-year-old professional poker player from Odense, Denmark, who holding 18.4 million chips. Eastgate also happens to be the youngest player at this final table.

Next is Ylon Schwartz, 38, of New York sitting on $12 million in chips.

Next up is David “Chino” Rheem, a 28-year-old professional poker player from Los Angeles, in seventh place holding 10.2 million chips

In last place is 31 year old Kelly Kim. Kelly is a professional player and is short stacked coming into this final table with only $2.6 million in chips. He will need to double up early and then once again to get back in the tournament. Otherwise, he won’t be long for the final table.

The tournament will be broadcast live on ESPN at 10a.m.