The 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event finally reached 666 players, popping the money bubble at around 11:24 pm yesterday. Chinese player Steve Chung was the unfortunate bubble boy, finishing in the 667^th position and only one place away from the money. But Chung didn’t leave the table empty handed, Milwaukee's Best Light, one of the WSOP main sponsors, awarded him a $10,000 buy-in into the 2009 WSOP Main Event for his effort. Chung started playing Friday with 212,700 in chips.

The Main Event kicked off with a field of 6,844 players and less than a week after it started only a portion of the field remained alive. 1308 players returned yesterday to the Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino hoping to get a piece of the millionaire prize pool, and after three levels, the field was once again reduced to 733 players, focusing all the attention on the money bubble.

Players with shorts stacks constricted their play and rarely risked their last chance to stay alive at the event, big stacks players was the opportunity and started their attacks to score as many poker chips from players trying to survive the bubble burst.

The WSOP Tournament Director Jack Effel announced the hand-for-hand play when there were 675 players left. At 10:05 p.m., the field reached 674 and Effel instructed each dealer to deal one hand and stand up once the hand was over. If a player decided to move all in and was called during the hand-by-hand play, the dealer had to wait for the ESPN cameras to film any potential elimination. The TV producer would then take control of the table, indicating the dealer when to deal the next card and when was time to move to the next hand.

Also, all players were told not to leave their tables and not to stand up, however, keeping several hundred players on their tables during the money frenzy was a not easy and players started moving all over the field every time a dealer announced an all-in call. Players went to a brake after the money bubble burst, and the calm returned to Rio All Suite Hotel and Casino once the remaining field was guaranteed at least $21,230.

Here’s the 2008 WSOP Main Event payout chart:

• 1: $9,119,517

• 2: $5,790,024

• 3: $4,503,352

• 4: $3,763,515

• 5: $3,088,012

• 6: $2,412,510

• 7: $1,769,174

• 8: $1,286,672

• 9: $900,670

• 10-12: $591,869

• 13-15: $463,201

• 16-18: $334,534

• 19-27: $257,334

• 28-36: $193,000

• 37-45: $154,400

• 46-54: $135,100

• 55-63: $115,800

• 64-72: $96,500

• 73-81: $77,200

• 82-90: $64,333

• 91-99: $51,466

• 100-162: $41,816

• 163-225: $38,600

• 226-288: $35,383

• 289-351: $32,166

• 352-414: $28,950

• 415-477: $27,020

• 478-540: $25,090

• 541-603: $23,160

• 604-666: $21,230

Day 3 closed with Jeremy Joseph leading the chip count with a total of 1,450,000, followed by Jeremiah Smith with 1,300,000, Owen Crowein third position with 1,000,000 and Alexander Kostritsyn in 4^th place with 980,000. There ate 474 players coming back for Day 4 including a reduced number of pros who survived the Main Event action. They are: Hoyt Corkins, Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Evelyn Ng, Jeff Madsen, Mike Matusow, Gus Hansen, Chip Jett, Shawn Sheikhan, Victor Ramdin, Alexander Kostritsyn, Jon Friedberg,  Allen Cunningham, Mark Vos, Markus Golser, Jean-Robert Bellande, Matt Matros, Tommy Le, Hasan Habib, Hevad Khan, Dag Martin Mikkelson and Robert Mizrachi.

Pros eliminations: Scott Clemens, Rolf Slotboom, Chau Giang, Vanessa Rousso, Brandon Adams, Men Nguyen, Ryan Fin, Erik Seidel, John D'Agostino, Thor Hansen, Bill Gazes, Brandon Adams, Nenad Medic, Alexander Kravchenko, Toto Leonidas, Matt Glantz, Phil Gordon, Jennifer Harman, Patrik Antonius and Chris Moneymaker.