"Man this table would make a great TV table!" stated Frankie Flowers after dragging a pot.
Flowers broke down his chip stack, and it amounted to be over the two million chip mark meaning that Flowers is the first player to cross this threshold.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
2,016,000 | 116,000 |
"Hey! Hey! Hey PokerNews!" bellowed Eric Hicks as a PokerNews reporter was walking past his table.
Hicks was in the middle of a hand where he was facing a check-raise from Timothy McDermott, and eventually decided to fold.
"I got a story to tell you." Hicks added.
"I'm serious. You need to write this down. This is the best hand every played." Hicks continued.
As the PokerNews reporter stood there listening, Hicks continued to splurge details.
"So this guy there had like 120,000" Hicks stated as he pointed to seat five that is currently occupied by Adam Levy.
"Not me. The guy before me" Levy confirmed.
"So he raised big, like 20 or 30,000, and I looked down at seven-deuce. I thought about just folding, but I was like why not, so I called." Hicks stated.
"The flop was like king-eight-deuce and I checked to him, and he bet big; like 20,000 again. I just shoved all in for like 150,000 and he went into the tank!" Hicks continued before he just starts laughing out loud.
"I didn't want to break him, but now I wanted to break him, and he was in pain sitting there thinking and rubbing his head." Hicks added.
"Eventually he calls with King-Queen. And then a deuce came on the turn and I broke him!" Hicks remarked and then laughed again.
"I broke him so good. You gotta write the hand. It's the best. All these guys aren't having fun, but I am!" Hicks stated to complete his story.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
1,200,000 | 70,000 |
With more than 100,000 already in the middle and the flop showing 
, Amauri Grutka bet 200,000 out of the small blind with 11,000 behind and that sent Joao Viera in the cutoff in the think tank. After more than three minutes, Vieira moved all in and Grutka called it off.
Amauri Grutka: 
Joao Vieira: 
The 
turn improved the Brazilian, and the 
on the river was a blank to let Grutka double and take a big chunk out of Vieira's stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
550,000 | 243,000 |
|
370,000 | -265,000 |
Alexander Lynskey opened to 12,000 from early position and Jorden Fox three-bet to 26,000 directly to his left. The action folded back to Lynskey who stuck in a four-bet to 66,000 and Fox just called.
The flop fell 
and Lynskey led out for 30,000. Fox called to see the 
on the turn and Lynskey opted to check this time. Fox announced all in and Lynskey called to put himself at risk for 91,000. Fox tabled 
but it was no match for the 
from Lynskey.
The river was the 
and Lynskey's pair of kings held on to earn him a full double up in the opening hour of play.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
437,000 | -63,000 |
|
377,000 | 166,000 |
The action folded to Ryan Laplante in the cutoff and he moved all in for 81,000. Ryan Van Sanford folded the button and Or Ben re-shoved all in from the small blind for about 240,000. The big blind folded and the hands were shown.
Or Ben: 
Ryan Laplante:
The dealer spread the 
flop and Ben improved to middle set leaving Laplante drawing to only a chop. The turn 
and river improved Ben to a full house and Laplante was eliminated.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
340,000 | 239,000 |
|
Busted |
Day 3 of the 2018 World Series of Poker Main Event wrapped up last night and just one more hand in the extra level was needed to get down to 1,182 players, who all secured a cash prize of at least $15,000 for their efforts. Unfortunate bubble boy was Matthew Hopkins, who became the last player to leave the Main Event empty-handed. As a consolation prize, he'll receive a free entry into next year's Main Event to give it another shot.
Cards are back in the air for Day 4 of the Main Event at 11 a.m., and it's In Sun Geoum who sits on top with 1,696,000 in chips. Geoum racked up heaps in a big aces-versus-kings clash that propelled him up the leaderboard. New Yorker Frankie Flowers is just a few pips behind with 1,624,000, while Samuel Bernabeu (1,418,000), Michael Lavenburg (1,356,000) and Julius Malzanini (1,292,000) round out the top five.
Plenty of notables are still left vying for poker's most coveted prize with none other than ten-time bracelet winner Phil Ivey (827,000) in a prime spot to go deep. Two-time bracelet winners Eric Froehlich (1,235,000) and Ben Yu (1,040,000) also surpassed the 1M mark, with three-time winner Paul Volpe (989,000) hot on their heels. Team 888poker ambassador Chris Moorman (969,000), former champs Jonathan Duhamel (450,000), Joe Cada (211,000) and Johnny Chan (162,000), as well as 888poker's Billy Chattaway (376,000) and Pedro Correa (288,000), are also still in the hunt.
While the big stacks amassed sizable stacks during the bubble phase, others just barely made it into the money with mere crumbs, such as [Removed:17] (46,000), Pierre Neuville (32,000) and Federico Butteroni (30,000). Play will resume at 11 a.m., and as blinds continue in the level 3,000/6,000 with an ante of 1,000 they'll need to either spin it up soon or go home.
Five-and-a-half 120-minute levels are scheduled for today with a 20-minute break after each level and a 75-minute dinner break after Level 18 (~5:45 p.m.) Action resumes in Level 16 with exactly 1 hour and 58 minutes remaining on the clock. Day 4 should be wrapping up around 00:30 a.m.
| Level | Duration | Small Blind | Big Blind | Ante |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 16 | 118 minutes | 3,000 | 6,000 | 1,000 |
| 20-minute break | ||||
| 17 | 120 minutes | 4,000 | 8,000 | 1,000 |
| 20-minute break | ||||
| 18 | 120 minutes | 5,000 | 10,000 | 1,000 |
| 75-minute break | ||||
| 19 | 120 minutes | 6,000 | 12,000 | 2,000 |
| 20-minute break | ||||
| 20 | 120 minutes | 8,000 | 16,000 | 2,000 |
| 20-minute break | ||||
| 21 | 60 minutes | 10,000 | 20,000 | 2,000 |
PokerNews will bring start-to-finish live updates of Day 4 of the Main Event. On top of that, the live stream is available at PokerGO and ESPN2 during the following times:
| 11:30 a.m. | 4:00 p.m. | ESPN2 |
| 4:00 p.m. | 6:30 p.m. | PokerGO |
