Day 3 of the 2011 World Series of Poker Main Event is in the bag, with 852 of the 1,864 players that began the day still alive (metaphorically speaking). Patrick Poirier is your chip leader with 1,328,000, with Daryl Jace the only other player sitting in seven-figure territory at 1,282,500. Chris Kwon is third (944,500), trailed closely by David Barter (917,000), Scott Smith (896,500) and Sebastian Ruthenberg (889,000).
Day 2 chip leader Ben Lamb started Day 3 with a stack of 551,600, and was up over 700k at one point, but finished with 450,000. The sole remaining 2010 November Niner is Joseph Cheong (410,500), while the only remaining ME champs still in the hunt are Robery Varkonyi (168,000) and Phil Hellmuth (71,000). Hellmuth managed to make it to the Rio on Day 3 without the help of hotel security but is facing a pretty steep climb to collect his 12th bracelet. The fairer sex is represented by Amanda Musumeci (528,500), Vanessa Rousso (298,500) and Claudia Crawford (220,000).
Among the notable Day 3 casualties were former ME champs Joe Cada, Tom McEvoy, Carlos Mortensen and Huck Seed, 2011 bracelet winners Jason Mercier and Matt Matros, plus Patrik Antonius, John Racener, Dan Shak, Annette Obrestad, Matt Savage and Justin Bonomo. Busting out not long after a serious bad beat wasn’t the only indignity Shaun Deeb suffered on the day, after tweeting that a hotel maid had apparently stolen his laptop while he’d been playing. (Karma for playing in last year’s Ladies Event in full-on drag?) Celebrity watchers were disappointed when Seinfeld’s Jason Alexander and Everybody Loves Raymond’s Brad Garrett both hit the rail, but The Simpsons co-creator Sam Simon (395,000) has yet to say “D’oh!”
With the top 693 players finishing in the black, we should hit the money bubble early on Day 4. Cha-ching!
