The number of entrants participating in the Main Event of the 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas is up by about 500 over last year, the WSOP announced.

After the fourth of four “opening days” for the massive WSOP Main Event was completed Sunday, WSOP officials announced that a total of 6,844 people had ponied up the $10,000 entry fee to play in the 2008 WSOP Main Event, a no-limit Texas hold ‘em tournament.

That number of entries means that the total prize pool for the ‘08 Main Event will be about $64.3 million and that the top 666 finishers will collect cash prizes, WSOP officials said.

The winner of the ‘08 Main Event will collect a cash prize of about $9.12 million, the officials said.

A total of 6,358 people competed in the 2007 WSOP Main Event, with the winner–Jerry Yang–taking home $8.25 million.

At the 2006 WSOP Main Event, a record-high 8,773 people competed, with the winner–Jamie Gold–pocketing a record-high $12 million.

A lot of famous names are at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, for the 2008 WSOP Main Event, and after the first four days of action, many of them had already been knocked out of play.

Those biting the dust include 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.

The 2008 WSOP Main Event will be the final chance for Phil “Poker Brat” Hellmuth to win his 12th career WSOP championship gold bracelet.

So far he hasn’t won any bracelets at this year’s WSOP.

The 11 bracelets he already holds, including one for winning the WSOP Main Event in 1989, are the most of anyone in history.

The 2008 WSOP Main Event will also be the final chance for Doyle “Texas Dolly” Brunson and Johnny “The Orient Express” Chan to catch Hellmuth in career WSOP bracelets won.

Brunson and Chan have each won 10 WSOP championship gold bracelets, and each has won the WSOP Main Event twice–Brunson in 1976 and 1977 and Chan in 1987 and 1988.

So far neither Brunson nor Chan has won any bracelets at this year’s WSOP.

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