A marathon session of nearly 12 hours of play that began with 27 of the 11-day tournament's 6,844 entrants and ended at 3:30 a.m. local time with the nine finalists remaining.

Each of the nine is assured to win at least $900,670 when play resumes on Nov. 9, an unprecedented pause to the proceedings designed by World Series of Poker officials to create suspense and generate media interest in the finalists. In past years, the tournament was played out on consecutive days.

World Series of Poker Executive Director Jeffrey Pollack said the international flavor of the final table contestants should increase interest in the contest and the game in general over the intervening 117 days.

"What I actually think will happen is, national rivalries will develop over the next four months," Pollack said. "When we come back in November, you will see fans from Russia, Denmark, Canada and, of course, the United States. And the feel in this room may be more like a World Cup match than a poker tournament."

The four non-Americans in the finals include accountant Darus Suharto of Toronto and poker pros Ivan Demidov of Moscow, Scott Montgomery of Perth, Canada and Peter Eastgate of Odense, Denmark. As it stands now, Demidov, Montgomery and Eastgate are in second, third and fourth places respectively, and Suharto is sixth.

This is the second consecutive year that a Canadian, Russian and Dane made the final table. In 2007, Vietnam native and Canadian citizen Tuan Lam placed second for $4.8 million, Alex Kravchenko of Moscow finished fourth for $1.9 million and Philip Hilm, born in Denmark and a U.K. resident, came in ninth for $525,934.

"This will probably encourage more Danes to play the game," said Eastgate, 22, who began playing as a pro two years ago. "They'll see us on television and be inspired."

Of the non-Americans, the amateur Suharto seemed most stunned by his success. The accountant had played only online and won his entry fee in a tournament on the website PokerStars.Com. He plans to study up during the break.

"I'm going to go back to my desk and try to learn some more poker," said Suharto, who was born in Indonesia. "There are a lot of great players here. I'm a nobody."

The Main Event, a $10,000 Buy-In No-Limit Texas Hold 'Em tournament, is the most famous of the 55 tournaments played at the Rio All-Suites Hotel-Casino from late May through mid-July. Players from more than 108 nations played in at least one of the events. Payouts is determined by the number of entrants; there were 6,844 this year, up from 6,358 in 2007 and second only to the 8,773 entrants in 2006. The $9.1 million first prize is the second-highest in the tournament's history.

The current chip leader is amateur Dennis Phillips, 53, of the St. Louis, Missouri, area, a truck salesman who paid $80 to enter a tournament at a local casino and won entry.

"It's going to be tomorrow or the next day before this even comes close to sinking in," he said, insisting he still isn't a professional player even though he'll win at least $900,000. "This is my hobby, I love the game, I love to play it, I really don't want to become a professional or I'll take the enjoyment out of it."

The other finalists are Kelly Kim of Whittier, Calif., Craig Marquis of Arlington, Texas, David "Chino" Rheem of Los Angeles, Ylon Schwartz of Brooklyn, N.Y. The break between this week's play and November has players assessing their strategies.

"I probably won't play a single hand of poker between now and then," said Marquis, 23, who left the University of Texas at Austin last year to focus on his poker career. "It's really weird waiting that long. It's going to make the final table harder for us because people are going to be coaching the others and they'll be better than they were before. But it'll be better for the public because they'll get to see a more skilled final table."