The final table itself was a 16 and a half hour marathon ordeal that tested the limits of every player. The first player to fall by the wayside was November Niner James Akenhead, followed by Matt Hawrilenko, who at one point was the tournament chip leader in Day 3. Another November Niner – Antoine Saout – was the next to go with Chris Bjorin and Markus Ristola following shortly thereafter.

EPT champion Jason Mercier, who many expected to go all the way based on his recent success, went out in fourth place with hometown hero Praz Bansi heading out after him in third. That left just Shulman and Negreanu to fight it out for the bracelet.

The win gives Shulman his second WSOP bracelet and his first WSOPE bracelet. Shulman's son, Jeff, is one of the November Nine who will head back to Vegas on November 10 to battle it out for the 2009 WSOP Main Event championship. Will the son follow in his father's footsteps and keep it in the family?

With his second-place finish, Negreanu becomes the all-time winningest poker tournament player with more than $12 million in earnings.

Here are the full final table placings and payouts:

1. Barry Shulman – £801,603
2. Daniel Negreanu – £495,589
3. Praz Bansi – £360,887
4. Jason Mercier – £267,267
5. Markus Ristola – £200,367
6. Chris Bjorin – £150,267
7. Antoine Saout – £114,228
8. Matt Hawrilenko – £87,074
9. James Akenhead – £66,533

Download Bodog Poker for your chance to qualify for a major international poker tournament for as little as $1 through the Bodog Flight Club promotion.

Let us explain. Last year, everyone was wowed by the fact that Ivan Demidov managed to claw his way through a monstrous field at the 2008 WSOP Main Event and reach the November Nine only to do the same thing, albeit from a much smaller field, at the 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event just a few months later.

This year, not only has the same thing happened once again but this time two players have accomplished this feat – Antoine Saout and James Akenhead – and Barry Shulman is the father of Jeff Shulman, who is a member of the 2009 WSOP Main Event November Nine. He's the half lightning strike in case that slipped by you.

If that wasn't enough of a storyline for you, then we also have two big name pros at the final table in Jason Mercier and Daniel Negreanu. Mercier has only been on the poker circuit for a couple of years now but has already racked up two EPT final tables with one EPT win coming from those and eight WSOP cashes with one WSOP bracelet as a result. He enters the 2009 WSOPE final table as the chip leader. If you don't know who Negreanu is, well, we can't help you. Everyone knows who he is.

Also at the final table are two players who help the chip lead at some point over the past four days of poker, Praz Bansi and WSOP bracelet-holder Matt Hawrilenko.

Here is the breakdown of the chip counts as of time of publish:

Jason Mercier – 2,462,000
James Akenhead – 1,302,000
Barry Shulman – 1,247,000
Daniel Negreanu – 1,018,000
Praz Bansi – 894,000
Markus Ristola – 843,000
Chris Bjorin – 809,000
Matt Hawrilenko – 773,000
Antoine Saout – 583,000

Stay tuned for more updates from the 2009 WSOP Europe and download Bodog Poker for your chance to qualify for a major international poker tournament for as little as $1 through the Bodog Flight Club promotion.

That collection of recognizable names are dotted around the Empire Casino in London and are all looking to add to their already impressive resumes. Names on the list include Barry Shulman, Antoine Saout, Steve Zolotow, Liz Lieu, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Amnon Filippi, James Akenhead, Ram Vaswani, Daniel Negreanu, Doyle Brunson, UK football legend Teddy Sheringham, Julian Thew, John Tabatabai, Jason Mercier and Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who is on a ridiculous hot streak having won the WPT Championship back in April and then almost $2 million online from two different tournaments. He is currently third in chips in this event.

The current chip leader is UK poker pro Praz Bansi (who has the best name evar), followed by Steven Fung. The players are currently on a 90 minute dinner break, which makes us think of how good the food in London is, and will be back to play down to 27 tonight.

Stay tuned for more updates from the 2009 WSOP Europe and download Bodog Poker for your chance to qualify for a major international poker tournament for as little as $1 through the Bodog Flight Club promotion.

The first four episodes will debut on February 1 beginning at 6 p.m. ET. Encore presentations of the first two episodes will air on ESPN2 at 10 p.m., and the shows will be co-hosted by Lon McEachern and Norman Chad. The production will include the new mobile hole card cam, allowing ESPN to show the action (along with the player's hole cards) on the outer tables as well as the featured table.

ESPN2 will air episodes from 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. on February 1, 8 and 15, and the final two episodes on March 1 at 10 and 11 p.m.

Poker veterans Juanda, Daniel Negreanu and Scott Fischman are used to putting in long sessions of play, but this kind of marathon was unheard of. The final table officially became the longest WSOP final table in history once it surpassed 16 hours played in the $1,500 buy-in Razz championship in 2005. All in all, 484 hands of poker were played before Juanda, in a remarkable demonstration of patient poker, finally defeated heads-up opponent Stanislav Alekhin to take down the £868,800 (roughyl $1.5 million).

On top of winning a record-setting WSOP final table, Juanda also becomes the first American to win a WSOP Europe event. The bracelet is Juanda's fourth – his first since 2003 – his 45th career WSOP cash and his 23rd final table appearance.

The other major story line at the final table was the performance of Ivan Demidov, the first player to ever reach the final tables of both WSOP Main Events, Europe and Vegas. He ended the day in third for a payout of £334,850 ($590k), which will go nicely with the $900k that he is guaranteed from the WSOP Main Event final table in November. All in all, if he wins that WSOP Main Event bracelet in November, he could win as much as $9.6 million. Not too shabby.

Here are the full final table results and payouts:

1. John Juanda – £868,800
2. Stanislav Alekhin – £533,950
3. Ivan Demidov – £334,850
4. Bengt Sonnert – £271,500
5. Daniel Negreanu – £217,200
6. Scott Fischman – £171,950
7. Robin Keston – £135,750
8. Toni Hiltunen – £108,600
9. Chris Elliott – £81,450

That wraps up the WSOP events for this year, well….sort of. There is still the small matter of the WSOP Main Event final table that takes place on November 9th. We'll be sure to keep you up to date on the "November Nine," so make sure to stay tuned to the Bodog Beat for all of your poker news and online poker updates.

The pros at the table include current chip leader John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu and Scott Fischman. Juanda came into the day's play with the lead and managed to hold onto it all the way through the final table, a remarkable feat considering his opponents. Negreanu will be looking to a add a fifth WSOP bracelet to his wrist, the first on the other side of the pond from his native Canada. Fischman is after his third bracelet, his first in four years, and his second major tournament cash this year. Looks like the poker camp instructor for the WSOP Academy is drinking some of his own Kool-aid.

The major story line at the final table though is Russian poker player Ivan Demidov. He has already become part of the poker consciousness as part of the "November Nine" (well, sort of, the marketing and "awareness raising" has been a bit lacking) and has now added a second Main Event final table to his accomplishments. Demidov becomes the first player to reach the final table of the 2008 WSOP Main Event and the 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event, but could win his second final table before even playing in the first. Weird.

The rest of the final table players are important to someone, just not to us.

Due to the vagaries of "time zones" and the like, the final table has started even though we just woke up. Demidov has opened a decent chip lead, Juanda and Negreanu have dropped a bit and we've lost Chris Elliott, who is not the Cabin Boy.

Stay tuned to the Bodog Beat for more WSOP Europe updates, and if you want some poker tournament action of your own then don't forget to get in on the Bodog Poker Open II, which is currently running in the Bodog Poker room. There are BPO events running every night this week and online satellites for the Bodog Poker Open are running constantly.

The field is already now well into the money thanks to the elimination of Stephen Ladowsky as the bubble boy in 37th place. Finishing in the money so far have been a lot of the lesser known players, besides poker pro Josh Arieh (33rd for ₤25,340), which means that the concentration of talent has increased as this tournament has progressed, something that pleases us to no end as it makes for much more interesting tournament reporting.

Aside for the two pros that we mentioned before who occupy the top spots, there's also Scott Fischman, Brandon Adams, Erik Seidel, Mel Judah, November Nine member Ivan Demidov and a couple of Internet guns, Brian "sbrugby" Townsend and Justin "BoostedJ" Smith, all with the potential to make a move toward the top. How many of these players will still be standing when the final table for the 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event final table is set with its nine participants remains to be seen, but be sure that there will be plenty of fireworks when they tangle.

Stay tuned to the Bodog Beat for more WSOP Europe updates, and if you want some poker tournament action of your own then don't forget to get in on the Bodog Poker Open II, which is currently running in the Bodog Poker room. There are BPO events running every night this week and online satellites for the Bodog Poker Open are running constantly.

Poker pro Andy Bloch leads the way and is followed by a star-studded list of players that includes John Juanda, Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Erik Seidel, Scott Fischman, Brandon Adams, Josh Arieh, Brian "sbrugby" Townsend and several more as you work your way down the chip counts. There will be a new champion this year, actually there will at least be a new top three, as defending champ Annette "Annette_15″ Obrestad, second-place John Tabatabai and third-place and Team Bodog poker player Matt McCullough have all bid a fond farewell to the Empire Casino.

Play will continue today until the field has been narrowed down to 27 remaining players, all who will be seeking the £868,800 first-place prize.

Stay tuned to the Bodog Beat for more WSOP Europe updates, and if you want some poker tournament action of your own then don't forget to get in on the Bodog Poker Open II, which is currently running in the Bodog Poker room. There are BPO events running every night this week and online satellites for the Bodog Poker Open are running constantly.

Leading the combined field into Day 2 of the tournament is poker pro and noted tournament veteran Daniel Negreanu, who is facing some serious competition from the big names pros who are among the 96 players that will join him for play today. Among those players thretening to make a move to the top of the leader board are Internet poker pros Justin "BoostedJ" Smith, David "Raptor" Benefield and Chris "moorman1″ Moorman, November Nine member Scott Montgomery and tournament vets David "Devilfish" Ulliott, Andy Bloch, Brandon Adams, Erik Seidel, John Juanda and several more down the line.

The 362 players who all ponied up their buy-in have combined to generate a prize pool of £3,620,000, with first place receiving an impressive £868,800. This is interesting in itself because last year the prize pool was juiced to give the winner an even £1 million. Does not look like that is happening this year, the gap between first-place money and that £1 million mark is larger due to the revised WSOP payout structures.

Stay tuned to the Bodog Beat for more details and if you want to get in on some poker tournament action of your own then don't forget to get in on the Bodog Poker Open II, which is currently running in the Bodog Poker room. There are BPO events running every night this week and online satellites for the Bodog Poker Open are running constantly.

* Absolutely just made that saying up, but it makes sense. Think about it.

Leading the way into the final table is Theo Jorgensen, but he has several formidable players behind him who will be looking to make up some ground and overtake him. Among those players are Italian poker pro Max Pescatori, online poker pro Sorel "imper1um" Mizzi and poker legend Chris "Jesus" Ferguson. Along with them are Erik Friberg, Eric Dalby, David Penly and the seemingly ever-present Jason Mercier.

Players will convene at 4pm local time to slug it out in what is sure to be an up and down contest with chip stack swings varying wildly, as is the nature of Pot Limit Omaha. Stay tuned for updates from the Bodog Beat, and don't forget to check out all of the online poker tournament action in the Bodog Poker room.