It had to happen and now it has. We have reached three tables in the World Series main event.

Three tables, 27 players, one more day until we reach the final nine. Along the way, there were all the twists and turns we expect as we reach the business end of these monster tournaments. We had vast crowds, mountains of chips, huge checks being written and countless stories. We even had a rainstorm.

But when the clouds cleared we were left with a sharper picture of where this thing is headed -- and as ever, PokerStars players feature heavily in any reportage.

What started as a 79-strong field of players at noon ended with three tables in less than twelve hours. Among the remaining 27 are eight PokerStars players. Here they are with their approximate chip counts.

David “Chino” Rheem -- (8,280,000)-- David “Chino” Rheem is having a great time since he arrived in Vegas. Not only did he take 5th place in the $5k NL tournament in June for $93,624, he also won a super satellite back in April for a $25,700 seat in the WPT Five Star World Poker Classic. Generally, the 28-year-old from Miami, Florida has enjoyed a string of tournament successes recently including five WSOP cashes in the last three years. This includes $327,981 in the 2006 $1,000 NLHE event.



Chris Klodnicki -- (6,245,000)--Chris Klodnicki is a 23-year-old professional poker player from New Jersey. He started playing six years ago after getting some instruction from his brother. After running over home games and the poker scene in Atlantic City, Klodnicki turned pro. After a couple of unsuccessful World Series tries, Klodnicki returned this year to play. After coming runner-up to Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein in the Razz event, Klodnicki has made a massive run through the Main Event field.



Brandon Cantu--(4,740,000)--PokerStars player Brandon Cantu is both a World Poker Tour and World Series of Poker winner. The latter of these he won back in June 2006 as a 25-year-old, taking $757,839 for first place in what was then the largest non-main event field in WSOP history, a $1,000 buy-in hold 'em tournament. More recently, his WPT crown at the Bay 101 Shooting Stars in March of this year swelled his bankroll to the tune of $1 million. Now, he’s looking at the possibility of a $9 million payday in the World Series Main Event.



Darus Suharto -- (4,510,000) -- Darus Suharto is from Toronto, Canada. He is an accountant who loves his job so much, he would find it hard to quit, even if he won the World Series Main Event. He would like to find more time to play poker, but because he spends so much time working, most of his tournament poker experience comes from playing online. He qualified for his seat on PokerStars and is looking to improve on his modest in-the-money finish from last year.



Owen Crowe -- (3,800,000) -- Known as “ocrowe” to just about everyone in the online poker world, Owen Crowe is a 26-year-old professional poker player. Famed for a monster year on PokerStars in 2006, including a Sunday Million win, it’s been a good World Series for the Canadian who took over $81,000 last month in a $1,500 no limit hold’em event for his eighth place finish. Now he’s already better than that in the Main Event and guaranteed $257,334 as he goes into the final day of play before the final table break.



Ylon Schwartz -- (3,655,000) -- A native New Yorker -- born in Manhattan and now living in Brooklyn -- Ylon Schwartz is a chess whizz and a poker player with 11 previous cashes in World Series events dating back to 2005. He's equally at home playing chess in the super-competitive games in New York's Washington Square Park, idling the time in Golden Nugget low limit ring games or tearing up the major poker tournaments in the east coast casinos of Atlantic City and Foxwoods.



Tim Loecke -- (2,280,000) -- Tim Loecke qualified for the Main Event on PokerStars, spending only $63 for his $10,000 seat. Now he is guaranteed more than a quarter-million bucks and has a shot at millions. From Highland Park, Illinois, Loecke is a 37-year-old who still maintains his Iowa farm boy roots. He once said, “I used to milk 70 cows a day as a kid.” Now he is a director of sales who dreams of winning big enough money that he can use it for such things as restoring the little league baseball program in his hometown, Greeley, Iowa.



Phi Nguyen -- (1,020,000) --Phi Nguyen is no stranger to the World Series and as a double bracelet winner, winning the $2,500 no limit hold’em event in 2003 and the $1,500 hold’em shootout a year later, the Californian would be one of the favourites were it not for a short stack. He has impressive form this year having narrowly missed out on the final table in the $1,000 no limit hold’em, finishing tenth for $36,176. He also has numerous World Series and WPT cashes to his name and career winnings of $1.3 million.



Today was not only a day to build for tomorrow. It was also a day to say goodbye to some good contenders. Most notably, we lost Team PokerStars Pro Victor Ramdin. Ramdin had a rough start to the tournament series, but finished strong with a final table in the $1,500 HORSE event and a deep run in the Main. Here's a look at all the PokerStars players who finished today.

For the full list of PokerStars results visit our WSOP Results page.

29	Cristian Dragomir	Romania	Qualifier	$193,000
31	Garrett Beckman	USA	Qualifier	$193,000
34	Greg Byard	USA	Qualifier	$193,000
35	Andrew Brokos	USA	Qualifier	$193,000
38	Felix Osterlund	Germany	Qualifier	$154,400
42	Jonathan Plens	USA	PokerStars player	$154,400
43	Jason Glass	USA	Qualifier	$154,400
48	Adam Levy	USA	Qualifier	$135,100
52	Mark Ketteringham	USA	PokerStars player	$135,100
54	Alex Outhred	USA	PokerStars player	$135,100
62	Geert Jans	Holland	Qualifier	$115,800
63	Brian Tatum	USA	Qualifier	$115,800
64	Victor Ramdin	USA	Team PokerStars Pro	$96,500
65	Larry Wright	USA	Qualifier	$96,500
72	Daniel Buzgon	USA	Qualifier	$96,500
75	Keith Hawkins	UK	PokerStars player	$77,200

Be sure to check out all of our video blogs from Day 6 and before on PokerStars.tv. Don't miss the latest videos to get the password for the PokerStars.tv freeroll.

Selected chip counts from Day 6 can be found on our 2008 World Series Chip Counts page. When we have an official list from the WSOP tournament staff, we will post it on the same page.

If you would like to see PokerStars Blog World Series news in another language, be sure you take a look at all the other coverage on our German, Swedish, and Brazilian blogs.

Here's a look back at all the coverage from Day 6.

The turn card
The view from table three
The morgue
From the heartland to the big time
Still in the fray
At the eye of the storm
Third year's a charm
Four for the feature table
Cantu can still do

For coverage from all the previous days, we've posted summaries below.

Day 1A
Day 1B
Day 1C
Day 1D
Day 2A
Day 2B
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5