And so, after almost a fortnight of gruelling poker, not to mention the small case of an 8773 strong field, we have alas found our final 9.
With David Einhorn, Jeffrey Lisandro, Sirious Jamshidi, Kevin Aaronson, Luke Chung, William Thorson, John Magill, and Leif Force taking 18th-12th places respectively, we were left with that ominous, but always inevitable bubble spot. Each player was yearning for that highly desired final table postion, but I'm sure with the knowledge that a guaranteed $1,154,527 lay in waiting for the next exit, the tones of MC Hammer's "Stop! Bubble Time" wouldn't have been too much of burden.
But bubble time it was, and that spot would eventually go to Fred Goldberg from Hollywood, Florida. Sitting in the cut-off with 2.8 million in chips, Goldberg made his move with Q-3 off-suit, but was unfortunate to run into the monster Pocket Kings of Richard Lee. The 9-7-7-J-8 board was of no saviour and Goldberg was out.
The final table is as follows:
Seat 1: Richard Lee - $11,820,000
Seat 2: Erik Friberg - $9,605,000
Seat 3: Paul Wasicka - $7,970,000
Seat 4: Dan Nassif - $2,600,000
Seat 5: Allen Cunningham - $17,770,000
Seat 6: Michael Binger - $3,140,000
Seat 7: Doug Kim - $6,770,000
Seat 8: Jamie Gold - $26,650,000
Seat 9: Rhett Butler - $4,815,000
And while at first glance, today's final appears to be swamped by Americans, within that swarm lies our sole European, Stockholm's ErikFriberg.
Although not a name familiar to us mere Brits, those Scandies are sure to know the face, especially after he won The Swedish Poker Challenge in Stockholm of 2005 for a rather tasty $87,287. But that figure will mean very little to Friberg, who has already become a millionaire, even before the final table has even started!
So, good luck to the Swedish pro who will be flying the European flag today - let's hope he brings the bacon across to this side of the pond.