But Cada won two decisive big pots to haul himself back into the lead, and the hour ended with the approximate counts as follows:

Joe Cada: 131,050,000
Darvin Moon: 63,750,000

Here are the major incidents from an hour where the blinds and antes were 500,000-1,000,000 (150,000).

Hand one
Wow. That could easily have got even more nasty than it did. On the very first hand, Darvin Moon called Joe Cada's big blind, but the youngster took his option to raise, making it 2,500,000 more. Moon called. The flop came [3s][ks][2d] and Cada bet 3.5m. Moon bumped it up to 10m and Cada called. The turn was [ad] and Cada this time check-called Moon's 10m bet. The river was the [kc] and now both players slowed down, each checking. Moon flipped pocket queens and Cada showed pocket nines: two premium heads up starting hands that sends the first notable pot in Moon's direction.

Hand four
Cada won a small pot back from Moon, when he raised pre-flop to 2.5m and Moon called. The flop came [qs][2h][qd] and when Cada led out, Moon let it go.

Hand seven
Cada made it 2.5m pre-flop, as he has done more than once. Moon called for a flop of [8s][6c][4h], which both of them checked. The turn was [ac] and after Moon checked, Cada bet 3.5m. Moon made it 5m more, which Cada called, but he was forced to let it go when Moon fired 7.5m on the river. Two big pots for Moon at the start of heads up play drew the chip stacks close to even.

Hand 11
Joe Cada flopped the nuts. He had [kd][9d] and managed to extract about 5m out of Moon on an ace-high, all diamond board. He checked the flop and bet small on turn and river. Moon called and mucked.

Hand 12
This hasn't been the case for a while, but Darvin Moon is the chip leader of the World Series Main Event. They got to a flop of [6s][5d][jc] and after Cada bet 3.5m, Moon raised another 5m on top. Cada called. The turn came [qd], which both players checked, but Cada called Moon's 7.25m bet on the [2h] river. Moon showed [qh][8s] and Cada mucked. With that, Moon moved to more than 100,000,000 and Cada just shy of that.

Hand 15
Darvin Moon makes it 3m to play, to which Cada is amenable. The flop comes [qc][js][7d] and they both check. The turn is [10h], checked again. The river comes [5h]. Cada bets 1,750,000, Moon calls, but Cada's pocket tens are better than Moon's eights. A small chunk back to Cada.

Hand 17
There's the massive hand we've been leading up to, and it goes in the favour of Joe Cada. Moon made it 3m pre-flop and Cada called. The flop came [jc][4h][2d] and Moon bets 4m at it, which Cada calls. It all gets nasty on the [qh] turn. Cada checks, Moon bets 6m and Cada now comes to life, making it another 10m or so. Moon calls that one and they see a [5c] on the river. Cada says no more checking, and leads out 35m. Moon slumps back in his chair, then folds. Cada regains the chip lead.

Hand 27
Darvin Moon showed down a couple of strange bluffs during Saturday's play and Joe Cada has just caught him at another one. Moon raised pre-flop to 2.5m and Cada called. They then checked it all the way down to the river: [10d][ah][3h][6c][4s]. Cada bet 3m but Moon now raised 10m more. Cada seemed perplexed but made the call and trapped Moon's hands in the cookie jar. Moon showed [jh][5h] for jack high, while Cada had [js][10h] for a pair of tens.

But the format of final table play -- nine down to two today; two to one on Monday -- always meant we would never be able to crown a winner in this first passage of play. And that means there always had to be seven players leaving Las Vegas who felt like losers, despite their bulging wallets and an achievement that they will inevitably look back on with pride.

Before we get too negative and list that unfortunate handful, let's focus on the two who are still in with a chance of entering the most prestigious winners' enclosure in poker. Our heads up duo, decided after a marathon 17 hours play, are these:

Joe Cada, USA, PokerStars player: 136,925,000 chips
Darvin Moon, USA, 58,875,000 chips

They were the survivors from the buffeting of a spiteful day, enduring what by anyone's standards was an exacting, fatiguing session at the felt. Cada in particular will be the first to admit he might be watching this one from his hotel room. He was all in with pocket threes against Jeff Shulman's jacks mid-way through the day. The three in the window kept him alive. And when they were down to three players, he was all in with deuces against Antoine Saout's queens. Yep, that's a deuce on the flop right there.

"I wouldn't change much," Cada said of his day. "Some of the situations were unfortunate. Luckily I sucked out, but that's part of the game."

Cada also won a crucial flip three-handed, rivering a king with his [ad][ks] to finish the job against Saout and his pocket eights. The Frenchman missed out by a whisker after a day that has done wonders for his reputation. But Cada, who was at one point down to two million, proved that PokerStars' finest never give up. And now look at him. He's massive chip leader playing heads up poker for the World Championship. It would make him the youngest ever.

As for Moon, he knows all about the chip lead. He held that accolade for two months, finishing the summer's passage of play with almost a third of the chips in play and returning here with a nonchalant and enviable attitude of: "If I win, I win. If I lose, I lose."

Moon just played his game today, and that meant putting his chips to work and doing his fair share of eliminating opponents, chief among them Phil Ivey, many spectators' tip for the title. Moon's ace-queen downed Ivey's ace-king. The self-confessed recreational player took out the pro.

His reward, like Cada's, is to return to the Penn and Teller Theater on Monday night to see who picks up the bracelet. And, oh yeah, $8.5m.

To get to those two, we had to lose seven, and they fell in the order best displayed on the payouts page. The short version of how they went out looks a bit like this:

At this witching hour, things get a little deranged in the frazzled walnuts that pass for our brains, and a wise decision was therefore made to cut the chat and report this past hour straight. Here's what happened, hand for hand. (Stick with it. The best hand is the last one.)

Blinds at this stage are 400,000-800,000 with a 75,000 ante. All the stack sizes are very similar, with Antoine Saout marginally ahead with about 60,000. All the others are scattered at around 50,000.

1. The button with Darvin Moon and Eric Buchman makes it 2m to play. Joe Cada is the sole caller and the flop comes [jc][5d][4s], which persuades Buchman to bet 3m at it. Cada doesn't like that much and mucks.

2. Cada gets some back. Not many, but some. It's folded to him in the small blind and he raises, making it 2.1m. Antoine Saout, in the big blind, refuses to defend it. Blinds and antes to Cada.

3. Perhaps encouraged by Cada's pilfering of his big blind, Saout follows the pattern when it's folded to him in the small blind. He raises about two million, but Darvin Moon is not so easily moved. He shoves all in (it's about 30 million) and Saout puts his tail between his legs and backs down.

4. Another one for Cada. From under the gun, he makes it his customary two million plus change and no one wants to party.

5. Moon makes it two million pre-flop and Cada comes along. The flop comes [4h][qc][10h], which is checked by both players, but Cada finds his betting arm on the turn. He makes it 4,500,000 and, wow, there goes Moon again. He shoves all in and Cada is put to the test. Cada wants a count, and is told that although he covers Moon, he'll need to find about 35 million more to make this call. He doesn't want to do that.

6. Buchman raises pre-flop and Saout wants to play so makes the call. The flop comes [qh][jd][3s], and Saout check-raises Buchman's 3m tickle. The Frenchman makes it 6,025,000 more and that is good.

7. Joe Cada has the button and makes it 2m to play. No one wants to, so Cada grabs some more blinds and antes.

8. Moon makes up Buchman's big blind and Buchman checks without fanfare. The flop comes [7s][9s][4d] and Buchman's big blind hand seems to like that. After Moon checks, Buchman bets 1,500,000 and Moon calls. The turn is [8c], which they both check, and the river is the [8s]. That fills all kinds of potential draws, but both players check it. Moon shows down ace-high and Buchman's four takes it.

9. After Buchman makes up his blind, Cada raises, asking 1,350,000 more than the blind of 800,000. That is that. Buchman folds.

10. Darvin Moon, Eric Buchman and Antoine Saout see a three-way flop. The former of those was under the gun, the middle one on the button and the latter in the big blind. The flop is [ac][7d][9d] and it's folded to Buchman, who bets three million, which Saout calls. Moon has found his voice though in these late stages, and his voice says: "All in!" Wow. Buchman wriggles out the way instantly, but Saout seems to have a decision. The problem is that losing an all in to anyone at the moment will pretty much cost you the tournament. And so Saout lets it go.

Darvin Moon assumes the chip lead once more.

11. Back to normality. Joe Cada raises under-the-gun and wins.

12. Antoine Saout raises from under-the-gun, and Eric Buchman finds the 1,520,000 more it will cost him to call from the small blind. The two of them see [2s][10h][3c] dealt and after Buchman checks, Saout c-bets to 2.5m approx. Buchman is more than amenable, and he raises, asking for another 2.7m from Saout if they're going to see a turn.

Aha, that's what you think, implies Saout, with his four-bet, sliding in a tower of beige chips. They're playing poker, ladies and gentlemen. This is poker.

Buchman remains defiant and re-re-re-raises (give or take a "re") and this time it's 10m more. Saout gets out of his chair - not leaps, just wriggles a bit - as he ponders what to do next. At this point, it's not the biggest pot of the tournament, but it's certainly the most complicated and Saout gives the conundrum due respect, pondering in deathly silence for a long, long time. Then he folds.

That was the end of that level, and just check out these new blinds folks. Just check them out:

500,000 - 1,000,000 (150,000 ante). That's a million chips for the big blind. A million.

Eric Buchman has reassumed the chip lead.

The action is slow at the moment in the Penn and Teller Theater, and we recently endured another 25-minute delay in play. The reason, though, was perfectly valid this time: an army of security guards clutching briefcases came marching onto the stage. Contained inside them (the briefcases, not the security guards) were bundle after bundle of bank-notes, totalling something close to $8.5m, the amount the winner of this thing will collect.

That's a lot of money. It's a mountain of money, in fact. Although I've got a sneaking suspicion that those bundles might not be the genuine article, one of the those security guards has nonetheless been deployed to guard the cash, fake or otherwise.

And it's got to be a distraction for the five players still involved. Darvin Moon, Jeff Shulman and Antoine Saout might not be able to see it in their direct vision, but I've caught sight of them swivelling to check it out once or twice. As for the PokerStars pair Joe Cada and Eric Buchman, they can see the wonga without even moving their heads.

It's maybe this sight that has precipitated a definite slow-down in the past hour. After a relative flurry of eliminations in the last post, we have seen nothing of the sort for more than 60 minutes. The closest we came was when the short-stacked Shulman was all in pre-flop for his last six million, which was called by Saout. Shulman had A-5; Saout K-Q. This time, though, the best hand stood up and Shulman doubled.

He chipped up close to about 15 million total, approximately half of what all the others are sitting behind. Those four are all very evenly chipped at the moment, and the long night shows no sign of drawing to a close.

Stay awake courtesy of another video blog. This one, introducing Eric Buchman to those of you who haven't yet made his acquaintance.

It's worth doing a quick Google image search for David Haye and Nikolai Valuev to see exactly the extent of this apparent mismatch. At 6ft 3in, Haye, a Briton, is taller than your average man. But put him alongside the 7ft tall Valuev and he looks like a child. He had no chance, was the general consensus. Not even with a slingshot and a prayer.

But lo and behold, Haye prevailed last night. In a close contest, the judges ruled in his favour and he took the crown, felling the mighty. But what does all this have to do with poker, you might ask. This is a poker blog, right?

Well, the news from the past hour is that the undisputed Goliath of our favourite card game, Phil Ivey, has just been slain by our David (read: Darvin). Ivey, universally considered to be in the top handful of players in the world, was a short stack coming into the day, but he was also many commentators' pick to prevail against a less-experienced final table field.

Yet Darvin Moon has just accounted for him, in a hand detailed in our round-up of action from the past hour. It's a little bit more skimpy than previous round-ups, because 20 minutes were taken by a break in play. But the return to the table after that intermission is where we pick it up.

Phil Ivey moved all-in on the first hand back from break and got a quick call from Darvin Moon.

Ivey: [Ac][Ks]
Moon: [Ad][Qs]

It seemed at that moment that about 1,000 people--some 2/3 of the crowd in the theate--broke into a chant of "Ivey, Ivey, Ivey!" This is what they had come to see: the name pro, the Goliath at the table, the 400lb. gorilla tearing the neophytes limb from limb. Their man had it in good and all he needed was luck to not turn against him.

And then it turned against him.

The board put a queen right in the door and ran out [Qd][6c][6s][3c][5c].

Ivey went out in seventh place and took a big part of the crowd's enthusiasm with him.

Meanwhile, Moon has recouped some of his earlier losses and is scraping back toward the top of the pack,

If that hand seemed cruel to everyone, here's something to clear the sinuses.

It could've been so much worse for Joe Cada. Eric Buchman got it all-in with [Ac][kc] to Cada's [Ah][kh]. In the media room, a rep who will remain anonymous said it might be particularly cute if the flop came rainbow and then went runner-runner for the flush.

And so we saw the rainbow flop of [Jd][4c][7d]. And then...the [Qc].

"If I lose, I won't sleep for three months," Cada cried.

The river...the [Jh]. Cada survived...again.

In happier times, Team PokerStars Pro sat down with the final table players from PokerStars. Here's part two of their visit.

It won't surprise you then to learn that the recent dinner break was spent dabbling in high literature. While the baying crowd hit the various eating and drinking establishments of the Rio Hotel and Casino, I sought escape and delved into a novel. But the first words I read there were immediately resonant, returning me instantly to the lobby of the Penn and Teller Theater, several floors away from the calm of a hotel room.

He sits at a window table in the cafe, watching. The place seethes with talk and laughter, an inchoate sound that reminds him of the noise from some animal colony. Men and women, hooded crows and parakeets, as though a species boundary is being crossed -- crows and parakeets mixing together against the laws of nature.

These words are the work of Simon Mawer, in his Booker Prize-nominated The Glass Room, and the scene is actually the former Czechoslovakia in the 1940s. But really, if it's inchoate sounds we're talking about, animal colonies and crows and parakeets mixing together, then the final table of the World Series this year is where it's at. The various supporters have returned, a degree more refreshed even than they were before the intermission, and the baying has re-started. We'll now be playing down to a final two, and it really could take us all the way through a boozy night.

The chip-count page has been updated with their stacks at this point in proceedings. As you can see, the PokerStars player Eric Buchman has assumed the chip lead, and is not going to be happy until he's still there on Monday. Joe Cada, the second shortest stack, may have further to go, but will consider himself in with as good a chance as any. How it pans out will be revealed in the coming hours.

Play restarted almost on the button at 9.30pm -- that's 30 minutes late, but at least it's a round number. Check back here at half past every hour for the latest action. And less of this whimsical drivel*.

*That's not a promise.

As we await further action, take a look and a listen to what our chip leader thinks of the other members of the November Nine (II).

"I had a plan but it never works out that way," Schaffel said of his final table. "Obviously, it never works out the way you planned it."

Here's how the nightmare played out. Schaffel raised to 1,200,000 from mid position and Steven Begleiter called, one seat to his left. On the button, Buchman made it 4,500,000 and that was encouragement enough to prompt Schaffel to move all in for his whole stack of 10 million-ish. Begleiter folded but Buchman made that call, and that's when we saw those two monsters: [ac][ah] for Schaffel; [kc][kh] for Buchman.

With even the suits covered, this was looking like the hand that would send Schaffel up to more than 25 million and get him right back in this one. But the dealer had other ideas. The [ks] was in the window, joined by [qs][jh]. That put Schaffel on the ropes, but gave Schaffel six outs as either of the two aces or four tens would now do it. But the turn was the miracle/disastrous [kd] and from then on it was academic.

And so we lose the popular Schaffel, who has entertained many of us in the media over the past couple of months, especially on his sojourns to the European Poker Tour.

"There's nothing you can do," Schaffel said." It was a sick flop. No regrets. It was a great tournament. I look forward to coming back."

We look forward to seeing you, Kevin.

Dive over to the chip-count page for, guess what, the chip counts.

As you'll see there, the consolation, at least for us on this blog, is that Schaffel chips went to his fellow PokerStars player Buchman, who can now look down at a stack of about 52 million. That's only a handful behind the chip leader Darvin Moon. Buchman is looking very strong indeed, and was tipped for victory by none other than Greg Raymer, who talked to our video blog team:

***

What else has been happening? Have some colour:

Just like (and I mean, exactly like) the television ratings sensation "Magic's Biggest Secrets Finally Revealed", I'm going to tell you how we're working here at PokerStars Blog at this World Series final table. Every hour, one of our two writers people here watches the action at the table and writes the "action" section of our post. At the same time, the other watches everything else and writes the "colour/color" section. We then merge our contributions seamlessly together (look for the give-away "And here's the action from that hour" indicator to spot the joins), and thus the finest tournament coverage from any poker event is born. Oh yeah.

I'm on colour/color duty this hour (and you can guess whether this is the Brit or the American writing by the presence or otherwise of a "u" in that word). But here's the thing: it's pretty dark inside the Penn and Teller Theater and the most colour/color can be found elsewhere. The lobby, for instance, is buzzing with activity as spectators go in search of refreshment. There are several film crews huddling in the same area, grabbing interviews with whoever happens to be passing.

As mentioned previously, many of the players' cheering sections have kitted themselves out in matching livery, meaning its easy to spot who is supporting whom. But even if Joe Cada's supporters weren't dresses as canaries, you'd be able to spot them by their boisterous presence in front of the cameras -- "Ship it one time!" -- and occasional trip to the bar.

Antoine Saout's fans are dressed in the blue of the French football/soccer team, known colloquially as Les Bleus, with their hero's name written across their shoulders and a specially-woven scarf draped nonchalantly there too. There's also a fug of cigarette smoke above most of them, confirming most lazy stereotypes, and I dare say Starbucks is currently restocking their croissant supply.

The French fans were central to the funniest moment from the most recent brief trip to the lobby. A radio crew stopped a group of five or six of them and asked them to sing a song. Not just any song, but the one they'd been using to support Saout from the back balcony. There was no acrimony, but there was a stand-off.

From my viewpoint, which was from behind a big turkey baguette, it seemed as though the French fans didn't understand the request from the radio crew, and the radio crew didn't understand that the French fans didn't understand. They stood there, microphones in hand, preparing to be treated to a raucous chorus of Francais, while the startled rabbits stood in silence.

"Song," said the radio guy. "Sing."
Silence.
"Can. You. Sing. A. Song."
Silence. Then: "No English."
"We know. Can you sing a song."
Silence, etc. Fade to blackout.

The first verbal declaration of all in came from Phil Ivey, reraising Jeff Shulman but putting what looked like an agonising decision on Joe Cada in the small blind. We've seen quite a bit of Cada over the past couple of months, most notably in Barcelona and London on the European Poker Tour, and he wouldn't stall without good reason. Eventually he passed up the chance to knock out the superstar, perhaps fearing the consequences should he double him up. That moved Ivey up to about 10 million, but which keeps him in the bottom three in chips.

It's difficult to gauge how the game stands from those chip counts at the moment, although they can loosely be split into three groups of three (with a bit of blurring at the boundaries). At the top, Darvin Moon, Eric Buchman and Steven Begleiter are playing a different game to the rest. They are comfortable and can still afford to take it easy. They can call in position with marginal holdings, hoping to hit a flop. Or they can bully with a re-raise whenever they like, especially from the three players immediately below them in the counts.

Those three, Shulman, Cada and Kevin Schaffel, are probably being forced into making the most poker decisions around the table. They still have a stack big enough to scare the leaders into getting too deeply embroiled, but with around 10 million apiece, they're often in a tough spot. They can afford to fold to a re-raise, but don't want to be bleeding too many chips lest they end up in the category below.

There we find the short stacks: Ivey, Antoine Saout and, in particular, James Akenhead. The three of them will have spent a deal of time over the past couple of months planning their shoving strategy: what hand is good enough to re-raise all in pre-flop. They came into today's play knowing that subtlety was going to be difficult; they needed to find a spot to get their chips in.

We saw Ivey do it, and Saout has also open-shoved pre-flop to take down a pot. But we must assume that Akenhead has been utterly card dead. He's yet to win a hand and has dropped to below four million, which means he is all in or fold until he doubles up or departs. One of those is likely to happen in the coming hour or so.

Once that happens, the game will probably open up, and even Daniel Negreanu agreed. "Expect this level to be really nuts," said the Team PokerStars Pro. At the moment, though, the stacks are too tentatively positioned for this to be a free-for-all. And there ends this episode of cod analysis.

Let's hear some action from that past hour:

We know a flute with no holes is not a flute, and a donut with no hole is a danish. What is an hour with no flops? Well, not entirely that interesting (and not nearly as tasty as a danish would be right now). The last hour of action was nearly flop-free.

When Joe Cada came in for a raise to 750,000, Steven Begleiter re-raised to 2,250,000 from the small blind and picked up the pot. On the very next hand, Begleiter raised from the button and won the blinds and antes again. When Phil Ivey raised the next hand to 800,000, Eric Buchman pushed him off with a raise to 3 million. Then Ivey came in for 800,000 and picked up the blinds and antes. Buchman did the same thing on the next hand.

Finally, we got around to seeing our very first turn of the day. Eric Buchman came in for a raise to 800,000 and got a call from Jeff Shulman. On a flop of [Kh][7d][7s], Buchman checked, Shulman bet 1,750,000, and Buchman called. Both players checked the turn [Th] and river [3c]. Buchman showed [Qh][Qd] for the win.

One hand later, the players went on their first break of the day.

One of the most active players from the early skirmishes has been Joe Cada. Here he shares his thoughts on the final table with the video blog team:

Watch WSOP 2009: Joe Cada on PokerStars.tv

But in June and July, as well as one weekend in November, the language changes. "He folded a flush, man!" "They play heads up on Monday? I fly out on Monday!" or "I flat, I figure he's gonna barrel a nine or value the ace. But he checks, I fire, and then... man." Yep, poker speak takes over, and all those snippets are authentic examples from the Sao Paolo cafe yesterday morning. The reason? It's World Series time again, folks. The World Series of Poker Main Event.

That weekend in November is this weekend in November. This is it: the final table. What began in July, will be finished over the coming three days, when the PokerStars trio of Eric Buchman, Joe Cada and Kevin Schaffel join six others in the quest for the biggest bucks and most prestigious title in the game.

As if you didn't know their names already, here's the full list of contenders:

Darvin Moon (USA) 58,930,000
Eric Buchman (USA) PokerStars player 34,800,000
Steven Begleiter (USA) 29,88,5000
Jeff Shulman (USA) 19,580,000
Joe Cada (USA) PokerStars player 13,215,000
Kevin Schaffel (USA) PokerStars qualifier 12,390,000
Phil Ivey (USA) 9,765,000
Antoine Saout (France) 9,500,000
James Akenhead (UK) 6,800,000

And they'll be fighting for the following prizes.

1. $8,546,435
2. $5,182,601
3. $3,479,485
4. $2,502,787
5. $1,953,395
6. $1,587,133
7. $1,404,002
8. $1,300,228
9. $1,263,602

As I type, from a press box approximately 100 feet above the final table, the tournament officials are going through their final preparations. Dealers are learning how to deal, photographers are learning what they can and cannot photograph (rule of thumb: you can't) the TV presenters are practicing their spontaneous repartee. Momentarily, the nine players will enter the arena, and eventually we'll have some poker.

We will be here for the duration on PokerStars Blog, following all the action on the table, as well as providing all the colour you'll ever need. By that, I mean photographs, video blogs and, if it really comes to it, some florid prose. Stand by for that.

There'll be a new post here once per hour. And regularly updated chip counts on the chip count page.

Here's just a flavour:

Tournament info:
Play begins again at 12.30pm. There are seven minutes, 16 seconds remaining in level 33, where the blinds are 120,000-240,000 (30,000 ante).
Levels are two hours long. Our next despatch will be with you at 1.30pm, and hourly after that.

Now, in a typically modest interview with the PokerStars Blog, Chris Moneymaker has revealed he understood and came to accept what the shortfalls in his game were - and has been working hard to improve them. And yesterday's performance showed just how far he'd come.

"I've been working on my game on PokerStars a lot because whenever I get chips in a tournament I play too fast and bluff them off. It was a real bad habit, so it's one key thing I have been working on - trying to slow down.

"I think I am better early in a tournament, but that counts for nothing when I would get too excited and play when I shouldn't, which meant I would get into bad spots. When the blinds get bigger and the antes are out there, I would think, 'Wow, look at those chips', and go after them when I shouldn't.

"As I said, that got me into bad spots and I'd lose my chips and momentum - and when I did that I had a second problem with my game... tilt. That's something else I've been working real hard on, and these kinks in my game are something I think I have got rid of now.

"I have a lot of fans, but I know I have a lot of knockers, too. You have to expect that, and they don't bother me. I feel I am a good player, and now that I have tried to improve further I think I can do well here. I've been really looking forward to this World Series because of that."

There was so much expectation on Moneymaker after he won the Main Event that he felt it contributed to the bad points in his game - being too aggressive and then tilting when things started to go wrong.

"Yes, winning the WSOP did create a monkey on my back for a while. But I learnt to live with that, and now I have tried to improve, I think it's gone and I can just let my poker do the talking."

He had some tough tables yesterday, facing off against the likes of fellow Team PokerStars Pro Barry Greenstein and Ireland's Andy Black. And today he kicks off with another tough one, sitting alongside the likes of Doyle Brunson and Ted Forrest.

"But, hey, it's a $40,000 event - so it's bound to be tough," he said.

We said in yesterday's blog that Moneymaker was looking like a man who means business, and now we know he's been working on his game so much, we can see why he is so full of confidence.

You can follow his progress in day two right here today - and Chris will also be updating his Twitter page as often as he can.

His win, good for 14,323,000 rubles - that's about $445,000 - was no fluke: he has a pedigree record of his own having won a WSOP bracelet last summer in the 1,500 No Limit Hold'em event. And he used his undoubted talents to go from second last in chips yesterday to champion of the $7,000 buy-in RPT Moscow.

Final table play started tightly, but then the first elimination was PokerStars qualifier Evgeny Onishuk. He raised from middle position with [7s] [6s] and was re-raised by Demidov from the button. Onishuk called and they say a flop of 9-7-4, giving Onishuk middle pair. He check called Demidov's 70,000 bet but the Team Pro had a pair of kings and the 4 turn and 6 river changed nothing.

Eighth place went to Kravchenko who had moved all in against four opponents, trying to collect some easy chips. Three of them folded, but Vitaly Lunkin decided to look him up, perhaps not surprisingly as he had [jc][jh] - enough against the Team Pro's [7s][4h].

Next out was Dmitry Vitkind, who pushed with [ac][7h] but ran into Lunkin's [as][9s]. The board of [10d][5d][6d][9d][3c] doing the damage. Demidov went in sixth, first losing a big pot to Alexander Khoustov and then leaving when his [Ac][7d] failed to overtake Sergey Artamonov's pocket nines.

At this stage players took a 30-minute break, and then it took a full two hours before the fifth place was determined when Artamonov was busted by Lunkin when his [10c][10h] failed to hold against [ah][js]. Lunkin was at it again soon after, knocking out Oleg Shamardin, who had held the chip lead earlier in the tournament. Lunkin's [Qd][Qc] was too good for Shamardin's [Ac][5c].

It took another hour to lose the third-place finisher, Khaustov, who moved all in with [as][6s] and was called - not surprisingly - by Lunkin who had [9c][9d].

Tournament Director Thomas Kremser introduced the final two to the audience, and with blinds at 20,000-40,000 it was always going to be a brief heads-up seeing as Lunkin had 2,790,000 chips to Vyacheslav Goryachev's 310,000. Indeed, just minutes later Goryachev moved all-in with [ad][6c] and was called by Lunkin who once again found a hand at the right time with pocket tens. The board came [Qd][8d][6h][4c][8s] and Vitaly Lunkin became Champion of RPT Moscow.

Final table payouts (in rubles):

1. Vitaly Lunkin, 14,323,000
2. Vyacheslav Goryachev, 7,877,000
3. Alexander Khoustov, 4,028,000
4. Oleg Shamardin, 3,133,000
5. Sergey Artamonov, 2,685,000
6. Ivan Demidov, Team PokerStars Pro 2,238,000
7. Dmitry Vitkind, 1,790,000
8. Alex Kravchenko, Team PokerStars Pro, 1,342,000
9. Evgeny Onishuk, 895,000

A total of 7,752 players came to the virtual tables for the weekly tournament, which brought the prize pool just past the $1.5 million guarantee to $1,514,400. The last 1,080 players standing were to receive a portion of that chunk of cash, though the winner was looking at a $227,160.01 payday. That would take care of quite a few WSOP buy-ins and plenty more Sunday Million tournaments.

As the field thinned toward the bubble, it was the elimination of AAzzz in 1081st place who made it possible for the rest of the players to be paid, starting with MoneyMan29 in 1080th place, who took home $318.02 for playing into the money. And as the tournament went into the late night hours, it was EaseYourPain who took control and kept a substantial lead over the rest of the pack all the way through to the final two tables.

Ultimately, after numerous double-ups for the shorter stacks as the final table loomed, xxenricoxx was busted in 11th place, and OllowainTim and crochepif got involved in a hand that would leave crochepif with $8,329.21 and a tenth place finish:

With that, the final nine were left to compete for some serious cash prizes, and the table was set up as follows:

Seat 1: FiveStand (11,190,687 in chips)
Seat 2: RasA86 (4,097,248 in chips)
Seat 3: weeminer (16,318,360 in chips)
Seat 4: paulsl (8,511,736 in chips)
Seat 5: EaseYourPain (16,773,241 in chips)
Seat 6: OllowainTim (11,258,082 in chips)
Seat 7: Hanamichi23 (2,467,213 in chips)
Seat 8: APowers1968 (2,716,811 in chips)
Seat 9: JIZOINT (2,386,622 in chips)

On the second hand of the final table, Hanamichi23 was able to double through OllowainTim to stay alive and get out of short-stack land. Meanwhile, EaseYourPain was losing some of the lead that had been maintained for so long in the tournament, though first place on the leaderboard was still his to claim.

It didn't take long to find another player risking elimination. APowers1968 was one of the shorter stacks coming into the final table, and the preflop all-in move with [Ad] [6h] was met with a call from OllowainTim and his pocket nines. The board blanked with [3h] [5c] [Qc] [Kh] [2s], and APowers1968 was ousted in ninth place with $11,736.61 for the effort.

A short time later, it was JIZOINT with his tournament life on the line holding pocket queens, but Hanamichi23 called with [Ah] [Jd] and received an ace to make the better hand on the flop. The entire board read [Ac] [4c] [5s] [3c] [4h], and that left JIZOINT with $18,172.81 and an eighth place finish.

The very next hand saw another short stack make a move when RasA86 pushed all-in preflop with [9d] [7s], but OllowainTim called from the big blind with pocket kings. The board brought some immediate outs for RasA86 with a [6s] [5s] [As] flop, though the flush draw was better for OllowainTim. The turn brought a [Tc] and the river a [2h] to end the run for RasA86 in seventh place, which was worth $32,559.61.

Then came the downfall of former chip leader EaseYourPain. In a monster hand, that played out as follows, EaseYourPain's pocket tens lost out to big slick, and a 24.6 million-chip pot was shipped over to Hanamichi23.

It didn't take long for EaseYourPain to take the rest of that stack and commit it. It happened preflop with [Qc] [9c], and weeminer called from the small blind with [Ad] [Ks]. The board ran out [8h] [5h] [7h] [5d] [Ts] to eliminate EaseYourPain in sixth place, though he was awarded $46,946.41 to (wait for it...) ease the pain. (Had to say it!)

FiveStand was then crippled when pocket sevens ran into the pocket tens of OllowainTim, who always seemed to be in the right spot with the right cards at the right time. After losing the 19 million-chip pot, FiveStand had less than 700K remaining and pushed it with [8h] [6h]. weeminer was there with [Kc] [Ts] and the call, and the board immediately showed up for weeminer when it came [As] [4c] [Kd] [Qd] [3h]. FiveStand took fifth place and the $62,090.41 that went with it.

The final four then paused the game to discuss chip-chop numbers, and host and Team PokerStars pro Steve Paul-Ambrose was there to do the honors. When the numbers came back, however, there was little agreement and talks quickly fell apart. Play resumed.

paulsl was able to quickly double through OllowainTim to jump into second place behind Hanamichi23 on the leaderboard, at which point play slowed for several rounds of action. OllowainTim was then relegated to the shortest stack of the remaining four and finally made the all-in push with [Kc] [Th]. But Hanamichi23 was there with none other than pocket aces with which to make the call. The board brought outs for OllowainTim with a [6c] [Jc] [Qh] flop, but the [5c] turn and [7s] river blanked and left OllowainTim with a fourth place finish and $80,263.21.

weeminer had a difficult time during three-handed play, being chipped away at by his opponents. Finally able to double through paulsl, though, weeminer edged ever closer to second place. Hanamichi23, on the other hand, continued to extend the lead and climbed over the 40 million mark with seeming ease as the other two players fought for the remainder of the chips.

After nearly 30 minutes of play, weeminer gathered some extra chips through Hanamichi23, but paulsl then doubled through weeminer to take most of them for himself. Down to little more than 13.5 million, weeminer made the preflop all-in move on the next hand with [As] [7c], and paulsl was there with pocket queens with which to make the call. The board immediately helped paulsl with a [Qc] [Th] [3d] flop and finished it off with a [5d] turn and [Tc] river to make the full house and eliminate weeminer in third place with $121,152.01.

Heads-up action began with the following counts:

Seat 4: paulsl (38107042 in chips)
Seat 7: Hanamichi23 (37612958 in chips)

Almost immediately, the tournament was paused for deal talks, and the two quickly agreed to each accept $182,152 in prize money and leave $30,000 aside for the eventual winner. With that cooperation, action resumed, and the two played on.

paulsl jumped out to an early lead and kept it for quite a few rounds until Hanamichi23 was able to double through in a key hand:

That left paulsl with an overwhelming urge to move all-in for his last 26,755,580 chips. He did it preflop with [Ac] [8d], though Hanamichi23 made the call with [As] [Th] and the best hand. The board came [4c] [9h] [Jc] [Tc] [5d], and paulsl had to settle for second place and the agreed-upon amount of $182,152.00.

Congratulations to Hanamichi23 for the Sunday Million victory, which came with a $212,152 payday!

Sunday Million Results for 05/17/09:

1st place: Hanamichi23 ($212,152.00)*
2nd place: paulsl ($182,152.00)*
3rd place: weeminer ($121,152.01)
4th place: OllowainTim ($80,263.21)
5th place: FiveStand ($62,090.41)
6th place: EaseYourPain ($46,946.41)
7th place: RasA86 ($32,559.61)
8th place: JIZOINT ($18,172.81)
9th place: APowers1968 ($11,736.61)

*based on two-way chop agreement

For more information on ways to register and qualify for upcoming Sunday Million tournaments, visit the Sunday Million page.