LAS VEGAS (AP) – The day of finishing in the money arrived at the World Series of Poker.

With the field slashed to 569 players, almost all of those left playing Monday will end up taking home at least $12,500. Of the 5,619 entrants who began play, most walked away empty handed – only 560 make money.

But for many players lucky enough to survive the first four days of the no-limit Texas Hold em event, the minimum payout – enough to cover the required $10,000 buy-in plus some expenses – is not likely to satisfy their gambling appetites.

They’ll be shooting for a spot at the final nine-person table in which the first one out will take home $1 million and the winning player will collect $7.5 million in first-place money.

Still in the running before play began Monday was patent lawyer Greg “Fossilman” Raymer of Stonington, Conn., the 2004 champ, who was sitting comfortably in ninth place with a strong stack of chips.

Raymer is the only former champion of the World Series of Poker’s main event still standing out of the 14 who started in the tournament. Huck Seed (1996) was the last to leave when he busted out Sunday.

“Raymer is playing great, but nobody is a favorite,” said John Vorhaus, author of the “Killer Poker” book series and an analyst with ultimatebet.com. “Between last year and this year, he’s demonstrated his skills are not a fluke.”

The chip leader was Rod Pardey Jr. of Las Vegas, and lurking among the remaining players were some top-notch pros, such as Phil Ivey, Mike Matusow, John Juanda, Paul Darden, Layne Flack, Howard Lederer and Sam Farha, who finished second to Chris Moneymaker in 2003.

Women also are trying to make history in the 36-year-old event, which no woman has won. The 1995 fifth-place finisher and the only woman to make it to a final table, Barbara Enright, is still playing. She is joined by former Miss Teen Oklahoma and pro Clonie Gowen of fulltiltpoker.com and Olga Varkonyi, wife of 2002 winner Robert Varkonyi.

With most of the dead money, or weakest players, knocked out, the pros could begin to assert themselves if they start catching good cards.

If the skilled pros accumulate large stacks, it could spell the end for the Internet upstarts who have dominated the tournament the past two years.

At this stage, the reality of the tournament has set in for all the players. To win, Vorhaus said, they’ll have to “get cards, get action, get lucky.”

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On the Net:

World Series of Poker: http://www.worldseriesofpoker.com/

AP-ES-07-11-05 1724EDT