Johnny Chan Continues to be among the chip leaders after 3 days of play in the WSOP Main Event

After 3 days of play in the main event, players are beginning to understand why poker professionals are called “grinders.”  A total of 2,557 players began the Main Event on its 3^rd day of play, and somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,300 of them would find their way to the rail.  The rate of speed at which the tables were broken was as much a testament to the large field of amateurs as it was to the tireless staff here at the Rio, that kept up with the field effortlessly. 

With so many losses today, it was inevitable that we’d lose some big names, but perhaps the most noteworthy loss in the field was the loss of the player signifying a new champion would be crowned.  2009 Main Event champ Joe Cada would move all in with A-Q for more than 60k, and find a caller with just two Tens.  But the pair would hold, and send Cada to the rail of the main event, and end his run as main event champion.  Some of the other notable players that will not be moving on include Daniel Negreanu, Chris Moneymaker, Vanessa Rousso, David Williams, Phil Laak, Erik Seidel, David Sklansky, Lacey Jones, Kenny Tran, Scott Seiver, Jennifer Harman, and Archie Karas. 

Several players still have their dreams alive in taking Cada’s place, and placing their image on the banners that decorate the Amazon room.  Players that moved up the leaderboard included a memorable name from WSOP Main Event past, Johnny Chan.  The two time main event champ used the day to power up to near the top of the chip counts, bagging nearly 630,000 chips, which very likely places him in to the top 10 in chips for the tournament.  Other notable names with significant chip counts include Eric Baldwin (455k), Scott Clements (443k), Lauren Kling (395k), Raymond Rahme (345k), and Jay Rosenkrantz (330k).

As we reach a point closer and closer to the money, certain stories are beginning to emerge.  One such story includes that of the group of Mizrachi’s entering into the main event.  The four brothers (Robert, Michael, Eric, and Danny) have braved the 7,319 player field to this point, survived the frantic rate of bust outs, and have all bagged chips on their way to day 4.  Robert leads the Mizrachi clan with 346,000 chips, Danny has 130,00 in chips, Eric, 128,000, and Michael ‘The Grinder’ Mizrachi, who won a bracelet earlier in the series winning the $50k players championship, bagged up 109,000 chips at the end of the day.  Also of note with Michael, is the fact that he is the only player remaining in the field that has the opportunity to overtake Frank Kassela as the WSOP Player of the Year, however, he will need to win the event in order to do so, and have Kassela not cash.  Right now, those are extremely thin odds, given that Kassela finished day 3 with a healthy 150,000 chip stack.

There are still some other notable names that made their way into day 4, and they’ll be trying to stay alive for a few more levels tomorrow as we resume action at noon, and likely will play through the money bubble.  I’ll see you tomorrow from the Rio for more pics, and more updates via twitter (@coolwhipflea) from the floor.