Curaçao, Netherlands Antilles July 3, 2008 -- It is, simply, the biggest spectacle in all of poker, with thousands of amateurs and pros happily forking over $10,000 apiece for a shot at poker immortality. It has literally made the poker careers of Chris Moneymaker, Greg Raymer, Joe Hachem, Jamie Gold, Jerry Yang and countless others, and will do the same for this year's miracle worker.

The tournament in question: the World Series of Poker* Main Event, and all eyes in the poker world now turn to the Rio in Las Vegas as PokerListings.com caps its 2008 WSOP* coverage with two weeks of live updates, blogs, interviews and more from the World Series Main Event.

Expected top prize this year: Anywhere between $8 and $10 million. Expected field: Anywhere between 6,000 and 8,000 players, running the full range from the absolute best in the game, like Phil Ivey and Daniel Negreanu, to the greenest of Internet qualifiers.

It all adds up to the most dramatic and inspiring event in poker, and PokerListings.com's renowned Main Event coverage begins again on Thursday with live updates and all the highlights from Day 1a in the center of the poker universe - the Amazon Room at the Rio.

In the interim, of course, the PL.com team has been behind-the-scenes for all five weeks of preliminary events, and watched the action wind down over the last few days with two more notable bracelets handed out.

First, highly respected pro J.C. Tran finally crossed his name off the "best without a bracelet" list with a huge win in Event 49, $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em.

How much did it mean to him? Said Tran in his PL.com post-win interview: "I've come close so many times, this year alone, apart from other years. It's been disappointing. So when I ran deep in this tournament, I kept telling myself 'Hey you know, play this like it's the Main Event, your last event, and keep fighting.'

"I never gave up when I was low. The whole way I didn't really think about the money. It's about the bracelet. I don't even know what first-place money is, I just wanted the bracelet," Tran continued. "When we went heads-up, and the bracelet's sitting there, I would just stare at it. Every time I got beaten in a pot, I'd look at the bracelet and say, "You know what? - You've got to fight for that," and that's what I did!"

Taking the last big-buy-in event before the Main Event was Irishman Marty Smyth, who scooped the highly sought-after $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha World Championship.

A full post-win interview with Smyth, and interviews with all bracelet winners so far in 2008, can be found in the PokerListings.com player interview section.

Live coverage is, as always, capped off by the PokerListings.com daily video recap with host Amy Macbride, bringing viewers up to speed on all the day's big winners, critical hands and major talking points.

The "Big Mac" also recently hit the streets of Vegas to test the average joe's poker knowledge, and the often-hilarious results can be found in the video above.

Visit the PokerListings.com World Series coverage section to access all features.

About PokerListings.com:
PokerListings.com (http://www.pokerlistings.com) was launched in 2003 and quickly became the largest online poker guide in the world. It provides poker players with in-depth reviews of all major online poker rooms, the world's best sign-up bonuses and promotions, breaking poker news and detailed content on strategy, tours, tournaments and the game's best players. PokerListings.com also has the best live poker tournament reporting on the Web, with unrivaled year-round coverage from the World Series, the World Poker Tour, the European Poker Tour and more.

(*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Harrah's License Company, LLC ('Harrahs'). Harrah's does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with PokerListings.com or its products, services, promotions or tournaments.)