For the last several weeks we've been summarizing the 2009 World Series of Poker events. We're wrapping up this coverage with a comprehensive look at the WSOP 2009 main event.

This year’s main event started on July 3rd at 12pm, marking Day 1a.

Main Event Schedule:

July 3rd (Day 1a)
July 4th (Day 1b)
July 5th (Day 1c)
July 6th (Day 1d): Field is split into two groups.
July 7th (Day 2a): The players who completed Day 1a and Day 1b.
July 8th (Day 2b): The players who survived Day 1c and Day 1d.
July 9th (Media Day): A break from playing, scheduled as a media day.
July 10th (Day 3): Winners from Day 2 are merged. Will continue to play until Day 8 on July 15th.
July 15th (Day 8): Down to 9 players. WSOP suspends until November 7th.
November 7th: Remaining 9 players play down to the final 2 opponents.
November 10th (Final Heads-Up): 2009 World Series of Poker champion is declared in a final heads-up match.

To look back on previous events of the 2009 WSOP, you can find our coverage below:

2009 World Series of Poker Events 1-13
2009 World Series of Poker Events 14-19
2009 World Series of Poker Events 20-29
2009 World Series of Poker Events 30-56

EVENT #57 - $10,000 NO LIMIT HOLD'EM WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP - DAY 1A
The 57th WSOP Event kicked-off on July 3rd at 12pm.

Day 1a has usually had the smallest turnout of all the four starting days. The 2008 inaugural main event tournament brought 1,297 hopefuls to the Amazon Room, and this year there were only 1,116.

The players began the tournament with 30,000 in chips and hit the felt for four 120-minute levels. At the end of Day 1a, around 800 competitors remained. They sat out until July 7th, when they combined with opponents from Day 1b forming Day 2a.

Notable competitors from Day 1a were rapper Nelly, former major league pitcher Orel Hershiser, Seinfeld star Jason Alexander and Everybody Loves Raymond star Brad Garrett. While Hershiser and Nelly were knocked-out, Alexander and Garrett held their spots in the game.

Some players who mad it with more sizable stacks included Jason Riesenberg, Eli Elezra, Tom Schneider, Jeff Williams, Jimmy Fricke, Phil Laak and Vitaly Lunkin.

In addition to the celebrity factor, Day 1a stood out for a special dedication made by tournament director Jack Effel to Berry Johnston for his years of continued play. Johnston has set the record for most consecutive cashes at the World Series of Poker, capping off at an astounding 28.

The day ended with former professional hockey player Eric Cloutier (Mont-Laurier, Quebec) emerging as the chip leader with over 150,000.

EVENT #57 - DAY 1B
Day 1b of the WSOP Main Event drew 873 players – a substantial drop from the 1,158 players who took their seats on the 4th of July last year. This being said, the quality of the turnout more than made up for the quantity. Big names like former world champions “Amarillo Slim” Preston, Doyle Brunson, Jim Bechtel, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Carlos Mortensen, Chris Moneymaker, and Greg “Fossilman” Raymer graced the tables. Both Moneymaker and Brunson were eliminated.

Another notable occurrence was the attendance of 96-year-old Jack Ury, who broke his own record as the oldest player to play in the WSOP.

By the end of the day, 655 players remained, and they returned for Day 2a on July 7th.

Brandon Demes from Tempe, Arizona was the chip leader for the day with 137,075 chips, which made him the second on the leaderboard, just behind Eric Cloutier, who finished Day 1a with a stack of over 150,000.

EVENT #57 - DAY 1C
Day 1c of the WSOP Main Event saw Jeff Lisandro head towards potentially making further WSOP History. Lisandro already won three gold bracelets this summer and was going strong in the main event. Still, of the 1,696 entrants, Lisandro was not the chip leader. That honour went to Joe Cada who ended the day with 187,000 in chips.

An impressive spread of former world champions played on Day 1c, including Tom McEvoy (1983), Phil Hellmuth (1989), Dan Harrington (1995), Scotty Nguyen (1998), Joe Hachem (2005), and Jamie Gold (2006). Hellmuth, Harrington, Nguyen, and Hachem returned for Day 2. Tom McEvoy and Jamie Gold were eliminated.

EVENT #57 - DAY 1D
Day 1d of the 2009 WSOP saw hundreds of players shut out – an unexpected occurrence considering the slow start on Day 1a. While event coordinators were sympathetic with the estranged hopefuls, the fact remained that the inconvenience was self-inflicted; many players didn’t take advantage of the open spaces in the first three days and waited until the last minute.

Troy Weber emerged as the chip leader of Day 1d, boasting 353,000. He was the only player to break both the 200,000 and 300,000 chip mark through all four starting days.

The results of this heated and often frustrating battle established the total purse for the tournament, which stood at $61,043,600. The first place winner will snag $8,548,435 and 648 players will land in the money.

Event #57 - Day 2a
The WSOP Main Event Day 2a kicked off on July 7th at 12pm. A solid field of 1,467 players got down to the felt, with only 630 remaining at day’s end.

As it turned out, Eric Cloutier was not Day 1a’s chip leader. There was a clerical error caused by Cloutier filling out his chip count slip illegibly. While it appeared that he finished with 150,750, Cloutier actually finished with only 15,750. The error was noticed by casino staff on Day 1c and the results were changed accordingly. Still, as fate would have it, Cloutier has climbed his way to the upper echelons of the leader board after Day 2a with 384,000.

Seven other players also broke the 300,000 mark, including Ed Perry, Brandon Demes and Greg "FBT" Mueller. At the end of the day, it was Englishman Redmond Lee who emerged as the chip leader.

Event #57 - Day 2b
The Amazon room, which usually has a capacity of around 2,800, was packed with 2,924 players for Days 1c and 1d, which forced the tournament directors to bring out more tables to accommodate all of the competitors.

Within the first 8 hours of play, the field had been demolished to half its size. A number of well-known players were among those knocked out, including Erick Lindgren, Shannon Shorr, Victor Ramdin, Vanessa Rousso, Scotty Nguyen and Howard Lederer.

This being said, there were also a few big names who returned for Day 3, like Phil Ivey, ElkY, David Benyamine, Justin Bonomo and Dan Harrington. Day 1d chip leader Troy Weber dropped to second place with 453,200 while Amir Levahot ended the night on top with 610,500.

Event #57 - Day 3
Day 3 saw 2,044 players hit the tables in the Amazon Room. By the end of the day, over 60% had been knocked out. The 789 remaining hopefuls looked to the final table with a degree of trepidation – especially considering the chip leader, Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, boasted a daunting 1,380,500 stack.

Notable players in the Day 3 field included former Main Event champions Peter Eastgate, Joe Hachem, Phil Hellmuth, Dan Harrington, Greg Raymer, Chris Ferguson, Carlos Mortensen, Bobby Baldwin, and WSOPE winner John Juanda. Other competitors include bracelet winners Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Ville Wahlbeck, Jeff Lisandro, Tom Schneider, and Brian Lemke. Some of the big name eliminations include Humberto Brenes, Jean-Robert Bellande, Liz Lieu, Carlos Mortensen, and Greg Raymer.

EVENT #57 - DAY 5
In a mere 3 levels of play, the Day 5 field in the WSOP shrunk from over 400 players to just 185. The 6-hours of action were short but intense and it was often difficult to keep track of the busts. By the end of the day South African Warren Zackey emerged as the chip leader, with 4,977,000. Sweden’s Kaspar Cordes held second place with 4,295,000.

Many fan favourites were still in the running, including Ludovic Lacay, James Akenhead, Bertrand Grospellier, last year's Main Event winner Peter Eastgate and Phil Ivey.

Many eyes were on the young UK player James Akenhead, who has proven himself a talented young hopeful. He sat in 9th place overall.

Event #57 - Day 6
In stark difference from Day 5, Day 6 of the 2009 World Series of Poker ran long into the small hours of Tuesday morning. In total 121 players were knocked out of the game, reducing the Day 6 starting numbers from 185 to only 64 players left to vie for the final pot. All these players are in luck though, since each one will end up in the money.

Warren Zackey, the chip leader going into Day 6, remains in the game but his stack took a beating and was diminished from $ 4.87 million to $1.41 million. At day’s end the chip leader was the relatively unknown Darvin Moon, whose stack towers at almost $10 million. He is followed by Billy Kopp, who has about $8.25 million and renowned poker pro Phil Ivey, who has almost $6.5 million.

Previous chip leader Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier was one of the players taken out on Day 6, along with John Monnette, Joe Serock, Dag Palovic, Thierry van den Berg, Eric Cloutier, Blair Hinkle, Kasper Cordes, Matt Affleck, Nasr El Nasr and Theo Tran.

Event #57 - Day 7
Day 7 of the 2009 WSOP Main Event saw the Rio graced with the presence and sheer determination of the 64 remaining players. Neither Peter Eastgate nor Joe Hechem (the only two previous WSOP Main Event champs) made it through the gruelling day.

The remaining players managed to outlast 99% of the original. Within the first two levels of play, the field had already diminished to 43 players and by the end of the day, only 27 players remained – though the chip leaders were hardly altered. Darvin Moon still held front position with 20,160,000 and Billy Kopp ranked second with 15,970,000. Third place was held by Steve Begleiter, who had 11,885,000 in chips and world famous poker pro Phil Ivey sat at fourth place with 11,350,000.

Other famous pros who could reach the final table include Jeff Shulman, Antonio Esfandiari, Ludovic Lacay, James Akenhead, and Andrew Lichtenberger.

Event #57 - Day 8
Day 8 determined the final table for the 2009 WSOP and the November Nine snagged their spots much more quickly than anyone imagined. Darvin Moon, a logger from Maryland, still held the fort with a massive chip lead of 58,930,000. The other final table players included Eric Buchman (34,800,000), Steven Begleiter (29,885,000), Jeff Shulman (19,580,000), Joe Cada (13,215,000), Kevin Schaffel (12,390,000), Phil Ivey (9,765,000), Antoine Saout (9,500,000), and James Akenhead (6,800,000).

27 hopefuls started the day, including the last woman in the event, Leo Margets, who was also the first player to be knocked out by Warren Zackey in the first level.

The final 9 players have a few months to recollect before they re-engage in a last ditched attempt at WSOP fame and fortune. The event is scheduled to start again on November 7, 2009 and the final heads-up will be held on November 10th.