FABRIZIO SARRA LEADS THE FINAL NINE IN ATLANTIC CITY
It was a long day of poker action at Harrah's Resort in Atlantic City, as the Circuit Main Event field went from almost 200 hopefuls, through the money bubble, and on down to the final table.

When play began on Day 2, six new players joined the 188 survivors from Day 1 of play, bringing the total field size to 578 entries. That turnout meant a prizepool of $867,000. The top 60 finishers each earned a payday and first place will be taking home $182,070.

With almost 200 players starting the day though, it took a while to even get to the money bubble. Along the way, notables like Matt Matros, November Niner Michael Esposito, Phil Hui, Rex Clinkscales, and DJ MacKinnon busted before making the money.

Once the money bubble burst, several more notables hit the rail, including bracelet winner Jeff Papola (49th), bracelet winner Loni Harwood (39th), John DiBella (36th), bracelet winner Chris Tryba (35th), last year’s champ in this event, Adam Teasdale (24th), and bracelet winner Arkadiy Tsinis (11th).

Play concluded for the night when Day 2 hit the nine-handed final table shortly after the loss of the last bracelet winner in the field, Tsinis, was eliminated in 11th place.

The chip leader going into Monday’s final table is Fabrizio Sarra, who is the only player with more than 2 million chips. Joining him as big stacks are Joseph Wertz, who is looking to add to his impressive list of 2013 results that already includes a WSOP final table appearance in a $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event this past summer, and James Dorrance, whose 1,944,000 chips puts him in a dead heat with Wertz in the counts. Wertz just managed to edge out Dorrance in the chips category after eliminating Tim Bishop in 10th place, ending play just about 45 minutes earlier than expected.

Others who will be back in action for Monday’s finale include Keith Donovan, who is making his second Circuit Main Event final table appearance of the year after finishing eighth at Foxwoods, and Borgata Summer Poker Open 2012 Champ Melad Marjic.

Cards get in the air at 12pm ET on Monday and play will continue until we have a champion. Here is a look at final table chip count and seat assignments:

Seat 1: Fabrizio Sarra – 2,000,000
Seat 2: Joseph Wertz – 1,945,000
Seat 3: Kevin Kernan - 549,000
Seat 4: John Jones - 878,000
Seat 5: James Dorrance – 1,944,000
Seat 6: Keith Donovan – 1,049,000
Seat 7: Melad Marji – 1,000,000
Seat 8: Joseph LaPinta - 817,000
Seat 9: Jeremy Wien – 1,341,000