In Las Vegas the World Series of poker is down to the final nine and it will take another 117 days to find a winner. For those of you who don't know how far that is, the final will be in November.

It is going to be interesting because there are only a couple of well known names in the line up. One of those is Kelly Kim a professional poker player from Whittier California. Kim acknowledges the good fortune of making it into the final nine. "I get to play another day. Anything could happen. It's truly amazing," said an overjoyed Kim. The professional player managed to make it to the final nine holding 2.6 million chips, a whooping 23 million chips behind the leader. Incidentally 2.6 million only makes up 1.9 percent of the chips in play.

On Tuesday tournament officials gave out $900,670 to each of the finalists. This would have been followed up by an official meeting with the new finalists of no-limit Texas Hold'em to discuss the months ahead.

The top nine are scheduled to play on November 9^th and 10^th for a cash prize of $9.12 million. The venue will be the 1,500 seat theater at the Rio All-Suite Hotel. The hotel happens to be a regular performance venue for magicians Penn and Teller.

This is the sort of event that truly alters lives and lifestyles. The money alone will change the lives of these players. But the overnight celebrity status will also be a major gear shift for the lucky nine. Already success at the poker table has been met with the signing of sponsorship deals for some.

The leader of this year's poker pack is 53 year old Dennis Phillip from a suburb of St. Louis Illinois called Cottage Hills. He held a 1.9 million chip lead over Ivan Demidov, the 27 year old semi-professional player from Moscow.

"I'm having a blast. I live for this," said Dennis Phillips. Words that truly emulate the joy the trucking account manager from Illinois is feeling. Phillips made it to the event by winning a satellite poker tournament at Harrah's St Louis.

The winners of all qualifying satellite tournaments are given the $10,000 buy-in for the main event. Regardless of whether or not they won a satellite tournament or paid their entry fee, all players sat down with 20,000 chips when the event began on July 3.

The other players in the top nine are: Scott Montgomery a 26 year old from Perth Ontario in Canada. He comes in to the final nine with 19.7 million chips. Peter Eastgate, the 22 year old from Odense, Denmark follows him with 18.3 million chips. While the rest of the pack of nine come in with stacks of about 10 to 12 million chips. They were: Ylon Schwartz a 38 year old from Brooklyn, New York; Darus Suharto, a 39 year old from Toronto; David "Chino" Rheen a 28 year old from Los Angeles and the baby of the pack is 23 year old Craig Marquis, an amateur poker player from Arlington Texas. Kelly Kim of coarse trails this pack as the last to qualify in the final nine.

It has been no small feat for the final nine players of the World Poker Series. They emerged from a field of 6,844 players and were suitably tired, overjoyed and relieved when the final cards fell on Tuesday.

23 year old Craig Marquis eliminated 25 year old Dean Hamrick from East Lansing Michigan in the last hand of Tuesday morning. His pocket queens secured his place in the final over Dean Hamrick's ace-jack.

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

Chips don't have a monetary value in the no-limit Texas Hold'em main event and are used only to indicate the standing of players against each other. One player will have to win all the chips to win the coveted title in November.

Phi Nguyen and Brandon Cantu, gold bracelet winners of previous tournaments were eliminated early on Monday. This means, November's champion will be a first time winner at the World Series tournament.

Last year's winner Jerry Yang, finished out of money this year. While Phil Helmut finished highest in the tournament among previous winners in 45^th place.

The last woman to be eliminated in the tournament was Tiffany Michelle, who placed 17^th.

"It may not be a World Series of Poker bracelet, but that's really huge and it makes me really happy," said Michelle who won $334,534.

This really has been a tournament for underdogs and its going to be interesting to follow November's final event because there are no clues for this year's winner.