It starts with 52 cards, and ends with one player winning a grand prize of $10 million. On Nov. 10-11, nine players gather for the final table of the 45th annual World Series of Poker $10,000 No-Limit Hold ’em Championship at the Rio, more commonly known as the Main Event.

While one person will rake in the big prize, the other eight players will hardly walk away empty-handed, splitting a prize pot of more than $18 million.

The final nine poker players used their skill, combined with some luck of the draw, to get through 6,683 other players and reach the final table. Players representing more than 80 countries entered the tournament, and now only six countries are represented going into the home stretch.

Bruno Politano is the first Brazilian to represent his country at the final table. The 31-year-old enters with the lowest chip stack but has already done his country proud by occupying one of the coveted seats. The Netherlands makes a back-to-back appearance at the final table, but this year, it is Jorryt van Hoof who takes a shot at the WSOP gold bracelet. He enters as chip leader.

At just 22 years old, Andoni Larrabe from Basque, Spain, is the youngest player of the so-called November Nine. But at such a young age, his overall earnings as a professional poker player top nearly $400,000—not bad for only four years of playing.

With the highest career earnings of any final table player (nearly $5 million), Swedish-born Martin Jacobson might not be the first Swede to make it to the final table, but a seventh-place finish or better will put him in his home country’s record books as top dog of the WSOP Main Event. A fifth-place finish or better will make him the highest-earning Swede ever at the Main Event.

Twenty-three-year-old Norwegian Felix Stephensen has no previous WSOP earnings, and he has earned less than $30,000 playing professional poker. But his second appearance at the WSOP Main Event unbelievably brings him to the final table with the second highest chip count.

The United States stands as the top country represented at the final table, with four players representing the red, white and blue. Columbus, Neb., native, Daniel Sindelar worked his way through six previous WSOP Main Events before making it to the final table this year.

William Tonking from Flemington, N.J., had also lost his shot during the WSOP Main Event in previous years, but the online poker player makes his first-ever appearance at the final table.

Dubbed the “most unlikely final tablist” this year, Lowell, Mass., native (and foosball world champion) Billy Pappaconstantinou arrives with no previous WSOP experience. On the other end of the spectrum, Mark Newhouse made history as the first November Niner with back-to-back final table appearances. Las Vegas resident Newhouse has a long WSOP history, having participated in every WSOP Main Event since 2006.