48...47...46...45...44...43...42...

The World Series of Poker is getting closer to crowning a $7.5 million champion. Today will be the last day of competition at the Rio, as play will be moved to Binion's for the final two days.

Today, the field will be narrowed from 58 to 27. The atmosphere in the tournament area gradually grew more tense as the night went on, as even the players with the lowest expectations for success realized that they truly had a chance at the greatest prize in the history of poker. While the pressure has been building, most players have still kept their senses of humor and have done their best to keep things light. Even through tough breaks and bad beats, most of those who have been eliminated have smiled (it's not too hard to smile when your prize is in the six-figures), shaken hands with their competitors, and wished everybody well. Some players have even seemed embarassed when they have rivered someone to knock them out.

Tim Phan goes into Day 5 as the chip leader with $3,244,000. Mike Matusow is second with $2,561,000.

For complete tournament standings as of the end of Day 4, click here

1:13pm
Walked in a bit late because of some other poker-related business and the Main Event was well underway. Strangely enough, as we're getting to crunch time in the tournament, the press room is eerily quiet and open. Sure, there are about a dozen people in here right now, but there were plenty of available electrical outlets and empty chairs.

There's a chance, a slight chance, maybe, but a chance, that the festivities won't go extremely late tonight. Only 31 people need to be eliminated before calling it quits. At the same time, however, as the numbers continue to dwindle, players very well might get tighter so they can keep fattening their wallets and make it to Binion's.

There is also one final, ignored, smaller buy-in tournament going on today.

Speaking of which, the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event concluded yesterday, with Ron Kirk taking home the bracelet. Below are the complete final table standings for the event:

(Place/Player/Prize Money)

1 Ron Kirk -- $321,520
2 Adam White -- $168,520
3 Didier Leroy -- $95,725
4 Alvin Horowitz -- $83,365
5 Joe Bartholdi -- $71,445
6 Erik Seidel -- $59,545
7 Magnus Betmer -- $47,640
8 Sherkhan Farnood -- $35,730
9 Hasan Harajli -- $23,820

The players in the Main Event are on a twenty minute break right now.

2:10pm
There has been a string of eliminations in the last few minutes. The most recent:

Joseph Stillman - 50th
Derek Dix - 51st
Rod Pardey, Jr. - 52nd
Nick Gibson - 53rd
James Butt - 54th

4:10pm
Players just came back from break about 10 minutes ago with 44 players left. At the restart of play, Mike Matusow was the chip leader with $4.2 million, with Phil Ivey in second with $3.5 million. Full Tilt must be pretty happy about now.

Since the break, one more player has been eliminated. Recent eliminations:

Adam Friedman - 43rd
Kenna James - 44th
Lee Watkinson - 45th
David Richardson - 46th
Kevin Kaikko - 47th
Patrick Hayden - 48th
Hung La - 49th