What began as a massive field of 6,598 players vying for poker’s most prestigious prize has been whittled down to just nine.

The World Series of Poker (WSOP) recently announced its “October Nine” who will battle it out (starting Oct. 29) for the No-Limit Hold’em Championship at Rio Las Vegas, as well as a first-place prize of $8,527,982. Yes, exactly $8,527,982. That extra $82 is to tip the valet.

It’s time to hire accountants, fellas.

Thanks to Joe Giron at the WSOP for the pic. Related: Think getting nine poker players to look at the camera is difficult? Try photographing six dogs playing poker.

Although the WSOP draws players from around the world, 83 countries in all, the Main Event’s final nine are nearly all Americans, with the sole exception being a Hungarian. (Chanting “USA, USA, USA!” at this juncture would be entirely appropriate.)

The October Nine are, in order of chip count (most to least): Jesse Sylvia, Andras Koroknai (from Hungary), Greg Merson, Russell Thomas, Steven Gee, Michael Esposito, Robert Salaburu, Jake Balsiger and Jeremy Ausmus.

We were not kidding.

Catch up on all the WSOP drama on ESPN. Coverage begins July 31, and will continue in two-hour blocks each Tuesday for 16 weeks, and Main Event final table coverage will commence Oct. 30.

Visit the official WSOP site for all the details. And please ignore all the stuff we clearly cut and past for this blog post. We are very busy interviewing showgirls and stuff.