World Series of Poker - Day Three Final Report
At the beginning if the day, 568 players showed up at the Rio with the dream of being a world champion. In addition to their dream, they also knew that eight players would be leaving today with nothing. The tournament had ended the night before missing the money by only eight places, and there were going to be some really nervous people with short stacks sweating out the first hour and a half or so, hoping that their number would not be 561.
The play was painfully slow near the bubble, as play went hand for hand (in hand for hand play - each table must complete their hand before ANY table can start a new hand. This is designed to prevent stalling, and gaining an advantage by playing fewer hands at any given table). We lost three people in the first two hands, so with 65 tables in play, you figured hand for hand play would come to an end fairly quickly. For the next hour and ten minutes, we only lost four more people, and this was a process as slow and plodding as you could possibly imagine.
Finally, we had our bubble boy. Carl Ygborn was busted with about 40 minutes left in the first level of play, and the room erupted in applause. You had to feel sorry for Carl, as he was in the far corner of the room, and had to walk through a room of 560 other players, who were all clapping, shaking hands, and jumping up and down, knowing the worst they could do was $12,500. Carl made his walk with class, and in the middle of his walk was interrupted by Tournament Director Johnny Grooms, who informed him that as a token of appreciation, Carl would be given a free entry into the 2006 WSOP, courtesy of Harrah's. This was a nice gesture for a guy who had to endure a walk that must have felt like the longest walk of his life.
The next two hours were filled with the sounds of dealers yelling "All in, and call" as all the players who had been holding on to make the money threw their remaining chips in at a blistering pace, and we were back to losing two players a minute. Losing two players a minute when you have 200 tables is one thing, but when you are down to 40 tables, and its still happening, it is a sight to see.
This is the new world of internet fed, big bet poker, and its no wonder that the players who want to play small pots are getting forced into making decisions they don't want to make. Players are moving in preflop with 25 big blinds in their stack, over betting pots, and playing the kind of poker seen more and more these days.
Apparently, one player who is very well suited to play in this environment is Greg Raymer. The defending champ is our chip leader. Before you start thinking back to back, consider this. There are still three full days of poker to be played, and I think even Greg is probably still trying to fight those thoughts. Just for fun, I will say this now. If Greg Raymer repeats, it will be the greatest accomplishment in the history of the game, times five.
We started this day with 568 players, and seven went home miserable. We ended this day with 185 players, and all of them are guaranteed at least $39,075. Notable players that bit the dust today included Sam Farha, Layne Flack, "Minneapolis" Jim Meehan, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Barbara Enright, Kirill Gerasimov (who wins the bad beat of the day award for having his Aces cracked by Kings for a huge pot, and all his money), Clonie Gowan, Gavin Smith, and Young Phan.
Besides Raymer, a few notables such as Phil Ivey (currently 7th in chips), Howard Lederer, Mike Matusow, Can Kim Hua, John Juanda, Kenna James, Lee Watkinson, Joe Beevers, and Paul Darden all still have a chance. Today will be the real moving day, where the huge stacks set themselves up for a run, and the ones who can't hang on will go home. Complete chip counts are below. See you tomorrow.
Greg "Fossil Man" Raymer $1,064,000 in chips
Rodney Pardey Jr. $1,041,000
Brad Kondracki $962,500
Johnny Howard $910,500
Bob Larsen $796,500
Tim Phan $746,000
Phil Ivey $722,500
Steve Marx $679,500
S Bartholomew $659,000
Gabe Wells $655,500
Bryan Stelbuger $648,500
Oskar Silow $638,000
Bob Hotchandani $627,500
Raymi Sanchez Thorn $595,500
Manelic Minaya $594,500
Tex Barch $590,000
Jon Lane $585,000
James Ocson $583,000
David Bergsdorf $579,500
Tom Sartori $574,500
James Pollack $557,500
Karlo Lopez $556,500
Terry Burt $550,500
Joe Berry $542,500
James Buff $542,500
Minh Ly $530,250
Casper Christensen $525,500
Thomas A Roupe $525,000
Gregory Rice $523,000
Aaron Kanter $503,500
Howard Lederer $496,500
Matt Fitzpatrick $490,500
Randal Brooks $490,000
Jon Kalmar $469,500
Hung La $467,000
Nick Gibson $466,000
Nani Awad $460,500
Hunter Pappas $455,500
Mike Matusow $454,000
Sean Daulat $452,500
John McGrane $452,500
Nani Dollison $448,500
Tiffany Williamson $441,000
Mark Forrester $440,000
Yomtov Shabot $427,000
Samir Shakhtoor $414,000
Russell Salzer $412,500
Chris Short $411,500
Can Hua $404,000
Krystal Nelson $395,000
Espen Saltnes $388,000
Marcello Del Grosso $386,500
Kevin Kim $384,500
George Kelly Dickson $377,000
Scott Numoto $376,500
Larry Prugh $372,500
Carmen Menechella $370,000
Russ Hamilton $365,000
John Juanda $354,000
Jose M Rodriguez $352,500
Nick Camarts $348,500
Ron Ware $345,000
David Plastik $342,500
Franklin Caldwell $339,000
Alex Morales $337,500
Sarah Bilney $332,500
Bobby Law $325,500
Jarl Lindholt Joergensen $320,500
Yakov Hirsch $316,500
Tuan Vu $316,500
Chris Drozdowski $315,000
Tom Shaneberger $309,000
Michael Kessler $297,500
Roland Israelashvizi $289,000
Kenna James $287,500
Michael Cribb $282,500
Rafael "Ralph" Perry $282,000
Daniel Shak $280,500
Jason Lester $280,000
Jason Kaplan $274,500
Bing Wang $272,500
Gen Watamabe $271,000
David Richardson $269,500
Terry Myers $269,000
Bjorn Lindenberg $265,500
Tony Pirone $265,500
Patrick Madden $265,000
Paul Vicary $265,000
Scott Lazar $264,500
Niklas Flisberg $260,000
Robert Turner $260,000
Darryl Tennefos $259,500
JC Tran $259,500
Andrew Black $257,000
Bryant King $253,500
Kevin McCarthy $251,000
Joe Stillman $249,500
Joe Simmons $245,000
Shahram Sheikhan $243,000
Paul Mannetta $240,000
Tony Abesamis $237,500
Francis W O'Brien $234,000
Patrick Hayden $233,000
Joseph Hachem $231,000
Erick Richardson $227,000
Josh Prager $225,000
Mark Cole $224,500
Joe Connor $224,000
Mitchell Klein $219,500
Daniel Alaei $219,000
Alan Singer $217,000
Jack Ward $207,500
Webber Kang $206,300
Kevin Wright $202,000
Richard Lapwood $202,000
Richard Kirsch $200,500
Conor Tate $200,000
Dennis Savelkoul $197,500
Anthony Laughing, Jr $192,500
Kelly Zoudo $192,500
Dmitriy Eidelman $189,500
David Steirman $181,500
Lee Watkinson $181,000
Joe Toth $180,500
Stephen Deetz $180,000
Derek Dix $178,500
Joseph Chiosie $178,000
Anthony Hill $173,000
Joe Beevers $173,000
Louie Calvo $170,500
Vadim Shlez $170,500
Louis Lo $169,500
Michaey Leahy $169,000
Adam Friedman $166,000
Dietrich Alex $159,500
Cliff Cantor $159,000
Radu Butan $158,500
Mark Graves $154,000
Mike May $153,500
Kit Phaphon $150,500
Jake Minter $146,500
Glyn Banks $144,500
Bernard Lee $143,000
Peter Hedlund $141,500
Mehrdad Yousefzadeh $136,500
Kevin O'Brien $136,500
Tom Koral $132,000
Steven Dannenmann, CPA $131,000
Per Hildebrand $131,000
Farzad Bonyadi $129,500
Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf $127,000
Tom Pniak $126,500
Alejandro Pachero $126,500
Chris Podlewski $126,000
Babak Rozi $123,000
Kevin Kaikko $122,000
Mark Tenner $112,000
Paul Fisher $110,000
Ayhan Alsancak $109,500
Mark Bryan $109,000
Amit Sander $109,000
Michael P Mollay $104,500
Kjetil Praesttun $102,000
Tom Clark $94,500
Dutch Boyd $92,000
Joe Leibman $88,000
Sean Blanton $87,000
Adam Brosius $86,500
John R "TBR" Brown $85,500
Joseph Vannata $84,500
Matt Fitzgerald $81,500
Michael Capener $80,000
George Thomas Huber $73,000
Doug Gehring $73,000
Martin Cedercrantz $71,500
Frank Hernandez $67,000
Jon Hoellein $63,500
Mike Wattel $62,500
Paul L Darden, Jr. $60,000
Jeffrey Geiger $48,000
Tom Drotleff $41,500
Brett Wiesner $36,000
Ed Pellegrini $23,500
John McLaughlin $16,500
Imad Samouna $7,400
Ed Note:Noble Poker has 6 handed single table tournaments that we think are easy pickins...get in on the action
