The top prize at the main event of the World Series of Poker will be more than $9 million this year, and about 660 players will get some piece of a $64 million prize pool, tournament officials said Sunday.

About 2,500 players entered the no-limit Texas Hold ‘em tournament Sunday, the last day players were able to register. The field of more than 6,800 entrants was about 500 more than last year but still down from 2006, when a record 8,773 players entered and Jamie Gold won $12 million.

The roughly $9 million top prize would be the second largest in the main event’s history. Last year, California psychologist Jerry Yang emerged from a field of 6,358 players to win a top prize of $8.25 million.

Tournament spokesman Seth Palansky said the number of entrants was what tournament officials were expecting, about equal to the event’s average for the last five years.

Participation dipped sharply in 2007, nine months after President Bush signed a law that cracked down on Internet gambling in the United States. The law was blamed for the decline because it meant that fewer U.S. players could qualify for the main event through online satellite tournaments.

On Sunday, tardy stragglers headed to the booths outside the main tournament room with $10,000 _ mostly in cash or live casino chips _ to register, get their seats and start playing.

Paul Gourlay of Newcastle, England, said he was delayed in trying to get the money to pay the steep entry fee. He registered with about 20 minutes left in the first level of play.

“I just had to collect a loan from a friend,” said Gourlay, 33.

Players starting Sunday walked into a gauntlet of elite poker players, including Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, Howard Lederer, Annie Duke, Gus Hansen, Phil Gordon and Men Nguyen.

Hellmuth made a grand entrance during the third hour of play, dressed as an Army general with 11 stars on his helmet, equal to the record number of gold bracelets he has won at the World Series of Poker. He was flanked by 11 girls who marched in with him to ESPN’s feature table, exciting the crowd and drawing the attention of the cameras.

Before Hellmuth arrived, the most intimidating person at the table was mixed martial arts fighter Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell, but Liddell busted out shortly after Hellmuth arrived.

Large crowds packed the aisles outside the table areas, looking to watch their favorite players sitting nearby.

“You ought to play a slot machine!” 10-time gold bracelet winner Johnny Chan said to laughter as an opponent turned over two 7s to match a third on the board. Chan said it was the second time in a few minutes the player had been dealt three lucky 7s.

Poker professional Phil “The Unabomber” Laak took the opposite route of Hellmuth and others, and tried to stay as unrecognizable as possible.

He wore a prosthetic mask and wig that made him look completely different and said only a handful of people knew about it, including his girlfriend, actress and poker player Jennifer Tilly, and his friend and fellow poker player, Antonio Esfandiari.

“If they see something’s funny they don’t know it’s me, so it’s huge,” Laak said. “I got a lot more tools.”

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