ALTON -- A 53-year-old trucking account manager from Illinois is more than $4.5 million richer thanks to a monster poker tournament, but winning the top prize just wasn't in the cards.

Dennis Phillips of Cottage Hills, near Alton, finished third early Monday in the World Series of Poker's main event in Las Vegas. He was the last American left in the field.

Phillips lost to Peter Eastgate, a 22-year-old poker professional from Denmark. Eastgate will face Russia's Ivan Demidov to settle the $9.15 million title.

Phillips won $4,517,773 for third place.

The nine finalists split $32.7 million. That's from a pool built on the $10,000 entry fees of 6,844 players who began play in July.