Eastgate and Demidov Heads-up at World Series of Poker Main Event

The most anticipated day in poker history has come and gone with two players left still standing. The November Nine took to the felt Sunday to resume play at the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. After an entertaining day at the Rio, Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov are the only two still hanging onto chips and will return Monday for play the bracelet.

The November Nine finally returned from their 117 day break and immediately took over the Penn & Teller theater with all of their families, friends and supporters. They had been paid out 9th-place money back in July, but were returning to battle for the remaining $24 million, or so, and one of two spots in a Monday night heads-up match for the bracelet.

Final table chip counts:

For a look at each member of the "November Nine", click here.

Here's what they're playing for:

Craig Marquis was the first to go. Marquis moved his short-stack in with two red sevens and found himself racing with the A-Q of Montgomery. Marquis would find a set of sevens on the 7-A-10 flop. Montgomery would now be looking for one of many runner-runner combinations to bounce the first final tabler. The J on the turn was one of those running cards, the K on the river was the other. Montgomery found the straight and Marquis was showed the door in 9th.

Kelly Kim started the day as the short stack. Kim found himself committed in the BB on more than one occassion. The first time, he woke up with kings and they held. The second time, he picked up three callers. Two of them would flop top pair, both of them could beat Kim, who finished in 8th.

Chino Rheem ran his jacks into Dennis Phillips' queens early, allowing a costly double through. All the cheering in the world from his poker posse couldn't keep Rheem from ending up on the wrong side of an A-K vs A-Q suckout, one that shipped the rest of his stack to Peter Eastgate for a 7th-place finish.

Darus Suharto was the next to get whittled away. Quiet most of the day, the Canadian eventually got it in realy bad vs fellow Canadian Scott Montgomery. Suharto's A-8 never caught up to Montgomery's A-Q and a 6th-place finisher was found.

Scott Montgomery had remained poised for most of the day, but soon saw himself blowing up to the tune of shipping about 29 million chips in preflop with A-9 of diamonds and getting beat into the pot by Ivan Demidov's kings. The kings crippled Montgomery, who was then forced to watch an unbelievable river come crashing down for the rest of his chips. Montgomery's A-3 had improved to trip aces by the turn, way out in front of Eastgate's pocket sixes. Phillips would chime in to say he folded an ace, which means the 6 Eastgate caught on 5th street was of the one-outer fashion. Montgomery was forced to settle for 5th after the Dane rivered sixes full.

Eastgate kept with the rivered full house trend an took care of Ylon Schwartz in 4th. It appeared that Schwartz had Eastgate set up perfectly and his river shove of 15 million was going to scare the online pro off a pair. Turns out that Eastgate held pocket fives, but had filled up on the K-2-8K-5 board, making it an easy call.

Three-handed play didn't last long. Dennis Phillips' stack was shrinking and the start of day chip leader was looking to make a move. Sadly, he made a move right into Eastgates after he had hit bottom set. Phillips wasn't holding much more than a couple rags and was drawing dead after the turn.

After Phillips' elimination in 3rd-place, play was stopped. Peter Eastgate and Ivan Demidov will go through a gauntlet of interviews between now and Monday at 10 p.m., when the two will return to the Penn and Teller Theater in the Rio to play heads-up for all the marbles. Demidov, 28, is looking to cap an astounding four month run, which includes not only this final table appearance, but two wins in Russia and a 3rd-place at the WSOPE Main Event, where he became the first to make the final nine in both the WSOP and WSOPE. Eastgate, 22, is looking to erase Phil Hellmuth's name from the record books as the youngest Main Event winner in history.

Chip counts:

Payouts remaining:

Play resumes Monday at 10 p.m. PST. Join us for live coverage as the biggest poker tournament in history comes to a close.

Click here to read the final table blog.