Eight days after it began, the field for the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) has been severely whittled down.

Going into today’s play at the Rio casino in Las Vegas, 474 players remained alive in the quest to win the Main Event and be declared–at least for a year–the best poker player in the world.

A total of 6,844 players entered the Main Event, which began July 3.

By next Tuesday, July 15, the field is expected to be whittled down to just nine players–the Main Event final table.

At that point, play will be suspended until November, when the final nine will play off until one person remains and is crowned Main Event champ.

The latest big names to be knocked out of Main Event competition include last year’s Main Event winner, Jerry Yang, as well as Greg “Fossilman” Raymer, Erik Seidel, Jamie Gold, Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Jen Harman, Joe Hachem, Howard “The Professor” Lederer, Bill Chen, Barbara Enright, Jose Canseco, David Wells, Chris Moneymaker, Men “The Master” Nguyen, and Patrik Antonius.

Knocked out earlier were Phil “Poison” Ivey, Jen Tilly, David Williams, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch, Chuck Lidell, Huck Seed, Mike Gracz, Mike Sexton, Gavin Griffin, Daniel “Kid Poker” Negreanu, Ted Forrest, Kenny Tran, Andy Black, Scott Fischman, Jason Alexander, Freddy Deeb, David “Devilfish” Ulliot, Eli Elezra, Chad Brown, Gavin Smith, Dan Harrington and David Pham.

Going into today’s play, the only previous Main Event winners still in the ‘08 Main Event were Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan, who won the Main Event in 1987 and 1988, and Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth Jr., who won it in 1989.

Ironically, the final two players remaining in the 1989 Main Event were Hellmuth and Chan, as Hellmuth won out and prevented Chan from becoming the only person in WSOP history to win three Main Events in a row.

(E-mail Tom Somch at [email protected])