The final nine players have been decided in the main event of the WSOP. The top two stacks belong to Dennis Phillips with 26,295,000 chips, and Ivan Demidov with 24,400,000 chips. Both players are relatively inexperienced in major tournament play. Phillips has only cashed twice before, winning just over four grand in a couple of events at the 2007 Grand Casino Tunica Poker Tournament. Demidov also has only two cashes, just over $3500 at the Korona Russian Poker Championship, and a $39,000 cash out in event #44 at this year’s WSOP.

It’s hard to choose one over the other, as they seem to be closely matched. If I had to choose one I would go with the Russian. He seems to have more experience. But it will only take one bad beat to change the fate of one or both of these players.