With an initial field of 6,737 entries, there are now only 800 players left to be contending for this year’s WSOP $10,000 Main Event gold bracelet and the top prize of $8 million. Day 3 of the tournament was played on Thursday, July 14 and was completed with Belgian poker pro Kenny Hallaert as the chip leader. The player bagged and tagged 1,709,000 chips at the end of the day.
Hallaert has not won a WSOP gold bracelet so far but he is no stranger to the popular poker festival. The player has cashed in 22 Series events since the beginning of his career, collecting a total of $367,855 in WSOP tournament winnings.
Day 3 of the Main Event started with 2,186 survivors still in contention. A number of players were eliminated in an extremely quick succession and there were only 1,800 left after the first scheduled break. More than 600 players hit the rail within the first two hours of play. Quite expectedly, action began slowing down a bit as the money bubble was coming closer. Upon dinner break, there were 1,393 survivors at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino poker tables.
Day 3 of what has generally been considered the world’s most prestigious poker tournament saw two former Main Event Champions hit the rail. Fourteen-time gold bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth busted after he could not make it against Sara Hall in Level 3. Reigning champion Joe McKeehen also had to leave his table after he was eliminated by Dave Farah.
Other former gold bracelet winners who could not make it throughout the day were Scott Seiver, Vanessa Selbst, Tony Dunst, Bertrand Grospellier, and several others.
The most important highlight of Day 3 was the fact that the bubble burst and the remaining players are all now into the money. An overall prize pool of $63,327,800 was generated at this year’s WSOP $10,000 Main Event. The money is to be distributed to the top 1,011 finishers, with lowest payouts worth $15,000. Jayakrishnan Nair became the first player to leave the tournament with a cash.
Day 4 of the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship will be played today, July 15. As mentioned above, Belgian Kenny Hallaert will kick off the day as the chip leader. All remaining players are guaranteed a minimum cash of $16,007. Other notables that are to return for Day 4 include Antonio, Esfandiari, Tom Marchese, Ivan Luca, Steve O’Dwyer, etc.
