Start-of-Day 3 chip leader Mark Kroon paced the field for most of the first two levels, but a new leader emerged just before the second break. Somar Al-Darwich doubled through Kroon moments before the end of the level to snag the pole position.
Mathew Huey is still within striking distance. Huey started the day in Pavilion and was moved into the Amazon Room during the first level of the day. It wasn't long before he picked up aces against Liberto's queens and got max value on a board to send Liberto out the door.
Also finding success in the past level was Michael Mizrachi, who climbed to 570,000. Millionaire Maker champ Benny Chen also crossed the 500K mark.
Phil Ivey had an excellent first level on Day 3 but took a dent to a stack when Phil Mader doubled through him at the ESPN stage. Ivey was still holding strong at 235,000 at last count.
Tony Dunst, David Benyamine, Shane Warne and Sam Grafton were among the casualties during Level 12. Grafton was eliminated at a feature table by reigning champ Greg Merson, who is still sitting comfortably with around 200,000 in chips.
The players are filtering out of the tournament area for a 20-minute break. See you back here shortly!
As Level 13 begins, the big board is showing 1,197 players remaining. The top 648 finishers will make the money.
We mentioned earlier the coincidence that the field of 1,753 players who started Day 3 this year exactly matched the total of 1,753 who returned for Day 3 a year ago. Heading into Level 13 last year, there were 1,224 players left, meaning the pace of eliminations during the first two levels today is roughly the same as what we saw last year.
Last year Day 3 ended with 720 players left and a chip leader (Dave D'Alesandro) having built a stack of exactly 1.1 million.
After a player raised to 7,000 preflop, Canadian poker pro Gillian Epp moved all-in for around 40,000. Action folded back around to the original raiser, who called, and the cards went on their backs.
Epp:
Opponent:
The board ran out , and Epp collecting her things before heading out of the Amazon Room.
Jeff Shulman — one of the few players ever to final table the WSOP Main Event twice (finishing seventh in 2000 and ninth in 2009) — has seen his 2013 WSOP ME run unluckily end at the start of Level 13.
Shulman's final hand saw him pick up and get into a preflop raising battle with Sami Rustom that ended with Shulman all in for his last 90,000 or so. Alas for Shulman, Rustom had , and when the board ran out , Shulman was eliminated.
Melanie Weisner and Ronnie Bardah enjoying the moment
After an under-the-gun raise to 5,000, and an under-the-gun-plus-one three-bet to 16,000, action fell on Melanie Weisner in middle position. She reraised to 28,000. Play folded all the way back to the three-bettor, and she decided to make the call.
The flop fell small and paired with the . After her opponent checked with roughly 60,000 left in her stack, Weisner fired 18,000. Her opponent folded, and Weisner scooped in the pot to move to 438,000 in chips.
Weisner is another female performing well at this World Series of Poker, doing well here in the Main Event thus far after posting four cashes prior. While Weisner has yet to cash in the WSOP Main Event here in Vegas, she did placed 33rd in the WSOP Europe Main Event in 2011 for €27,500. Weisner has nearly $600,000 in live tournament earnings on her record, and will be looking to make some very big noise here in the grand daddy of them all.