The Main Event of the 2006 World Series of Poker is almost finished. The play continued on Tuesday with the number of players went from 27 down to 9. There was about an 11 1/2 million dollar gap between first place and 27th place, ten of these players were going home without a fight. Jamie Gold, however, didn't shy away from mixing it up, despite an enormous chip lead. His closest competitor throughout the night, Allen Cunningham, stated around half of Gold's chip stack, and either one of them could have sat back and just let the other players bust themselves out of the event. But Cunningham and Gold mixed it up with the rest, losing some chips and then gaining back more. For example, in one hand Doug Kim bet $250,000 and without hesitation Gold raised to $1 million. No one could stand in front of that, and the entire table folded. Gold, just to keep the mystique alive, showed:
... He's the current favorite to take the entire shooting match.
Here are 27 players who started the day:
| Player, Location | Chip Count | Table | Seat # |
| Jamie Gold, Malibu, CA | 13,000,000 | 3 | 1 |
| Erik Friberg, Stockholm, Sweden | 7,735,000 | 1 | 5 |
| David Einhorn, Rye, NY | 6,905,000 | 2 | 3 |
| Rhett Butler, Rockville, MD | 6,400,000 | 3 | 4 |
| Michael Binger, Atherton, CA | 5,725,000 | 1 | 9 |
| Dan Nassif, St. Louis, MO | 5,430,000 | 2 | 4 |
| William Thorsson, Sweden | 3,765,000 | 1 | 8 |
| Jeffrey Lisandro, Salerno, Italy | 3,715,000 | 2 | 8 |
| Kevin Aaronson, Mission Viejo, CA | 3,670,000 | 1 | 3 |
| Douglas Kim, Hartsdale, NY | 3,595,000 | 3 | 2 |
| Richard Lee, San Antonio, TX | 3,275,000 | 1 | 1 |
| John Magill, Ireland | 3,275,000 | 1 | 7 |
| Allen Cunningham, Las Vegas, NV | 2,650,000 | 1 | 2 |
| Leif Force, Tallahassee, FL | 2,265,000 | 2 | 5 |
| Kevin O'Donnell, Scottsdale, AZ | 2,130,000 | 1 | 4 |
| Prahlad Friedman, Los Angeles, CA | 1,850,000 | 3 | 5 |
| Eric Lynch, Olathe, KS | 1,785,000 | 1 | 6 |
| Lee Kort, Los Angeles, CA | 1,700,000 | 3 | 3 |
| Rob Roseman, Miami, FL | 1,685,000 | 2 | 1 |
| Fred Goldberg, Hollywood, FL | 1,611,000 | 3 | 6 |
| Dustin Holmes, Atlanta, GA | 1,210,000 | 2 | 6 |
| Sirous Jamshidi, Philadelphia, PA | 1,190,000 | 2 | 7 |
| Luke Chung, Atlanta, GA | 1,100,000 | 2 | 2 |
| Paul Wasicka, Westminster, CO | 700,000 | 3 | 8 |
| Siddharth Jain, Los Angeles, CA | 675,000 | 3 | 7 |
| Mark Garner, Little Rock, AR | 635,000 | 2 | 9 |
| Richard Wyrick, Lake Mary, FL | 570,000 | 3 | 9 |
At seven o'clock, it was official: there were 12 millionaires sitting in the Amazon Room. Leif Force, Rhett Butler, Doug Kim, Jamie Gold, Allen Cunningham, Eric Friberg, Richard Lee, Michael Binger, Dan Nassif, John Magill, Paul Wasicka, and Fred Goldberg, spread out over two tables, were all guaranteed to take home over $1 million for their efforts in Event 39. It wasn't long before three of those players hit the rail, although cushioned by their big stack of cash, and nine were left to play at the final table on Thursday, August 10.
The players that will be sitting at the final table:
| Player | Chip Count | Seat # |
| Jamie Gold | 25,650,000 | 8 |
| Allen Cunningham | 17,770,000 | 5 |
| Richard Lee | 11,820,000 | 1 |
| Erik Friberg | 9,605,000 | 2 |
| Paul Wasicka | 7,970,000 | 3 |
| Douglas Kim | 6,770,000 | 7 |
| Rhett Butler | 4,815,000 | 9 |
| Michael Binger | 3,140,000 | 6 |
| Dan Nassif | 2,600,000 | 4 |
One of the "second chance" events - Event 44 will wrap up on Wednesday, and here are the names of the players that will bust it out for the coveted WSOP bracelet:
| Player, Location | Chip Count | Table | Seat # |
| Marcus Collins, Perth, Australia | 70,400 | 85 | 3 |
| Joe Brandenburg, Portland, OR | 61,800 | 86 | 4 |
| Jim Nguyen, St. Petersburg, FL | 60,000 | 86 | 6 |
| Eric Baldwin, Beaver Dam, WI | 58,600 | 86 | 8 |
| Don Rihn, Wisconsin | 47,600 | 84 | 8 |
| John Michael, Henderson, NV | 46,900 | 85 | 2 |
| Kevin Cover, Oyster Bay Cove | 44,100 | 84 | 3 |
| Josh Tieman, Bloomingdale | 37,200 | 84 | 1 |
| Nelson Tum, San Diego, CA | 35,000 | 86 | 5 |
| JJ Joanne Liu, Las Vegas, NV | 32,200 | 84 | 9 |
| Lloyd Shinn, Coppell, TX | 32,000 | 85 | 9 |
| Peter Smyth, Wigan, UK | 30,100 | 85 | 7 |
| Thayer Rasmussen, Orlando, FL | 29,100 | 85 | 5 |
| Stephen Ladowsky, Toronto, Ontario | 27,900 | 86 | 7 |
| Matthew Hilger, Atlanta, GA | 24,700 | 85 | 8 |
| Davood Mehrmand, Frankfurt, Germany | 23,700 | 86 | 2 |
| Robert Perry, Highland Beach, FL | 21,700 | 85 | 1 |
| Chris McCormack, Las Vegas, NV | 21,200 | 86 | 9 |
| David Babione, Fremont, CA | 18,800 | 84 | 5 |
| Tommy Chaney, Marble Falls, TX | 15,500 | 84 | 5 |
| Brent Carter, Oak Park, IL | 8,600 | 86 | 3 |
| Mel Judah, London, England | 7,500 | 84 | 2 |
| Denise Molloy, La Jolla, CA | 5,600 | 85 | 4 |
Event 43, another "second chance" event, finished on Tuesday with Kevin Nathan as the winner of $171,987 and the proud owner of a WSOP bracelet.
