Laura Rauch / AP

Phil Ivey talks to other players during the World Series of Poker. Ivey made the final table in poker's main event.

updated 9:04 p.m. ET July 17, 2009

LAS VEGAS - The World Series of Poker has thrust nine millionaire winners into the spotlight as they wait 116 days to get back to the table for the rest of the no-limit Texas Hold ’em main event.

They hung on to win at least $1.26 million as poker’s richest tournament played at an unexpectedly brisk pace, and now must decide how to best spend the next four months to set up a run at the $8.55 million crown.

“So I guess I’m going to actually start watching some poker on TV,” said Phil Ivey, a 33-year-old poker legend who regularly plays the biggest cash games in Las Vegas and is one of the best players in the world.

The seven-time tournament winner at the series is guaranteed his best finish yet at the $10,000 buy-in main event after placing 10th in 2003, 20th in 2005 and 23rd in 2002. His wins here have come playing games other than no-limit Texas Hold ’em, including two gold bracelet wins this year with a chance for a third in 57 events.

“So far I’ve just made the final table, so it’s a pretty big accomplishment,” said Ivey, who has won $3.46 million at the series, not including this year’s main event. “Winning it would be top of the line.”

Ivey will start in November with 5 percent of the chips in play — 9.75 million — and a goal of winning them all to take the title.

To do it, he’ll have to get past eight relatively unknown players, including a former Bear Stearns Cos. executive who won his seat in a hometown poker league, the publisher of Card Player magazine and Darvin Moon, a married, self-employed logger from Oakland, Md., who currently leads with 30 percent of the chips at the table.

“Everyone at this table is way better than I am,” said Moon, 45, who said this trip was his first to Las Vegas. “Something is helping me.”

Laura Rauch / AP Players who made the final table in the World Series of Poker main event pose for a photograph on Wednesday. They are from left, James Akenhead, Jeff Shulman, Phil Ivey, Antoine Saout, Darvin Moon, Joseph Cada, Steven Begleiter, Kevin Schaffel and Eric Buchman.

The bust sent the nine players and hundreds in the crowd into a collective frenzy and instantly paused the tournament after nearly eight hours of play on the players’ eighth session.

The tournament started July 3 at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas when each player bought in and was given 30,000 starting chips. The field was so large that its start was split over four days, with the players remaining joining together on their third session.

“It’s just mind-boggling — it’s overwhelming, the whole scene with all the photographers,” said 51-year-old Kevin Schaffel of Coral Springs, Fla., a regular in $10-$20 cash games who said he was playing through a cold the past few days.

“It’s just such a thrill, I mean I can’t express it any other way,” he said. “The money will sink in down the road and that’s going to be great.”

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