Friday, July 16th, was officially Day 7 of the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event, though for those who started on Day 1a, it was actually more like Day 11.  Clearly, it’s been a loooong road eliminating 7,300 players from poker’s biggest and most prestigious event of the year, but this morning on Day 8, after losing 51 more players yesterday, the end is finally in sight.  Barring any huge unforeseen complications, by the end of today- or by the wee hours of tomorrow- all those that wish too will finally know which nine players will be competing in November on poker’s biggest stage for a first prize worth at least $8.9 million, and for what is undisputedly the most important title in poker, that of Main Event Champion.

With three tables left there are still no locks as to who will make that final nine, however we do know who wont be there including quite a few fan favorites that saw their amazing WSOP runs come to an end yesterday, somewhere between levels 26 and 30. 

Undoubtedly one of those favorites, particularly in the Twitter community where he’s known as @BrokeLivingJRB, was Jean-Robert Bellande, who busted in 78th place after a frustratingly short Day 7 which had him walking to the payout cage before anyone else in the room.  Bellande was a rail darling for sure and as an ex-Survivor had great media potential, but he wasn’t the only beloved player to drop out yesterday, others included David Benyamine, John Armbrust, Jacobo Fernandez, Theo Jorgensen, Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Peter Jetten, Alexander Kostritsyn and Tony “Bond18” Dunst.

With the elimination of all those “name” players, the potential for a relatively unknown November Nine is definitely hanging in the air today as our last 27 sit down to play, however there are still many exciting stories in our short field that many wold love to see play out in November.

Most likely the biggest of those stories is that of Michael Mizrachi, the last of four brothers who cashed in this year’s Main Event, and the man that in many ways kicked off the Series by taking down the first open event, the $50,000 buy-in Poker Players Championship.  If “The Grinder” can successfully bookend the Series by winning its two biggest events and thus tie for 2010 WSOP Player of the Year at the same time, he will not only be the biggest story of this year, but one of the biggest in the 41-year history of the Series as a whole.

Mizrachi enters today with a slightly below average stack worth about 6,300,000 so to get into the final nine he’ll most likely have to build it up, potentially through confrontation with one of the other amazing player still in the field as well, like Matt Affleck (12,515,000), Scott Clements (7,250,000), Adam “Roothlus” Levy (4,745,000), David Baker (6,825,000), Johnny “The Thinker” Lodden (1,510,000) or Joseph Cheong, the man who ended the day as chip leader with nearly 25 million in tournament chips.

To watch “The Grinder” or any of these other great surviving players attempt to fulfill there poker destinies, check out live streaming updates powered by PokerNews at www.wsop.com.