The Third Day

We're down to 27 players from our starting field of 136 here at the World Series of Poker Circuit Northeast Regional Championship. We're slated for a noon restart with the goal of playing down to a final table of nine before day's end.

North Carolina's Chris Bell is leading the way with his stack of 434,500 chips, but his lead is by no means safe. Seth Fischer is just under 400,000, and Eugene Katchalov and Frank Calo are in third and fourth places respectively. Also still in contention is Matthew Waxman from Florida. He's best known for what he did just a couple days ago, winning the 352-player Main Event here at Harrah's Atlantic City.

Chris Klodnicki, Christian Harder, Brett Richey, Victor Ramdin, Todd Terry, Beth Shak, Jonathan Little, Andy Frankenberger, Dan Kelly, Sorel Mizzi -- everyone's still in with a shot at tomorrow's final table. So is Lee Childs, although he'll have some work to do. Childs comes into the day with 2,800 chips to his credit, just more than one big blind.

The players are starting to trickle into the room as we speak, ready to take their seats behind their chip bags. The noon start is approaching fast, and we'll be back with the shuffle up and deal shortly.