BY TOM SOMACH

The final table is set for the first-ever Main Event of the first-ever World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE).

It took almost a week to pare down the field from 362 entrants to nine in London, but it’s finally happened.

And in another day or two, there will be just one person left–the champion.

And whoever that person is, he–or she–will instantly become world-famous and a millionaire.

So who are the Final Nine who will be competing for the honor and prestige of becoming the first WSOPE Main Event champ?

The contingent has a decidely European flavor, so if the intention of creating a WSOPE was to focus on the “E,” the competition has already been a success.

Of the nine remaining players making up the Main Event final table, all but one are from Europe (the other is an American).

And of those nine, eight are men.

The country most represented?

The U.K., which is home to three of the final table participants.

Scandanavia, though not a country but a region, is home to five of the final tablers, with Sweden and Norway each home to two and Denmark home to one.

And the lone American?

He’s from suburban Philadelphia.

So who are lucky Final Nine?

Here are the poker players who make up the final table for the inaugural WSOPE Main Event, with their hometowns and chip counts going into final table play:

Johannes Korsar, Uppsala, Sweden, 1,134,000 chips; Oyvind Riisem, Bergen, Norway, 664,000 chips; John Tabatabai, London, U.K., 982,000 chips; Annette Obrestad, Sandnes, Norway, 697,000 chips; Dominic Kay, London, U.K., 490,000 chips; Matthew McCullough, Cherry Hill, N.J., USA, 1,278,000 chips; Theo Jorgensen, Copenhagen, Denmark, 605,000 chips; Magnus Persson, Gothenburg, Sweden, 1,231,000 chips; James Keys, Bury St. Edmunds, U.K., 172,000 chips.

The winner will earn a million British pounds, equal to about $2 million U.S.

(E-mail Tom Somach at tomsomach@yahoo.com.)