LAS VEGAS -- The Kentucky Derby proudly calls itself the "greatest two minutes in sports."Well then, the World Series of Poker needs to start calling itself the "greatest 123 days in non-sports."The 39th edition of WSOP began its main event 6,844 players strong back on July 3 and got down to a final table on July 15. Then the tournament took almost a four-month hiatus to build interest, sponsorships and make celebrities of the nine finalists.It resumed Sunday and will crown a champion in the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday.This was not what Texan Benny Binion could ever have imagined when he started this freeze-out Texas hold 'em game downtown at the Horseshoe in 1970 with seven entrants and giving a silver cup, but no cash, to the champion.When Johnny Moss won that first tournament, there wasn't a huge swarm of fans standing outside the door four hours before the cards were shuffled. There weren't hot chicks passing out free caps, free shirts and thunder sticks promoting Gammo-O testosterone booster.There weren't four showgirls parading around a place like the Penn and Teller Theater stage.The players didn't come dressed like NASCARs.They didn't have a lint dust girl walking around and brushing the felt table to make sure it was picture-perfect for ESPN.You didn't have a 53-year-old account manager for a trucking company gain rock star status like Dennis Phillips, who had his own personal gallery of 300 friends from St. Louis wearing red Cardinals baseball caps and long-sleeved white shirts and cheering him louder than they have ever cheered for Albert Pujols.Then after all the buildup, the November Nine played 11 straight hands without seeing a single flop. We wait through Labor Day, Halloween and a long presidential election to get here and we don't see one card turned over for that long?But before the first break, this thing got crazy.Phillips, who got into the main event by winning a $200 satellite tournament back in St. Louis, began as the chip leader with $26,295,000 but dropped almost half of that on the 18th hand and fell from 1st to 8th.The two chip leaders starting the day - Phillips and Russia's Ivan Demidov ($24,400,000) shoved more than $8 million apiece in pre-flop.When the cards fell 8-diamonds, 10-clubs; jack-spades, Phillips led out with a $4.5 million. Demidov shoved all-in and raked a pot of more than $21 million when Phillips folded.Did the Russian have pocket jacks? Did Phillips lay down a high pocket pair, thinking he did?Since the cards weren't shown, even we lucky writers sitting tableside will have to wait until the taped showing on ESPN Tuesday night.Whatever, Phillips got him back later in the evening.After surviving an all-in by catching an ace on the flop for his ace-queen against Yion Schwartz's pocket queens, Phillips once again found himself in a big pot with Demidov.The Russian, sensing a bluff, called Phillips' bet after the river and found out he was wrong when a kings over 3's full house was turned over. "Denny, Denny, Denny," the St. Louis buddies chanted as their man made a huge jump back up the chip ladder, moving into and within $4 million of Demidov's chip lead.That chant changed to a loud "ooba, ooba, ooba" when the Danish fans cheered Denmark's Peter Eastgate, who became chip leader after going all-in and forcing Phillips to fold and lose an $11 million chunk of his stack.Texan Craig Marquis went out of the competition first with Kelly Kim following on the next hand. Then Cheno Rheem found the door, Darus Suharto exited the stage and Scott Montgomery bowed out to get down to the final four in the hunt for the $9 million top prize.Yion Schwartz left late to leave only three.Phillips' roller coaster ride then came to an end. He tried to bluff - at the wrong time.Phillips' nothing ran into Eastgate's three 3's, and the sounds of "ooba, ooba, ooba" filled the place again.WSOP's final two will match Denmark's Eastgate vs. Russia's Demidov.But Dennis Phillips gave St. Louis and Las Vegas one heck of a ride.Nick Gholson writes for the Wichita Falls Times Record News in Wichita Falls, Texas.
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