While the original plan was to play down to six players remaining, play was halted on Day 7 with still seven players with chips in front of them. With several levels played and just two bust outs, play came to an end around 11 p.m. last night on Day 8 of the World Series of Poker Main Event.

Today, seven players return to the arena in the Brasilia Room inside the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino for Day 9 of the Main Event. After a clash of historic proportions, Scott Blumstein holds just about half of the chips in play with 178,300,000. John Hesp, who had been dominating the table chip wise for some time, returns to the final table today as 4th in chips.

With one dominating chip leader, four out of six other players return to a sub 20 big blind stack. Just Benjamin Pollak (77,525,000 in chips, 64.6 big blinds) and Bryan Piccioli (35,750,000, 29.8) have a little more wiggle room. John Hesp (22,475,000, 18.7), Dan Ott (16,350,000, 13.6), Damian Salas (15,625,000, 13), and Antoine Saout (14,550,000, 12.1) are in dire need of a double up.

The plan for Day 9 of the Main Event is to play down to just three players remaining. This, however, is not set in stone and the tournament organizers might just decide to play on longer or cut things short.

The cards will be back in the air at 5:30 p.m. local time. Players will come back with 56 minutes left in Level 39 with blinds at 600,000/1,200,000 with a 200,000 ante. You can follow the action all day, live and with no delay, on PokerNews.com.

The final table is broadcasted on a 30-minute delay on ESPN (in the United States), ESPN affiliated networks (like Australia, Canada, United Kingdom), and on PokerGO (territories where ESPN does not broadcast). For a full overview of where to watch, see 'How to Watch the WSOP Main Event Final Table on ESPN and PokerGO'.