The world has been waiting almost 117 days with bated breath for the final table of this year's World Series of Poker (WSOP).  And right now Dennis Phillips has more than $9 million on the line that he has been waiting to stake up against 8 other players to win the 2008 title of WSOP Champion.  Phillips is a 53 year old trucking account manager out of suburban St. Louis who played his heart out for seven days of no limit Texas Hold’Em this past July before the playing stopped.  "Pure poker playing, I wanted to stay at that damn table," Phillips said. "I finish anything but first and I'm going to feel like it affected me."

Phillips has had to keep his mind sharp and rebuild his ‘mental dossiers’ of moves and assumptions at the poker table that got him to the final round.  When play resumes on Sunday, November 9, 2008 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, both he and his opponents will be different when they sit down at the table to play.  With three months of down time under their belts, they all have a stake in the $32.6 million that is up for grabs each having already been paid $900,670 for ninth place finish on July 15.

In addition to Phillips are Canadian natives Darus Suharto and Scott Montgomery who is already a well known professional poker player.  If either man wins, he will be the first Canadian to ever win the main even of the WSOP.  Tuan Lam is also in the running, having placed second in the 2007 main event, as is Ylon Schwartz, David ‘Chino’ Rheem, Kelly Kim, Peter Eastgate, and Ivan Demidov, a 27 year old semi-professional Russian poker player who is in second place in chip count behind Phillips.

The three month break was designed to help organizers of the event spark and build interest in the tournament and bring the fans in for the final table’s ‘November Nine’.  All of the players generate additional earnings from endorsements and interviews and the game, which will be viewed on ESPN, will only have a few hours of lag time before the entire world knows who won the game instead of a few months.  ESPN usually airs the final table in November, months after it has played up until this year.  Organizers want to give viewers the opportunity at the chance to see the WSOP in a whole new light and watch the play as it happens.