Who Will be the Second One Drop Champion?

Welcome back to our ongoing coverage of the 2014 World Series of Poker. What began as 42 is now just nine, as late last night the field combined to the unofficial final table. Rick Salomon leads the charge with 23.575 million, but he's joined by some of poker's elite who are sure to challenge his lead on the way to the championship.

While an unofficial final table of nine return, not every returning player is guaranteed money. Only the official final table of eight is guaranteed money, meaning the players were forced to sleep on what is certainly a very intense $1,306,607 bubble. After losing one player today, the official final table will be set and each player's new quest will be to earn the title and over $15 million in first-place prize money.

Salomon sits at the top of the chip counts, but German professional Tobias Reinkemeier is right on his heels with 22.825 million. Rounding out the four are Daniel Colman with a stack of 22.625 million and none other than "KidPoker" himself, Daniel Negreanu, with 20.7 million. From there, there is a distinctive gap in the chip distribution with Cary Katz sporting the next largest stack of 9.125 million.

Both Paul Newey and Scott Seiver doubled up late last night to keep their dreams of cashing this event alive and well. Seiver bagged up 8.25 million and will have his work cut out for him today. Newey, on the other hand, is the player who will have the largest sweat as he bagged just 4.05 million for the shortest stack and what will be just around eight big blinds.

Play begins at 3 p.m. local time and PokerNews will be on site to provide hand-for-hand coverage from the ESPN feature table stage. Stay tuned!