DO OR DIE FOR POKER TITLE

About 300 family, friends and fans of Dennis Phillips attempted to turn Rio's Penn & Teller Theater into Busch Stadium, home of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals.

But the crowd, wearing red replica Cardinals baseball caps, almost didn't make it into the late innings.

Phillips, an account manager for a St. Louis trucking company, came into Sunday as the chip leader with more than 26 million in the final table of the World Series of Poker $10,000 buy-in World Championship of Hold'em. Within a few hours, Phillips, 53, was staving off elimination.

It seemed the luck had run out for Phillips' Cardinals cap, which he wore while qualifying for Sunday's final table four months ago.

Phillips lost his lead early when he dropped a pair of multimillion dollar pots, falling as low as eighth place. At one point he had a little more than 4 million in chips.

Phillips was attempting to claim one of the two seats in tonight's coveted heads-up match that will decide the 2008 world poker champion. The winner will take home $9.15 million.

At press time, four players remained in contention. Phillips was among the four players still alive and had roughly 17 million in tournament chips.

For most the day, the lead changed hands between two poker professionals, Ylon Schwartz, a 38-year-old former chess champion from Brooklyn, N.Y., and 27-year-old Moscow native Ivan Demidov.

Peter Eastgate of Denmark, who at age 22 is attempting to become the youngest World Series of Poker main event champion, quietly remained among the leaders, taking over the chip lead at one point in the evening.

On the 41st hand, Phillips was on the brink of elimination. He went all-in with a pair of queens to David Rheem's pair of jacks. The hand held, and he doubled up to more than 9 million in tournament chips to stay alive.

On the 70th hand, Phillips won a pot worth more than 20 million in tournament chips, beating Schwartz by drawing a pair of aces on the flop. The win moved Phillips back into the middle of the pack.

On the 86th hand, Phillips took a pot worth more than 20 million pot from Demidov, drawing a full house of kings and threes. That victory, just before the tournament's dinner break, gave Phillips almost 27 million in chips, good enough for him to climb back into third place.

Later, Eastgate and Phillips were head-to-head with about 10 million in a pot when Eastgate went all-in, raising more than 20 million. Phillips folded, and Eastgate had the chip lead.

A field of 6,844 players began the main event in July. After the event was cut to the final nine players July 15, the tournament took a 117-day break. ESPN will televise the event Tuesday.

The theater Sunday looked more like a sports arena than a poker room.

Many players brought their own cheering sections. The most noticeable were those supporting Phillips.

His backers crowded the upper tier of the theater, wearing white work shirts bearing the logo of his employer, Broadway Truck Center, and the logos of his various sponsors.

Like Phillips, his fans wore red replica St. Louis Cardinals baseball caps. Oftentimes, they blared the sound of a honking diesel horn when Phillips prevailed. As players were eliminated and their fans followed them out, the theater took on guise of Busch Stadium. Clearly, Phillips was the hometown favorite.

Eastgate's friends wore dark T-shirts bearing the saying, "It's in the stars," and chanted loudly in Danish. Demidov had friends waving Russian and Soviet flags, and the Canadian flags were out in force for Scott Montgomery and Darus Suharto.

Several times, tournament director Jack Effel had to admonish fans to be quiet while players were deciding how to play hands.

World Series of Poker officials said poker fans began lining up at 5 a.m. Sunday to claim one of the theater's 800 seats. Another 112 poker fans were allowed into a sponsors' lounge near the stage. On stage, about 100 seats were set aside for the players' friends and poker luminaries. Most of the fans in the theater could see the action only on large-screen television monitors. As fans left, others standing in line took their place.

Slow and tight play was the norm early in the action. It took 13 hands to reach the first flop, and on the 14th hand, Schwartz made the first all-in call, but he was not challenged.

It took almost three hours to eliminate the first player.

Craig Marquis, a 23-year-old college student from Arlington, Texas, was knocked out in ninth place by Montgomery of Toronto, who picked up a straight on the river card on the day's 52nd hand.

Marquis had three sevens and seemed in control of the hand until the final card, a king of spades.

Marquis won $900,670 for his ninth-place finish.

One hand later, Kelly Kim's improbable run ended with an eighth-place finish.

Kim, a 34-year-old professional poker player from Whittier, Calif., entered the day in ninth place with just 2.6 million in chips. Twice he was down to less than 1 million in chips and barely able to make his blinds.

By hanging on to eighth, Kim earned $1.28 million, $387,547 more in prize money than if he had placed ninth.

Kim said he knew he was facing a daunting task coming into the final table.

"This was a once in a lifetime shot, and I wanted to win," Kim said. "It's tough when you're short-stacked. You try and find a volume hand."

Rheem, 28, from Los Angeles, finished in seventh place and won $1.77 million. Eastgate eliminated Rheem by drawing a pair of queens on the flop and winning a pot of more than $7 million.

Montgomery eliminated his fellow Canadian, Suharto, after the dinner break. Suharto finished in sixth, winning $2.4 million.

A few hands later, Montgomery was eliminated. He lost on the river card to Eastgate, giving him fifth place and almost $3.1 million. Earlier, he dropped a massive pot to Demidov, which left him struggling.