Day 3 of the WPT bestbet Bounty Scramble $5,000 Main Event is upon as and only 23 players will resume play at the bestbet Jacksonville poker room in Jacksonville, Florida later today. The remaining survivors will play down to a final table.
Shankar Pillai, a former WSOP gold bracelet winner, is leading the final pack of players into Day 3 of play. He managed to accumulate a stack of 972,000 by the end of Day 2, good for around 97 big blinds.
The New York-based player has live tournament earnings of more than $1.2 million and will certainly add to that amount from the ongoing Main Event, as the money bubble burst on Monday and all remaining hopefuls are in the money. It is yet to be seen by how much exactly Pillai will improve his bankroll.
The player currently has 47 in-the-money finishes in live tournaments to have taken place in different parts of the US over the years. His scooped his first cash back in the summer of 2007. It is also interesting to note that that first cash came from a WSOP event, which Pillai actually won. The player collected the amount of $527,829 from a $3,000 buy-in event. This has remained his largest cash so far.
What Day 3 of the Main Event Has in Store?
As mentioned above, as many as 23 players will return for Day 3 of the Main Event. They are each guaranteed a min-cash of $12,040. Here it is important to note that, as its name suggests, the tournament features bounties. There were around 30 bounties at the beginning of the event, each worth $2,500.
Currently, there are three players in contention to be holding bounties, with those being Sam Soverel, Tyler Patterson, and Jessica Dawley.
Aside from the above-mentioned three survivors and start-of-the-day chip leader Pillai, there are other notables among the survivors, including Darren Elias, who is vying for a record WPT title number four. Elias is one of a small party of players to have won three WPT Main Tour Main Events over the years. The other such players are Anthony Zinno, Carlos Mortensen, Chino Rheem, and Gus Hansen. Elias will enter Day 3 of play with 607,000 in chips or approximately 61 big blinds.
Another notable still in contention is this year’s winner of the WPT Tournament of Champions Daniel Weinman. The player outlasted a field of 65 fellow competitors this spring to capture the prestigious title and the amount of $381,500 for his efforts. Zachary Smiley, Sam Panzica, and Alex Rocha are also among those set to return for Day 3 play.
Action will resume at noon Florida time and the remaining participants will play down to a six-handed final table.
The Main Event attracted a field of 323 entries who generated a prize pool of $1,501,950. Payouts were set for the top 41 finishers and the bubble burst on Monday. As mentioned above, each of the remaining 23 is secured with a minimum payout of $12,040. And each of the six final tablists will leave with no less than $55,191. The winner will scoop $315,732 in prize money, including a $15,000-worth ticket into the season-ending Tournament of Champions.
