The first 14 hands take a little over an hour or so, and are relatively innocuous. Suddenly, on hand number 15, the overnight chip leader, Philip Hilm, inexplicably pushes all in and is busted by Yang. From this moment until hand number 60, Yang has a rush of cards, and busts four players out in quick time. A fifth player is eliminated by the South African, Raymond Rahme. Only 60 hands have been played, and we are down to our last four players at only 5:30 p.m., so it looks like the tournament could be over relatively early in the evening. How wrong that proves to be.

"No Limit Hold’Em Poker.  Hours of boredom punctuated by moments of terror."
– Tom McEvoy, 1983 main event champion

Only four remain: Yang, Rahme, Alex Kravchenko from Russia and Tuan Lam from Canada. They are all guaranteed millionaires, but the prize money ranges from $8,250,000 for first down to $1,852,721 for fourth, so they have absolutely everything to play for. The four of them have already beaten out 6,354 players, so it would be reasonable for all of them to be thinking they can hang on to beat out just three more. Even though Yang has a healthy chip lead, that can change in a heartbeat and even the man running fourth has enough chips to believe he has a chance to win the tournament. After all, Yang started the day with the second-lowest number of chips of the nine players. For all these reasons, none of these guys are going to give up now.

Judging by what you normally see on TV poker broadcasts, you could be forgiven for believing that some player at the table is all in every few hands. And judging by the early stages of the day’s play, that seems like a reasonable conclusion. But most poker on TV is heavily edited, to include the exciting but leave the not-so-exciting on the cutting room floor.

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The players suddenly tighten up markedly. The stakes are so high, it becomes very rare for a hand to actually go the distance. A single raise, followed by all other players folding, becomes the order of the day. Perhaps 80 percent of hands play out essentially in this manner. Every decision is crucial, and this deep in the tournament the players have earned the right to take their time. Some big hands take as long as eight or 10 minutes. During these key moments, you can cut the air with a knife. Tension is everywhere, it’s nail-biting stuff. But these moments are the exception, not the rule. For most of the time, people are wandering around the room, wondering how long it’s all going to take. As play grinds on, estimates of the finish time range from the late evening to sunrise.

Outside the Amazon room, the corridors of the Rio Convention Centre take on a surreal quality. Earlier in the World Series, they were lined with stands and booths, promoting everything from Poker Water to the opportunity to get your photo taken, main event champion style, with a fake mound of money. The poker kitchen, where players have been grabbing snacks for the last six weeks, is deserted. Conventioneers from other functions are surprised to find they have stumbled upon the WSOP, and wonder what it is.

It becomes apparent that the reality is that these players are only going all in when they have an absolute monster hand, or if the ever-increasing blinds force them to make a stand, which won’t be anytime soon.

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