Today, 3,389 poker players came to the Rio with $1,500 and a dream. That resulted in a massive prizepool worth $4,575,150.
Of those entrants, only 342 competitors will get paid but a cash will be good for no less than $2,882. One lucky man or woman, however, will walk a way with a whopping $777,928! Even just making the official final table will net you a cool $59,705.
There are still 830 players left though which means less than half of the remaining field will get paid. With only a level and a half left to play tonight, we will likely reach the money tomorrow afternoon. But every player knows that now is the time to accumulate those crucial chips that they will need for the bubble which makes staking focused now as important as ever.
With Ben Volpe having soared out in front since the pre-dinner session of play, it's been hard to take our focus away from that mammoth stack. However, we dug a little deeper into the field and found several players that may have a chance to catch him:
We found this hand developing on the flop between Jennifer Leigh, on the button, and an unknown player. The board was and Leigh bet 1,650 after it was checked to her. Her opponent called and the turn came . Her opponent checked again and Leigh bet out 4,000. He called and the river came . Her opponent took the lead this time and bet 2,025.
Leigh wrinkled her face and announced raise, making it 7,025 to go. The player moved all in for only 2,000 more to Leigh and she called. Her opponent tabled for a turned full house. Leigh sighed and flashed making a flush on the turn. She's down to around 14,000 chips.
The last remaining tables from the Amazon Room have finally joined the rest of the field in the Pavilion Room as promised. Eliminations have picked up steam with the blinds climbing and tournament officials have already broken an additional row of tables in the White section.
Four-time NBA All-Star and Dallas Mavericks phenom Shawn "The Matrix" Marion has just been busted from WSOP Event #56 at the hands of Khiem Nguyen.
As Nguyen recalled to us, Marion shoved the last of his money into the middle with (suited), but Nguyen woke up with . The board improved neither hand and Marion's now on the bench for the remainder of this three-day long game.
Neil Channing and an opponent got their stacks all in preflop. Channing held and was up against . The board ran and Channing spiked his ten on the river for a double up to around 35,000.