LAS VEGAS: A logger from rural America who lives in a trailer is among nine card players eying a $8.5-million jackpot as the climax of the World Series of Poker gets underway here today.

Darvin Moon, 46, who had never been on a plane before he flew to Las Vegas for July’s qualifying round, is one of a colourful field of card sharps who have already been guaranteed $1.26 million just by reaching the finals.

His rivals include a former British train driver, a one-time banking high-flier who lost his job in the global financial crisis and Phil Ivey, a professional player who is sometimes lauded as the greatest player on the planet.

Other competitors include Frenchman Antoine Saout, a 25-year-old college dropout and professional poker

player, who like his fellow finalists emerged from a qualifying round of 6,494 hopefuls. They reconvene this weekend to reduce that field to two players who will

face off on Monday for the ultimate prize.

“This is an incredibly compelling group of characters direct out of central casting,” World Series of Poker commissioner Jeffrey Pollack said. First-time-flier Moon comes into the Final Table with 58.9 million chips,

nearly double his nearest competitor, an overwhelming lead that surprises

even himself.

He won his entry to the qualifying round, which normally costs $10,000 per

player, in a tournament at a small casino near his home that cost him $130 to enter. Moon lives with his wife in

a trailer and who does

not use the Internet or possess a credit card.

He will have to face competitors this weekend including Ivey, the 32-year-old from Las Vegas who is second on the all-time list of most money won in poker tournament play, but has never won this event. Ivey goes today to seventh place and is the first well-known poker professional to make it to the final table in almost a decade. The 2009 final table also has a decidedly American flavour to it this year with just two foreigners — France’s Saout and James Akenhead, 26, of England.

Last year’s event was won by Peter Eastgate of Denmark, who finished 78th this year. Another notable finalist is Steven Begleiter, 47, a former top executive for the investment house Bear Stearns who was involved in the deal to sell the failing company to JP Morgan Chase in April 2008. He is currently in third place as play resumes.