They started play with blinds of 600,000/1.2 million and a 200,000 ante.

Here is a hand-by-hand account of the past hour.

* Darvin Moon raised to 3.1 million, and Joe Cada called. The flop came down [Qc][2h][6s]. Cada checked, Moon bet 5 million and Cada folded.

* Cada raised to 3.1 million and Moon called. They saw a flop of [td][8h][5s]. Both players checked to the [7c] turn. Moon led at it for 5 million and Cada folded.

* Moon rasied to 3.1 million and Cada folded.

* Cada rasied to 3 million. Moon re-raised another 5 million and Cada called. The flop fell [kc][7s][6h]. Moon bet 5 million and got a call. The turn came [3s]. Moon moved all-in without blinking and Cada folded.

* We missed the action here, but it was irrelevant. Cada's jack-high beat Moon's ten-high for a small pot.

* Cada raised to 2.5 million and got the call. The two men saw a flop of [7d][8s][5h]. Moon bet 3 million and Cada folded.

* Chip counts at this point

Moon: 83,750,000
Cada: 111,050,000

* Cada made it 3 million, Moon called, and they saw a flop of [tc][9c][7s]. Both players the [8c] turn and [kc] river. Moon held jack-nine and it was good.

* Moon made it 3 million and Cada folded.

* Cada bumped it up 2.5 million and Moon called. Flop [8s][Qc][4h] Both players checked to the [3h] turn. Moon checked and saw Cada bet 3 million. That was enough to make Moon fold.

* Cada raised to 3 million, Moon re-raised to 8 million. Cada thought for 1,2,3 seconds before mucking.

* Moon raised to 3 million and took down the pot

* Cada raised to 3 million and Moon folded

* Moon raised to 3 million and Cada pushed out 10.2 million. Moon grabbed for a few stacks and bumped it up to 25 million. Cada went deep into the tank. Finally, with a rueful smile, he folded. Moon assured him after the fold, that he was willing to go all-in.

*New chip count:

Moon: 97,650,000
Cada 97,150,000

* Cada rasied to 3 million and Moon barely hesitated before making it 8 million. Score another one for Moon.

* Cada picked up 7 million off Moon.

* Cada raised to 3 million and Moon called. The flop [Jc][3d][9d]. Cada checked to Moon who bet 6 million and took it down.

* Cada raised and took it down.

* The players took a break with these chip counts.

Moon: 95,500,000
Cada 99,300,000

* Moon raised and picked up the pot.

* Cada came in for a raise, Moon called [8d][4d][As]. Moon led at the pot for 6 million and Cada called. The turn was the [7d]. That drew an 8.5 million bet from Moon. Cada quickly called. The river, [jh], forced Moon to check. Moon held an eight in his hand, good for one pair, and the win.

* Moon raised to 3 million and Cada called. On the flop of [Ah][4s][9c]. Cada checked and Moon checked to see the [9h]. Cada bet 4 million. Moon raised to 12 million and got a quick fold from Cada.

* Chip counts:

Moon: 122,600,000
Cada: 72,200,000

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.

Flash forward to this evening and the money has now been deposited centre stage, on the middle of a single green battleground. Men in suits spent about 30 minutes arranging it in carefully-crafted random piles, then a clutch of dealers posed behind it, arms around the swag whose ultimate destination will be decided by their work tonight. All this took place in the moments before play began this evening, but now those heads-up competitors are out there, slugging it out across the baize for the right to call themselves world champion.

Moon v Cada. Cada v Moon. They're the two fighters now going at it bare-knuckled. Check back here soon for full information about the first hour; the jabs and the ducks, the swipes and the parries. Someone might even be on the canvass. We'll let you know.

In the meantime, share the thoughts of PokerStars' Joe Cada. He's our horse.

*I do really.

Cada, the fresh-faced 21-year-old from Michigan, holds a 136,925,000 to 58,875,000 chip lead over plain-spoken Maryland logger Darvin Moon going into tonight's 10pm heads-up match. To get there, he rode a bungee cord of emotions and fortune on Saturday night. (all chronicled in our WSOP live coverage).

Though we spoke to Cada Saturday night, it was after a marathon session and after he'd done a million and half interviews. So, just a couple of hours ago, we caught up with the man who might be champion and asked him to reflect a bit on what it took to get this far.

We will once again be reporting live from the Penn and Tell Theater at the Rio in Las Vegas beginning at 10pm tonight.


Join us as we watch to see whether Cada can hold off Moon and make WSOP history.

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:

But in the last couple of hours, Buchman and France's Antoine Sout got into more than a couple of tangles and played some hands that lasted for minutes on end. It finally came to a head at about twenty 'til 5am.

With the blinds at 500,000/1,000,000/150,000, Buchman raised to 2.5 million. Saout re-raised 6.5 million more. With barely an ounce of consideration, Buchman re-raised all-in. Saout took his time, but eventually called. With the cards on their backs, here's what we saw.

Buchman: [Ah][Qc]
Antonine Saout: [Ad][Kc]

Buchman had Saout covered, but only by about nine million chips. The board, [Th][7c][Kd][kh][6d], offered some drama, but not enough to tell a long story. Buchman was resigned to his fate. When the chips were pushed across the table, Saout had the biggest chip lead of any player so far today.

Here's how the players stacked up after that hand.

Darvin Moon--56,000,000
Eric Buchman--9,800,000
Joe Cada--40,000,000
Antoine Saout--89,000,000

Buchman, however, was not ready to go away. Ten minutes later, he got all-in against Darvin Moon. Buchman was behind but not by enough.

Moon: [Ac][7s]
Buchman: [Tc][Kd]

Buchman made trip kings by the river and doubled up.

Then, barely a minute had passed before Moon came in for a raise, Buchman shoved over the top, and Moon called. The roles were reversed this time.

Moon: [kd][jd]
Buchman: [ad][5c]

This time, it was Moon's turn to catch up. He flopped a gutshot, turned his pair, and held up against Buchman.

Buchman's fourth place finish earned him $2,502,890.

Here were the chip counts going into three-handed play.

Moon: 75,925,000
Cada: 39,225,000
Saout: 80,650,000

"My expectation was to go deep in this tournament and I did. I didn't expect to win it. It could have gone a lot worse when I had kings against aces," Buchman said. "I think I played well. I'm disappointed, but I'm okay."

We're now 17 hours into final table play. Buchman said, looking back, he didn't think it affected him.

"I guess it does for some people [affected their game] but I don't think it changed my decisions," he said. "I'm used to playing for long hours. I've played for almost two days before."

Now, Buchman heads off to get some sleep and figure out what to do with his $2.5 million.

"I'll just play more poker," he said. "At least it's over. I feel better about that."

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.

While Shulman went after that goal today, the rest of the field was working to make sure it didn't happen. Moments ago, the field succeeded.

Short-stacked since the bad beat against Joe Cada (the ugly jacks versus threes incident), Shulman finally picked up a hand worthy of his 5 million chips. He got his pocket sevens in against Antoine Saout's [Ac][9s].

There was something in the air that suggested this would be Shulman's end, and the flop made it so. The board looked like this by the end: [Ts][9d][6s][Qc][4s].

Shulman was gone in fifth place.

Since returning from the break, that is just about all the action we have seen.

Here's the updated chip counts since Shulman's exit.

Moon: 31,575,000
Buchman: 55,850,000
Cada: 43,450,000
Saout: 62,925,000

With the blinds at 400,000/800,000/50,000, those stacks could go a long way.

With that in mind, let's see how our man Eric Buchman is holding up. We shot this interview during the last break.

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.

Poker is a game of skill.

Steven Begleiter raised to 1.6 million and Darvin Moon put in what some people might call an overbet. He moved all in for 60 gazillion (or thereabouts). Begleiter snap-called for his last 21 million. This was either going to be very fair or very, very sick.

Moon: [Ac][Qh]
Begleiter: [Qs][Qd]

And so there it was. Begleiter could not have been much happier.

Here's how the first four cards ran out: [7s][4d][8s][3s]...

Okay.

Just stop and think about something pretty here. Think about how beautiful your mother was when you were six years old, or how those fields of wildflowers on the Blue Ridge Parkway looked last spring.

Okay. Are you in a pretty place? Okay.

Here's the river.

[Ad].

We'd tell you what happened next, but it took us all a good thirty seconds to pick ourselves up off the floor.

The loser took it better. After recovering, he spoke with the media.

"On this one, I thought I had it," Begleiter said afterward. "When I cleared the turn, I was almost counting it."

Just in case anyone missed it the first time, we'd like to repeat.

Poker is a game of skill.

We'd hoped that would be the end of it. Sure, we're the PokerStars Blog and we have our favorites, but the carnage was starting to get the better of us. Our therapists said we'd probably be okay by tomorrow.

And then it was all-in pre-flop between PokerStars' Joe Cada's red threes and Jeff Shulman's pocket jacks for all of Cada's 11,200,000 chips.

We probably don't have to tell you we heard the crowd go wild for Cada before we saw the three on the flop.

And so now we are five-handed. It's 1:30am. And we are bringing in counselors. We think Medicaid covers that kind of thing.

But wait!

There is still hope.

Just a few hands later (the 199th) we saw something happen that we're still trying to comprehend. It was a million bets to Moon's final push all-in and snap-call from Joe Cada for more than 21 million. Cada, of course, had pocket aces to Moon's...[Ks][9c].

Yeah.

When the nine came on the flop, we called for the priest. Alarmingly, the turn and river bricked and suddenly Cada (the guy who was down to less than 2 million earlier today) was among the chip leaders.

By this time last year, Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov had wandered off for a good night's rest. Tonight, we're ordering coffee with our amphetamines. Best you watch a little video while we collect ourselves.

As one of the five remaining players at the table, Eric Buchman might not want to give away too much of his strategy. Fortunately, before he started today (yesterday?), he told us all about it.