WPT Championship Photos and Day 3 Update
Dr. Pauly, of the #1 World Series of Poker Blog, Tao of Poker, files his daily report from the WPT $25K Championship at the Bellagio's 5 Star World Poker Classic...Flipchip photos--Ed.
212 players began Day 3 of the WPT Championship at the Bellagio. There was a $4 million first place prize at stake as the money bubble broke late in the evening. And that did not slowdown the eliminations. The clock was stopped with 11 minutes to go in the last scheduled level of play with 54 players remaining. With several big pros advancing to Day 3, there was a good chance that the eventual final table would be a star-studded affair.
More after the jump...
The Buzz
Action went so fast to start the day that the money bubble broke must faster than anticipated. Several big named pros got close to cashing but busted out shortly before the money bubble such as Phil Ivey, Jen Harman, Chip Reese, Liz Lieu and Jamie Gold . When the bubble broke, Phil Hellmuth was among the chipleaders as the top 100 players won at least $46,410. When Day 3 ended, there were 54 players remaining with Phil Hellmuth as the chipleader witj 1.7M.
The Back Story
A handful of females began Day 3 and they all hoped that they could be the first female to ever win a WPT event. Anna Wroblewski was among the overall chipleaders and outlasted every female in the tournament. She made the money and busted out in 70th place. Melissa Hayden took 80th place and was the only other female to cash at this year's WPT Championship.
Sight of the Day
Phil Hellmuth went on mega tilt after he lost a hand to Shawn Buchanon. The verbal tirade lasted almost thirty minutes as the Poker Brat would not stop telling Buchanon how bad of a player he was for sucking out on Hellmuth with K-7. If their table had not been broken, he would have ranted all night long.
Quote of the Day
"This motherfuckin' kid just bluffed off 200K to the best player in the world! Nice play, genius! There's no way you are going to last the day," said Phil Hellmuth after he lost a big pot to Shawn Buchanon.
Hand of the Day
Raymond Davis raised, was reraised by Don Webb, and then moved all in with A-A. Webb called with A-Q. The flop was Q-Q-6 and Webb took the lead with trips. Davis was down to one card in the deck that would help him. The turn was a blank but the river was the case Ace which gave Davis a bigger boat than Webb.
Notable Stacks
Ray Davis took the chip lead late in the evening right after the money bubble broke but lost it to Phil Hellmuth in the last few hands. Hellmuth was the first player to amass 1 Million in chips and kept the pressure on once he got a hefty stack. Roland de Wolfe started the day as the leader and was one of the few players past the 1 Million mark along with Loi Phan, Kirk Morrison, Thomas Wahlroos, Grant Lang, CK Hua and Carlos Mortensen.
Day 3 Money Winners
The following players won $46,410: Daniel Smith, Ross Boatman, Shawn Buchanon, Barny Boatman, Joe Tehan, Edward Teems, Jeff Littlefield, Humberto Brenes, Eric Kesselman, Jeppe Mikkelsen, Jorge Arias, Franklin Caldwell, Steve Wong, Lee Markholdt, Bob Stupak, Anna Wroblewski, Ram Vaswani, Jesse Martin, Stan Fulton, Bryan Devonshire, Daniel Haubelt, Jordan Siegel, Jamie Ligator, Sam Grizzle, Nek-Pal Singh, Melissa Hayden, James Van Alstyne, Marcello del Grosso, Sammy Farha, Lamar Wilkinson, Johan Storakers, David Daneshgar, Kevin O'Connell, John Harris, Peter Rho, Jason Fretag, John Nathan and Robert Goldfarb.
Noteworthy Eliminations
The bubble boy was Robert Mizrachi. Pros who busted out before the money bubble included Amnon Filippi, Billy Baxter, Rehne Pedersen, Shannon Shorr, Chip Reese, Gavin Griffin, Greg Mueller, Erica Schoenberg, Isaac Haxton, Jen Harman, Freddy Deeb, Isabelle Mercier, Amir Vahedi, Allen Kessler, Joe Sebok, Ben Roberts, Scott Clements, Berry Johnston, Phil Ivey, David Singer, Dustin "NeverWin" Woolf, Vinnie Vinh, Andy Black, Martin De Knijff, Jamie Gold, Hoyt Corkins, Jani Sointula, Bob Feduniak, Mickey Appleman, Cliff Josephy, Erik Friberg, Liz Lieu, JC Tran, and Peter "Nordberg" Feldman.
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