Brent “bhanks11″ Hanks earned a trip to his first ever major live final table early this morning when the $2.5K NLHE Event reached its final nine players. Hanks (pictured right) will sit down with 755K in chips (5/9) with the blinds at 12K/24K and a 3K ante when play kicks off at 2:00 PT. First place is a colossal $666,777.

Adam “akat11″ Katz was the unfortunate 10th place finisher in the tournament, earning $38,235 — most of which will probably go to his masseuse Erin, who spent almost all of the first two days keeping Adam relaxed. Katz was knocked out by chip leader Duncan Bell, whose A3 on a board of AQ3K had Adam’s K-Q drawing thin when all of their chips got in on the turn.

Also resuming play today will be the $1K ladies event, where P5ers Maria “Maridu” Mayrinck (25K) and Amanda Leatherman (11.5K) hope to make a move with 61 players still alive. The $2,000 Omaha Hi/Lo event will also pick up where it left of from yesterday. Scott “BigRiskky” Clements (30K), Mark “Omaholic” Roland (28K), Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury (24K) and Jimmy “gobboboy” Fricke (19K) are some the 169 players remaining in the field.

The $1.5K NLHE event has just kicked off at noon with dozens of online stars hoping to follow in the footsteps of NLHE bracelet winner Michael “worldsgrtest” Banducci and — hopefully after today — Brent Hanks.

Good luck to all P5ers today!

• June 9, 2008 -- Poker Pro Tips of the Day
• June 9, 2008 -- Hanks Final Tables; Katz Bubbles
• June 8, 2008 -- Ladies Felt Up
• June 8, 2008 -- Bubble Bursts in $2.5K NLHE Event