Zdenek Zizka opened to 1,175,000 from early position, leaving around 150,000 behind. Action folded around to Javier Swett on the button, and he moved all in, covering Zizka. Zizka called and the players went heads-up to showdown.
Zdenek Zizka: A♦K♥
Javier Swett: A♠10♦
Zizka was looking to hold, and the 7♠8♦3♥K♦2♠ runout secured him the double up.
Heads up to a flop of 3♠5♠J♠ saw Pablo Melogno check and face a bet from Ignacio Moron for 200,000. Melogno responded with a raise to 685,000. Moron called.
Both players checked the 2♦ on the turn and again on the 9♦ river.
Melogno tabled A♥Q♦ but that was no good against Moron's 10♠10♦.
Zdenek Zizka chose not to call an all-in for his entire 2,780,000-chip stack when he held ace jack against a pair of deuces that showed after the fold.
On the very next hand, Zizka got his chips all in against two players, Javier Swett and Carlos Leiva, under better circumstances.
Zdenek Zizka: A♦A♥
Javier Swett: J♦J♣
Carlos Leiva: A♠K♠
Zizka's aces were the better hand going in and coming out of a runout 9♦3♦9♥3♥7♠, giving him a huge chip boost. Swett won the tiny side pot over Leiva.
Day 3 of Event #53: $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold'em started out with 357 players and only 44 get to return Horseshoe and Paris, Las Vegas, to play Day 4. With an impressive 11,996 entries, a total prize pool of $15,924,690 was created. All remaining players will have their hearts set on the first-place prize of $1,255,180, although second place will also secure just over one million dollars.
Kaifan Wang ended the day at the top of the counts after a successful day on the felt. Wang had a steady day and his momentum built after he eliminated Benjamin Gros in the latter half of play. Brazil's Jacques Ortega follows closely behind with a sizeable stack.
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Kaifan Wang
United States
21,900,000
91
2
Jacques Ortega
Brazil
19,225,000
80
3
Alejandro Ganivet
Spain
17,675,000
74
4
Ignacio Moron
Spain
15,950,000
66
5
James Carroll
United States
11,925,000
50
6
Jeffrey Tanouye
United States
11,225,000
47
7
Samuel Taylor
United States
11,100,000
46
8
Pablo Melogno
Uruguay
10,150,000
42
9
Atanas Kodinov
Bulgaria
10,000,000
42
10
Anze Smajd
Slovenia
9,725,000
41
Kenny Sung
Kenny Sung (6,175,000) returns to Day 4 in the middle of the pack and has had an impressive run. Sung started off the day well and secured an early double up, and his counts continued to climb throughout the day. He lost a small stack after doubling up his opponent in the last level of the day, but still returns with around 25 big blinds. He reported to PokerNews on Day 2 that this is his first-ever live tournament, so eyes will be on him as the pressure increases going into Day 4.
Four bracelet winners will come back tomorrow on the hunt for more gold: Jonas Lauck (4,625,000), Leo Margets (4,000,025), Jinho Hong (3,050,000) and Carlos Leiva (1,525,000).
Olga Iermolcheva started off well in Day 3 and spun up a stack in the middle of the day after battling with Jesus Calderon having flopped a set of aces, but her day ended with around an hour left to go after getting in her last remaining big blinds and was eliminated by Mark Wagstaff. She took home $27,610 for finishing 59th.
Place
Prize
Place
Prize
1
$1,255,180
9
$150,660
2
$1,012,320
10-11
$119,160
3
$702,360
12-13
$94,840
4
$534,590
14-17
$75,970
5
$409,870
18-26
$61,240
6
$316,190
27-35
$49,690
7
$245,430
36-44
$40,580
8
$191,690
A number of other notables came and fell throughout the day, with many of them just making the money and securing those important 25K Fantasy points including WSOP bracelet holders Nicholas Seward ($33,360) and Aram Zobian ($19,280), as well as other Fantasy players: Didier Guérin ($11,840), Matt Glantz ($10,200), Adam Owen ($10,200), Stephen Song ($7,730) and Uri Reichenstein ($7,730). Josh Reichard (6,300,000) is the only 25K Fantasy draftee remaining in the tournament.
Play will resume at 11 a.m. local time Tuesday, June 24, at Level 32 with 120,000/240,000 blinds and a 240,000 big blind ante.
Stay with PokerNews as we follow all the action throughout all subsequent days of play, until a winner is crowned.