It’s that time of year again: the play down day of the World Series of Poker Main Event. We’re starting with 27 players and, by the end of the day, only nine will remain. The so-called November Nine will reconvene at the Rio in November to determine to a champion.

Reminiscent of Darvin Moon at the start of the Main Event final table in 2009, Germany’s Anton Morgenstern has a stranglehold entering the final 27. In fact, his stack of 21.9 million in chips is 50% more than the next closest competitor, so we’d expect Morgenstern to be active early and often as the WSOP Main Event kicks off on Monday from the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas.

Whereas the 2012 WSOP Main Event final table had eight Americans, the 2013 version should be considerably different and instead take on a worldwide flair. There are 11 countries represented among the final 27 players and there are only 12 Americans in total. Six players have over 10 million in chips and, when play paused on Sunday on Day 6, the blinds stood at 50,000-100,000 with an ante of 10,000.

Play will resume at Noon Pacific Time and the first nine players eliminated will take home a healthy $285,000 payday. Each member of the November Nine will bank at least $733,000 and a top prize of $8.3 million is on the line. This year’s Main Event bracelet is worth a half-million dollars to boot, so there’s plenty to play for.

Two brand name pros loom large over the pack: Carlos Mortensen(pictured above) and J.C. Tran. The former is the lone person to win the WSOP Main Event and WPT Championship, while Tran is a two-time bracelet winner. Also popular among the online crowd is Yevgeniy Timoshenko, who won the 2009 WPT Championship and WCOOP Main Event for nearly $4 million total.

Here are the chip stacks at the start of Day 7:

1. Anton Morgenstern – 21,955,000
2. Sylvain Loosli – 14,125,000
3. Chris Lindh – 12,030,000
4. JC Tran – 11,970,000
5. Fabian Ortiz – 10,810,000
6. Carlos Mortensen – 10,790,000
7. James Alexander – 9,445,000
8. Jay Farber – 8,975,000
9. Matthew Reed – 7,705,000
10. Jason Mann – 7,500,000
11. Amir Lehavot – 7,385,000
12. Clement Tripodi – 7,135,000
13. Sergio Castelluccio – 6,560,000
14. Alexander Livingston – 5,800,000
15. Mark Newhouse – 5,785,000
16. Marc McLaughlin – 5,415,000
17. Jan Nakladal – 5,360,000
18. Yevgeniy Timoshenko – 5,310,000
19. Ryan Riess – 3,830,000
20. Maxx mc4chess Coleman – 3,830,000
21. Bruno Kawauti – 3,580,000
22. Benjamin Pollak – 3,230,000
23. Steve Gee – 3,160,000
24. Rep Porter – 2,675,000
25. Michiel Brummelhuis – 2,245,000
26. Jorn Walthaus – 1,900,000
27. David Benefield – 1,840,000

Stay tuned to PocketFives throughout the day for continuing coverage of the final July day of the Main Event.

Update 12:20pm PT

Cards are in the air in the now cavernous Amazon Room. We have already had one elimination, as Benjamin Pollakwent out on the third hand of the day. He called a 3bet all-in from Maxx Coleman and showed 9-9 against Coleman’s A-4 of clubs. Coleman hit a wheel on the river to send Pollak to the rail in a dramatic hand. The seven-outer meant a $285,000 payday for Pollak.

Update: 12:30pm PT

Two hands later at the feature table, Jorn Walthausbit the dust after running A-9 of diamonds into the A-K offsuit of former November Niner Steve Gee. Walthaus was drawing dead by the river and Gee chipped up to the 18th largest stack in the room. Walthaus earned the same $285,000.

Update: 1:10pm PT

JC Tranis a beast. At one point, he took down three consecutive pots at the feature table and rose from #4 on the leaderboard to #2. While many players fear Carlos Mortensen, perhaps Tran, a two-time bracelet winner, will emerge as the player to beat this year in the November Nine.

Update 2:15pm PT

We’re down to 23 players, the latest casualty being fan favorite Steve Gee, who was looking to become the first player since Dan Harrington in 2003 and 2004 to final table the WSOP Main Event in back-to-back years. Given the field sizes of well over 6,000 the last two years, that would have been quite a coup. Gee 4bet shoved with 10-7 of diamonds on his final hand, but ran into the pocket eights of Anton Morgenstern. Morgenstern now has twice the stack of the next closest competitor.

Update 3:30pm PT

We’re on a break right now and 21 players are still standing in the Main Event. We also have a new chip leader, as Mark Newhousedoubled through Anton Morgenstern in a colossal 10 million-chip pot that came on a cooler. After a flop of A-A-2, Morgenstern bet 425,000 and Newhouse called to see a 3 on the turn. Then, the fireworks went off. Newhouse 3bet shoved for 10 million and Morgenstern called, flipping over A-J for trips. However, Newhouse had him beat with 2-2 for a boat and a 4 on the river sealed the deal.

Update 5:00pm PT

According to ESPN’s Andrew Feldman, seven players out of the 21 who are left, or one-third of the field, are sitting on less than 25 big blinds. Appropriately, we saw all-ins and double-ups for Amir Lehavotand Ryan Riess out of the gate after dinner.

Update: 5:15pm PT

Jay Farberis up to 13 million in chips after winning a pot off Mark Newhouse, who had just ceded the chip lead. This is shaping up to be quite an interesting finish. We had five double ups in the first 20 minutes of this level and are still at 21 players left. We could have easily lost one-quarter of the field in a span of 20 minutes.

Update: 5:30pm PT

David Benefieldhas knocked out Maxx Coleman in online poker player on online poker player violence to trim the field of the Main Event from 21 to 20. Coleman ran Q-J into A-3 on his final hand. The pot should vault Benefield into the top 10.

Update: 6:45pm PT

Dinner time. Come and get your popcorn! Anton Morgenstern, the one-time commanding chip leader, fell by the wayside in 20th place after an earlier coolerat the hands of Mark Newhouse. James Alexander then followed out the door in 19th and we are left with 18 players. What a crazy finish to this tournament.

Update: 8:30pm PT

Another one bites the dust. Shortly after the 90-minute dinner break, Jan Nakladalran queens into aces to end his 2013 Main Event run. Matt Reedwas the beneficiary of Nakladal’s chip stack. The blinds were up shortly before the hand took place to 120,000-240,000 with an ante of 40,000, or more than the original starting stack. France’s Sylvain Loosli is your chip leader, but by a very small margin.

Update: 9:00pm PT

One of the interesting nuggets that has come across Twitter in the last 30 minutes is the breakdown of this year’s final 17. We have four bracelet winners, two Circuit ring winners, and nine countries represented. Eight players are from the USA, two are from Canada, one is from France, one is from Israel, one is from Italy, one is from Brazil, one is from Argentina, one is from the Netherlands, and one is from Spain. This seems to be in stark contrast to 2012, when eight of the final nine were from the U.S.

Update: 9:30pm PT

JC Tran continues to roll, knocking out Fabian Ortizin 17th place to stack the fourth largest chip count in the room. Tran is a two-time bracelet winner and WSOP Circuit gold ring winner to boot. The hand received a large amount of debate on Twitter over whether Ortiz’s overbet was a giveaway that he did not have a flush. You can read about the hand here.

Update: 9:50pm PT

According to WSOP’s Jessica Welman, if Ryan Riess wins, he’ll become the first WSOP Main Event winner born in the 1990s. Maybe it was the Dijon Almond Chicken he ordered from All American Dave earlier today that has him careening toward the November Nine.

Update: 10:00pm PT

We just lost Chris Lindhin 16th place. We’ll let ESPN’s Andrew Feldman recount the hand for you: “Lindh all-in with 9-10 vs Newhouse’s A-9d. Flop Kd-Qs-4d-2d-5d. Lindhsanity out in 16th.” Sorry, Lindhsanity. Shortly thereafter, we lost Bruno Kawautiin 15th place after running pocket sevens into the pocket tens of Rep Porter. After another 20 minutes, we lost both Sergio Castelluccioand Alexander Livingston in 14th place and 13th place, respectively.

Update: 12:30am PT

Rep Porter has just been eliminated from the 2013 WSOP Main Event. His K-J of spades lost out in a race against Ryan Riess, who had pocket nines. Riess raked in over 9 million, effectively doubling his stack, and he seemed poised for a November Nine run.

Update: 1:15am PT

One more elimination to go! Matt Reed was our latest casualty, as he had an ill-timed shoved with K-4 and ran into JC Tran‘s Q-Q. Who will our November Nine Bubble Boy be? The top nine will earn at least three-quarters of a million dollars.

Update: 2:30am PT

Carlos Mortensen is our November Nine Bubble Boy. He ran a pair of nines into the nuts on his final hand to pause play for four months. On a board of 10-6-3-9, Tran shoved and Mortensen called all-in, showing A-9. Tran flipped over 8-7 for the nuts and Mortensen needed a club on the river to stay alive. However, a red deuce hit and he was eliminated in 10th place for $573,000.

JC Tran, a two-time bracelet winner, leads the way with 38 million in chips, 9 million more than the next closest player:

1. JC Tran – 38,000,000
2. Amir Lehavot – 29,700,000
3. Marc McLaughlin – 26,525,000
4. Jay Farber – 25,975,000
5. Ryan Riess – 25,875,000
6. Sylvain Loosli – 19,600,000
7. Michiel Brummelhuis – 11,275,000
8. Mark Newhouse – 7,350,000
9. David Benefield – 6,375,000

Play will pick back up on November 4!