There is no telling how many people famous backer Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy has put in the Main Event over the years. At this point, only one matters: himself.

Tonight in Las Vegas, the World Series of Poker reached the November Nine, that poker nonet that will head back here in a few months to determine the World Champion. At the top of the pack sits one of poker's favorite backers.

Here's how November Nine counts stand at this hour (TBC).

1. Cliff Josephy (United States) 75,000,000
2. Qui Nguyen (United States) 68,075,000
3. Gordon Vayo (United States) 50,450,000
4. Kenny Hallaert (Belgium) 46,450,000
5. Michael Ruane (United States) 29,800,000
6. Vojtech Ruzicka (Czech Republic) 27,450,000
7. Griffin Benger (Canada) 21,925,000
8. Jerry Wong (United States) 10,325,000
9. Fernando Pons (Spain) 6,225,000

If you've been reading our coverage throughout the tournament, you will certainly recognize another one of the November Niners. Kenny Hallaert runs the PokerStars-sponsored Belgian Poker Challenge when he's not busy making the November Nine. You can read more about him here: Kenny Hallaert riding, and boosting, the Belgian boom. With the next BPC also in November, Hallaert is going to have a very busy month.

To reach this point, the field had to thin itself from 27 to nine players. Along the way (recorded in part here), we had to say goodbye to a couple of players we'd featured here before, including James Obst and William Kassouf. The latter of those played in what will likely be one of the most talked about hands in the 2016 WSOP. You can read all about that here: Anatomy of an elimination: Kassouf is finally silenced.

While the WSOP champ is still a matter of question, the Player of the Year is not. Last night when Paul Volpe busted from the Main Event, Jason Mercier secured his first WSOP Player of the Year title. Mercier won two bracelets this year and finished runner-up in another event. In total, he won nearly $1 million in WSOP prizes (not to mention whatever he picked up in private bracelet bets).

As much as it pains us to say it, that will conclude our World Series of Poker coverage for the summer. We hope you've enjoyed it as much as we have along the way. Thanks to every who shared our stories on Twitter and Facebook. Be sure to look us up on Twitter and let us know who you're rooting for at the final table.

Congratulations once again to all the November Nine and the Player of the Year, Jason Mercier.

Goodnight and goodbye from Las Vegas.

By this time tomorrow night, everyone in the poker world will be talking about the November Nine, while people still at the Rio will be more inclined to talk about nine ball.

It's coming up on 8:30pm in Las Vegas, and the illusion is starting to crack. With 14 players now left in the Main Event, there are precious few eliminations left before the end of the summer. Five more people will leave here devastated, the rest will start their long wait for November.

It doesn't take a keen eye to see through the drapes and realize that it's all very Wizard of Oz-y on the other side. This has all felt very real, and for those in the November Nine, it will be real, For everybody else, the hallucination will start to shimmer in the carpet and then disappear entirely.

The most literal example of this is just down the hall where all the poker tables in the Brasilia and Pavilion rooms have been replaced with pool tables. Before the money-winners here have found a proper place hide all their loot, the places they sat are disappearing before their eyes. The WSOP only has a need for 14 chairs, and each passing hour spotlights the ever-dwindling necessity.

Watching the pool tables get brought in on forklifts is a stark reminder for anyone left here at the Rio. We--players, people, writers, and roustabouts--are easily replaced. What was once a poker city is turning into something else entirely. When the pool players at the 2016 BCAPL National Championships show up here on Wednesday, there won't even be an echo of chip shuffling. All the noises will be different. All the lights will be different. The queens and kings of poker stardom will be gone and people with cue sticks will run this nation on their own. The thing that's been the most important will simply disappear as if it had never existed.

For an event of such import, it is--like most things in poker--temporary. It's sad, but it's life. We are guaranteed nothing, not a tomorrow, not a chip stack, not a day when fate chooses to be kind. We know this, because we have watched four people bust out in the last hour, and we know it because the eliminations won't stop for hours.

It could be, if you think about it too long, a little depressing to see this event once again dismantled. Then again, just as sure as they tear it down, they'll be planning to build it again in 2017. In the meantime, rack'em up. There is a pool tourney to play.

It was Season 6 of the European Poker Tour and we were in London, which was then a regular stop on the EPT. Over in the convention centre of the Hilton hotel on Edgware Road, Aaron Gustavson was building a stack to beat Peter Eastgate heads up and win the first major title of his career.

But our action takes us away from the poker tables and to the midweek streets of London's Soho. It was a motley crew: three veteran poker reporters, two PokerStars employees, a Team PokerStars Pro from Argentina and a young Australian player, barely 19 years old. All were thirsty, but it was past midnight and bars were closing their doors.

The duties of entertaining the crowd had fallen that night to two of the veteran reporters, both of whom typically spell "colour" with a "u" and "centre" with an "re". We--sorry, they--had each lived in London for years and, you would think, could at least find somewhere to slake a thirst.

The PokerStars employees were a married couple from Costa Rica, who could always be trusted to keep the booze flowing through the night. The third reporter knew bars in his home town--a small place in South Carolina--that would pour into the early hours. But here they all were in a city of 8 million people, with two guides unable to find them a drink.

Approaching desperation point, they went for the last resort: a god-awful low-rent joint known to cater for tourists, mid-level marketing managers and the desperate. It was, however, usually open until 1am so ticked precisely one of the boxes. Like the start of a long-winded joke, the two Brits, the American, the Argentinian, the two Costa Ricans and the Australian walked into a bar.

One thing was quite obvious. The room was empty. But the gaggle took a seat in a dingy corner anyhow and one of the reporters headed to the bar. He talked to the bartender who explained what would have been obvious to anyone but the parched and stubborn: the place was closed. There would be no drinks.

The reporter is not usually an argumentative man, particularly not with people in positions of authority. (There is no one with so much authority as a bartender.) But this was beyond the pale. It was simply unacceptable to lead a group of disparate vagabonds through the London streets at midnight and not find them a watering hole. The reporter demanded to see the manager.

The manager appeared. He was a friendly guy. He glanced quickly through the darkened room at the wastrels, but said his establishment was closed. The reporter tried to reason with him, making claims that it was his right to have a drink. But having struck out with reason, the reporter took a punt. He tried to run a bluff. Without any real hope of getting this one through, he stood on his tip-toes, leant over the bar and whispered to the manager: "Have you seen who I've got with me here?"

The strength of this ploy is in how utterly hopeless it is. There was precisely nobody in the group who was famous beyond their own immediate family--some unknown even within that. But maybe it was a trick of the light; maybe one of the stragglers smiled at the right time; maybe the bar manager thought that this man was actually Salma Hayek or something. He looked over the reporter's shoulder, his eyes widened, and he said, "Oh. Wow. Sorry. Yes. Of course I'll get you guys a drink."

I genuinely have no idea how this worked. It was nothing more than a whimsical stab in the dark, some kind of vague implication that we were in the presence of greatness. But the manager bought it hook, line and sinker. It got us a drink and we went happily on our way: the reporter was redeemed, having somehow pulled off the best bluff of his career.

But now, seven years later, maybe it all makes sense. Maybe that bar manager saw a future world champion in the gaggle. That is the only time I've ever been for a drink with James Obst, that young, naive Australian.

But I'll have another if he wins $8 million in a few months time.

It is July 18, 2016 but for poker followers it is simply November Nine day. It's the most exciting day of the summer, where the final table is set for the biggest tournament in the world game.

With 27 players remaining--15 from the United States, three from the United Kingdom, two from Canada and one each from Belgium, Australia, Spain, Lebanon, the Czech Republic, Hong Kong and France--18 are going to be disappointed. They are going to win at least $269,430, but will walk out of the Amazon Room thinking they missed out on the chance to take $8 million.

Vojtech Ruzicka is the leader. The man from the Czech Republic has carved a smart reputation on the European Poker Tour, but is enjoying his breakout performance in the United States. Most local eyes are on Cliff "JohnnyBax" Josephy, a two-time bracelet winner, staker and online legend.

But with the likes of James Obst, Kenny Hallaert, Tom Marchese, Valentin Vornicu, Griffin Benger and Antoine Saout also with chips, there are many twists and turns still certain. (Take a look at what we know about the remaining players.)

Here's how they line up today:

Table 1
Seat 1: Gordon Vayo, United States - 8,795,000 (44 bb)
Seat 2: Michael Niwinski, Canada - 10,660,000 (53 bb)
Seat 3: Matthew Moss, United Kingdom - 15,250,000 (76 bb)
Seat 4: Cliff Josephy, United States - 23,860,000 (119 bb)
Seat 5: Christopher Kusha, United States - 6,350,000 (31 bb)
Seat 6: Jared Bleznick, United States - 8,300,000 (41 bb)
Seat 7: Kenny Hallaert, Belgium - 15,465,000 (77 bb)
Seat 8: William Kassouf, United Kingdom - 6,095,000 (30 bb)
Seat 9: Valentin Vornicu, United States - 17,450,000 (87 bb)

Table 2
Seat 1: James Obst, Australia - 19,560,000 (97 bb)
Seat 2: Qui Nguyen, United States - 4,790,000 (24 bb)
Seat 3: Fernando Pons, Spain - 17,270,000 (86 bb)
Seat 4: Philip Postma, United States - 2,225,000 (11 bb)
Seat 5: Tommy Miller, United States - 17,185,000 (86 bb)
Seat 6: Jeff Hakim, Lebanon - 4,375,000 (22 bb)
Seat 7: Tom Marchese, United States - 15,420,000 (77 bb)
Seat 8: Mike Shin, United States - 19,345,000 (96 bb)
Seat 9: Michael Ruane, United States - 24,565,000 (122 bb)

Table 3
Seat 1: Joshua Weiss, United States - 11,580,000 (58 bb)
Seat 2: Adam Krach, United States - 7,540,000 (37 bb)
Seat 3: Vojtech Ruzicka, Czech Republic - 26,415,000 (132 bb)
Seat 4: Griffin Benger, Canada - 6,530,000 (32 bb)
Seat 5: Andrew Christoforou, United Kingdom - 9,450,000 (47 bb)
Seat 6: Jerry Wong, United States - 12,975,000 (65 bb)
Seat 7: Antoine Saout, France - 5,525,000 (27 bb)
Seat 8: Kakwan Lau, Hong Kong - 15,110,000 (75 bb)
Seat 9: John Cynn, United States - 5,760,000 (28 bb)

Weekend highlights on PokerStars

* The latest from the WSOP as the Main Event reaches its penultimate day
* Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian wins the Sunday Million

Another year of the WSOP Main Event nearing its end

WSOP update

That is nearly that. The World Series of Poker is just hours away from the last day of play before the break and the final table later this year. Another glorious (or not so glorious depending on results) summer is about to end.

If you've been following our Main Event coverage you'll know that it was very nearly so for several members of Team PokerStars.

Marc-Andre Ladouceur has made a habit in recent years of going deep in the Main Event.

Marc-Andre Ladouceur

He did so again this year, but fell short in 139th place. It was also a steller year for Jen Shahade (okay, technically PokerStars's mind sport ambassador), or at least she will think that when the dust clears on her 204th place. Congratulations to both of them for making it so deep.

Jen Shahade

To catch up on their stories, and everything else from our coverage in Las Vegas, click here.

Sunday Million

With dramatic events in Las Vegas taking place at the same time it was up to Martin Harris to draw some of that attention back towards the Sunday Million, which he did in trademark detail and style.

As he reported it was Romanian Pora Dumitru "pora Adrian" Adrian who got the better end of a two way deal with callmuckty of Germany. First prize after all that work? A not-to-be-sniffed-at $165,836.

Here's that result in full.

Sunday Million results
Entrants: 5,899
Prize pool: $1,179,800
Places paid: 855

1. Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian (Romania) $165,836.59*
2. callmuckty (Germany) $152,712.11*
3. Luis Gustavo "gkamei09" Kamei (Brazil)
4. Adam "ISmellToast" Crawford (Canada) $66,245.77
5. JGagMan (Canada) $49,551.60
6. bluejohn (Finland) $37,753.60
7. ahe753 (Norway) $25,955.60
8. malinga (Norway) $14,747.50
9. mike_tay19 (Bulgaria) $9,202.44
*denotes two-way deal

Weekend winners

There was plenty to play for over the weekend, with the biggest winners listed below.

Click here for all the results on PokerStars for the weekend of July 16 to 17, 2016.

As always send your questions and comments to us on Twitter: @PokerStarsBlog.

WSOP Photos by PokerPhotoArchive.com

The poker world's attention has been trained on Las Vegas over the last week, understandably so as the World Series of Poker Main Event today wound down to its next-to-last day of the summer. But while that tournament played down to its final three tables Sunday night, there was excitement online as well with another running of the Sunday Million on PokerStars.

This week's installment of the most popular weekly $215 buy-in tournament online saw a big 5,899-entry field take almost 13 hours to play down to a winner, with Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian of Romania ultimately earning the win and a $165,836.59 payday following a heads-up chop.

That big field meant a total prize pool of $1,179,800 (besting the $1 million guarantee), ultimately split by the top 855 finishers. It would take just over 10 hours for the field to be whittled down to just 18 players, at which point Luis Gustavo "gkamei09" Kamei was sitting in the leader's spot with more than 12.5 million.

After about an hour more they were down to nine. demonch1k (18th), mr finkle 1 (17th), and Nuazo (16th) were the next knockouts, earning $3,303.44 each. lille_sol2 (15th), el kudos (14th), and Fiktenasch (13th next hit the rail, taking away $5,073.14 apiece. Then Muntjesvader (12th), rodckz (11th), and dx2celt (10th) were successively eliminated, with each of those players cashing for $6,842.84.

With Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian having surged ahead by building a stack over 14.6 million, the final table was underway.

Seat 1: Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian (Romania) -- 14,642,477
Seat 2: Luis Gustavo "gkamei09" Kamei (Brazil) -- 9,808,543
Seat 3: JGagMan (Canada) -- 5,361,979
Seat 4: callmuckty (Germany) -- 4,094,896
Seat 5: bluejohn (Finland) -- 1,768,138
Seat 6: Adam "ISmellToast" Crawford (Canada) -- 9,609,912
Seat 7: ahe753 (Norway) -- 925,784
Seat 8: mike_tay19 (Bulgaria) -- 7,822,757
Seat 9: malinga (Norway) -- 4,955,514 

Fifteen minutes after the final table began, all nine players were still alive. But three hands later the field had been cut to six.

First it was mike_tay19 raising 3x to 480,000 from early position, bluejohn calling from the small blind, and the flop coming [Ah][6c][4h]. bluejohn checked, mike_tay19 bet 632,000, bluejohn shoved all-in, and mike_tay19 called with the 3,115,635 left behind.

bluejohn showed [9h][8h] for a flush draw while mike_tay19 had [4d][4c] for a set of fours. The [Ts] turn was fine for mike_tay19, but the [7d] filled a backdoor straight for bluejohn, and mike_tay19 was done in ninth.

Two hands later, chip leader Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian min-raised to 320,000 from under the gun, ahe753 called from the small blind, malinga reraised all-in for 365,418 from the big blind, and both Adrian and ahe753 called the extra chips.

The flop came [3c][As][Qs], ahe753 checked, Adrian bet 177,777 into the side pot, and ahe753 called. The turn was the [8d], and ahe753 checked again. Adrian bet 480,000, and ahe753 called with the 408,373. All three players' cards were then shown.

ahe753: [Ac][Jh] -- one pair, aces
malinga: [Qd][3s] -- two pair, queens and threes
pora adrian: [Ah][3h] -- two pair, aces and threes

Adrian had the best two-pair hand, and after the [6c] river had knocked out two players -- malinga in eighth and ahe753 in seventh.

Play continued and the blinds increased to 100,000/200,000, after which a hand arose that saw callmuckty open for 400,000 from UTG, then bluejohn shoved all-in for 4,820,672 from the next seat over. It folded back around to callmuckty who called and turned over [As][Kd] while bluejohn had [Td][Th].

The [4h][Qd][6c] kept bluejohn's tens in front, but the turn brought the [Ac] to swing the advantange to callmuckty. The river was the [5h], and bluejohn was done in sixth.

Almost 15 minutes after that, the blinds were up to 125,000/250,000 when JGagMan opened with a big raise to 2 million from the small blind. callmuckty then reraised all-in from the big blind, and JGagMan went ahead and committed the 334,979 left behind.

JGagMan had [Kc][Tc] and two live cards versus callmuckty's [8s][8h], and the [Qs][6h][Kh] flop paired one of them, giving JGagMan a pair of kings and the lead in the hand. But the turn was the [Th] and the river the [5h], completing a heart flush for callmuckty to end JGagMan's Sunday Million run in fifth.

They were nearing the end of the tournamnet's 12th hour when Adam "ISmellToast" Crawford limped in for 250,000 from the small blind, Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian raised to 815,000 from the big blind, Crawford reraised all-in for 4,604,507 total, and Adrian called right away.

Crawford had [Ac][Jh] but Adrian had woken up with [Ad][Kd], and after the [6d][Kc][Qs][6h][4d] runout Crawford was sent railward in fourth.

Three-handed play continued on for nearly 40 minutes, during which time callmuckty built a big lead with over 36.7 million, Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian was next with about 15.7 million, and Luis Gustavo "gkamei09" Kamei third with just over 6.5 million.

Then with the blinds up to 175,000/350,000, Kamei open-raised all-in from the button and got called by Adrian, with the latter showing [7c][7h] to Kamei's [As][9s]. The flop came [6s][5d][Qc], then the [9c] turn card hit Kamei's hand to put him in front. But the river was the [8c] to make a straight for Adrian, and Kamei was out in third.

One short hand followed, then the tournament was paused for a deal discussion with callmuckty leading with 36,952,086 to pora adrian's 22,037,914. Both swiftly agreed to the proposed "ICM"-based deal (same as "chip chop" heads-up), leaving $20,000 for which to play, and the tournament soon resumed.

After not quite 15 minutes Adrian had chipped up into the lead to just about reverse the two players' stacks, with Adrian up to almost 45 million and callmuckty down to just over 14 million.

With the blinds 200,000/400,000, callmuckty raised to 800,000 from the button, Adrian made it 2.25 million to go, callmuckty shoved all-in with the 11,753,830 behind.

pora adrian: [Ac][Th]
callmuckty: [Kh][4h]

Adrain had the edge preflop, and five cards later -- [3d][6d][Qd][Td][6c] -- Adrian still was best with tens and sixes to win the pot, the extra $20K, and the victory.

Congratulations to Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian for beating this week's big Sunday Million field to win nearly $166K. Kudos also to callmuckty for making it to the heads-up deal and going on to claim a nice $152K-plus payday also.

7/17/16 Sunday Million ($215 No-Limit Hold'em) results
Entrants: 5,899
Prize pool: $1,179,800
Places paid: 855

1. Pora Dumitru "pora adrian" Adrian (Romania) $165,836.59*
2. callmuckty (Germany) $152,712.11*
3. Luis Gustavo "gkamei09" Kamei (Brazil) 
4. Adam "ISmellToast" Crawford (Canada) $66,245.77
5. JGagMan (Canada) $49,551.60
6. bluejohn (Finland) $37,753.60
7. ahe753 (Norway) $25,955.60
8. malinga (Norway) $14,747.50
9. mike_tay19 (Bulgaria) $9,202.44
*denotes two-way deal

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It's Day 6 of the World Series of Poker Main Event and the race to the November Nine is entering its final stages. At time of writing 56 players remain, and there are some big stars among them. Here are the men we recognise, and what we know about them.

Kenny Hallaert (Belgium)

Hallaert is a familiar face on the European circuit, both at the tables and presiding over them. He is the organiser of the Belgian Poker Challenge, sponsored by PokerStars, which is the biggest tournament series in his native country.

Hallaert chatted to PokerStars Blog back in 2012, when he was crushing the Micro Millions. We also caught up with him earlier this week, as he was crushing the the World Series Main Event.

He was chip leader at the end of Day 3 and has been a big stack ever since.

Griffin Benger (Canada)

For a long period, Benger was best known as an online beast, where he goes by the moniker "Flush_Entity".

With $4 million in recorded winnings on PokerStars alone, he is also a former world No 1. Benger has moved out of the online world with great success in recent years, booking his first major tournament win in the High Roller event at EPT Berlin in April 2013.

He then took a seat in the PokerStars Shark Cage...and you should head over to PokerStars.tv to see how that worked out for him.

William Kassouf (United Kingdom)

If there's anyone in the world of poker who doesn't know William Kassouf by now, they haven't been looking or listening. Kassouf is the exceptionally talkative master of speech play, who yesterday talked his way to a one-round penalty, but who is now on the television stage and will, when the episode airs later this year, become a star.

We had a chat with him yesterday (or rather he talked to us for a few minutes), and you can get a taster of what the ESPN viewers will be in for with a glimpse back to EPT Barcelona.

Jason Les (United States)

Among the best-known (and, simply, best) high stakes heads up players in the world, Jason Les is enjoying his second deep run in huge World Series events this summer.

He finished 15th in the High Roller for One Drop a week ago, picking up $216,814.

Les also became well known a year ago when he took on and beat the most sophisticated poker bot, proving that there's still hope for the humans for when the robot apocalypse occurs.

(Les survived a full day on the same table as William Kassouf yesterday too. There should be an additional prize for that.)

Antoine Saout (France)

Only one man has been to two November Nine final tables: Mark Newhouse, who finished ninth in 2014 and 2015. But Saout has the chance of booking his own return visit to the November jamboree.

He finished third in 2009, the year Joe Cada won, but was considered to be the best player at the table by many commentators.

One hand against Phil Ivey remains a YouTube classic. His name also fits very, very well into this song, if you like that kind of thing.

Best falsetto: "You know you make me Antoine Saout!"

Andrei Konopelko (Belarus)

Konopelko has also been to a World Series Main Event final table before--albeit the World Series of Poker Europe, where he finished seventh in 2013.

Konopelko is a regular on the European Poker Tour, booking his best finish in Barcelona in 2013.

He was chip-leader going into Day 4 of that event, which was the only time we've managed to prise some words out of the unflappable Belarusian.

"Some luck, some good play, some bluff," he said.

Cliff Josephy (United States)

Josephy can, in some ways, claim to have already won the World Series Main Event--in addition to the two bracelets he earned in 2005 and 2013.

Renowned and respected as a backer of poker players, he had a huge piece of Joe Cada when he won the big one in 2009.

"JohnnyBax", as he is known online, is also a former world No 1.

It's not known what stake he has in any of the other 50 players, but there's a high chance Josephy will have an interest still in November, whether or not it's actually him seated at the final table.

Dan Colman (United States)

While we're on the subject of winning major tournaments, let's just take a quick look at Dan Colman. Between April 2014 and June 2015, Colman picked up 11 tournament scores of six figures or more, including five of more than $1 million and $15 million for first place in the Big One for One Drop.

Before that, Colman was best known as "mrgr33n13" online, where he became the first player ever to book a profit of more than $1 million in hyper-turbo tournaments.

These days, he is mostly putting his acumen to good use in various philanthropic ventures, but clearly thought he'd just drop in on Las Vegas to win the Main Event. Why not, if you've got a spare two weeks.

Max Silver (United States)

A British favourite, and a particular friend of PokerStars Blog, Max Silver has been on a spectacular rise through the poker ranks over the past few years.

He first emerged on the scene at the United Kingdom and Ireland Poker Tour (UKIPT), making three final tables including one outright victory, and is now more regularly seen in the high roller events on the EPT.

This deep run will finally introduce one of Britain's best to the American public too.

James Obst (Australia)

Nobody doubts anymore that online players aren't the best in the world at this game, and James "Andy McLEOD" Obst is among the cream of the crop.

He has four SCOOP titles on PokerStars--even though, in his own words, he feels he has "significantly underachieved".

Obst was heads up for the $10,000 HORSE tournament in Las Vegas this summer and is, in my very humble opinion, a smart pick to win the Main Event.

Tom Middleton (United Kingdom)

When the money bubble burst, there were at least 11 former EPT champions still in the Main Event field but now, with 56 players left, only Tom Middleton (Barcelona 2013) remains.

The final table in Barcelona was notable not only for Middleton's superlative play, but also for a pretty unusual deal-making negotiation, to which PokerStars Blog was all ears.

(It's worth noting that Middleton, as "hitthehole" online, has more than $4 million in record winnings too.)

Update: Middleton was eliminated from the Main Event in 56th place.

Jeff Hakim (Lebanon)

The European Poker Tour is not the European Poker Tour without Jeff Hakim. He has barely missed a stop since making his debut around Season 5.

He has 12 EPT main event cashes under his belt, including a final table appearance in Deauville in 2013, but is now actually guaranteed the biggest live tournament score of his career.

Don't let that fool you into thinking he's a mark. As "Jeff710" on PokerStars and "YoungSupremacy" on Full Tilt, Hakim has more than $7 million in online tournament scores.

Paul Volpe (United States)

One bracelet and $5 million in live tournament earnings would probably be enough for most poker players, but Paul Volpe does his best work at PokerStars.

"paulgees81" is one of only a handful of players with WCOOP, SCOOP and Sunday Million titles to his name.

In the live arena, Volpe is most devastating in the high buy in events, with WSOP final tables in the deuce-to-seven championship event, the $10,000 Heads Up tournament and the $10,000 pot-limit hold'em.

Tom Marchese (United States)

Tom Marchese's tournament record is one of the best in the world. With $13.2 million as his total, you would expect that.

But it wasn't until he sat down at the inaugural North American Poker Tour (NAPT) event in 2010 that Marchese actually won his first live tournament--a breakout that has then led to 12 more major tournament triumphs since.

His heater glowed hottest in January this year, when Marchese won two $25,000 buy-in tournaments at the Aria in consecutive days.

Known as "kingsofcards" on PokerStars, there has rarely been a more appropriate screen-name.

Vojtech Ruzicka (Czech Republic)

Another very well known and highly rated star on the European Poker Tour, Vojech Ruzicka seems set to take over at the top of the Czech money list sooner or later.

Only Martin Staszko has significantly more than Ruzicka in recorded tournament wins, and that's largely thanks to his second place at the 2011 Main Event.

Ruzicka won a high roller event in Deauville a few years ago, beating a final two tables that featured Adrian Mateos, Davidi Kitai, Kevin MacPhee, Jonathan Duhamel, Steven Silverman, Bryn Kenney and Martin Jacobson.

Yeah, Ruzicka is that good.

Tony Gregg (United States)

Ask any top-ranking poker player to name who they consider to be in the top five at the game and a huge percentage of them will namecheck Tony Gregg.

With $11 million in live tournament winnings (and quite probably a whole lot more than that from cash tables in Macau and beyond) Gregg is a real player's player.

He has also been to the PCA main event final table three times, most recently in January this year when only Mike Watson outlasted him.

Chris Klodnicki (United States)

Klodnicki is the only man still in the field who was mentioned on PokerStars Blog when the site looked like this.

As if that accolade wasn't enough for him, he has more than $8 million in live tournament winnings, including a couple of huge scores in high buy-in WSOP events.

This is his eighth cash this year and seems well set to make it all the way to the final after that close call in 2008.

Dietrich Fast (Germany)

If it wasn't for Fedor Holz and Dan Colman, whose tournament heaters have been white hot, Dietrich Fast would be getting a lot more press.

In October last year, he won his first WSOP bracelet at the European event and followed up with his maiden WPT title in February.

He was back at a WPT final table in March. Update: Fast was eliminated from the Main Event in 55th place.

Drop a World Series veteran in the corridor between the main Rio casino and its convention center and he or she can likely tell you not only the time of day, but also the exact stage of the Main Event they have reached.

In the early stages, there is a throbbing throng moving en masse either towards the tournament room or away from it. They often run even, desperate not to miss a single second of the biggest event of their lives, or to get to a restaurant reservation.

Anybody walking the corridors away from the crowd has usually just been eliminated. Follow them as they pluck a cellphone from their pocket and you'll hear the precise details. They have usually raised with kings and lost to anything from aces to total garbage that hit on the river. "I couldn't give it up," they say. "No. I'm going to change my flight. I'll be back tonight."

Today, those corridors are quiet, and nobody is running anywhere. In the minutes before Day 6 began, 80 players slowly paced towards the Amazon Room, often pursued by a phalanx of cameras. Three separate floor producers tried to encourage a skip or a whoop from Kenny Hallaert, to use only one example. But the stoic Belgian was focused only being focused. He clenched his first and gave a lacklustre "Day six!" at the very last. It may not make the edit.

Hallaert's poker will definitely feature on the TV, though. He's up there on the television stage along with the talkative William Kassouf. There were 80 of them at the start of the day. There are only 70 now, an hour into play.

The plan is to play five two-hour levels or to 27 players, whichever is later. That means that if they get down to the last three tables soon-ish, they will play on until the five levels are done regardless. That will be around midnight, by which point everyone will be guaranteed at least $269,430.