Day 4 Begins Soon; Today We Burst the Money Bubble
Welcome to our coverage of Day 4 of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event. Yesterday's play saw the return of the remaining 1,738 from a starting field of 6,598. Those players were scattered across three rooms, and yet, by the end of the night, had all combined into the Amazon Room. Today, the final 720 will once again return for five levels of intense poker action. Perched atop the highest stack in the room is Dave D'Alesandro who owns a stack of 1,100,000 in chips.
Day 4 will be quite the exciting day for these remaining players, as it will be the day that the money bubble is burst. We are a mere 53 eliminations away from each of the final 666 players being guaranteed at least $19,227 in tournament winnings. After the players make the money, they will have their sights set higher and higher on the path to the first place prize of $8,527,982.
Day 3 saw the exit of just over 1,000 players from the tournament. Many big names showed up only to hit the rail in those fives levels of play. Among those whose WSOP came to an end yesterday were Eugene Katchalov, Soi Nguyen, Marco Traniello, Ben Lamb, Chris Tryba, Barry Greenstein, Sammy Farha, Brett Richey, Phil Galfond, Shannon Shorr, Nick Schulman, and John Racener.
Several Main Event champions of previous years also saw their tournament come to an end on Day 3. Dan Harrington, Robert Varkonyi, Jerry Yang, Peter Eastgate, and reigning champion Pius Heinz all saw a Day 3 exit.
While those players were not able to survive the massive field of the Main Event, others were able to continue to grind out and push through this deep field. Some of the more notable names that will return to the felt for Day 4 include Sean Rice (1,076,000), Vanessa Selbst (814,000), Sorel Mizzi (738,000), Vivek Rajkumar (678,000), Jason Somerville (637,000), Marcel Luske (602,000), Gaelle Baumann (599,000), Shaun Deeb (598,000), Lee Childs (570,000), Antonio Esfandiari (485,000), Gavin Smith (425,000), Maria Ho (382,000), John Juanda (357,500), Athanasios Polychronopoulos (305,000), Joseph Cheong (287,000), Liv Boeree (207,500), and Daniel Negreanu (109,000).
Play will be fast approaching the money bubble, so make sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the latest updates on the most prestigious poker tournament in the world!
Top Ten Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Dave D'Alesandro | 1,100,000 |
| 2 | Sean Rice | 1,076,000 |
| 3 | Jacob Balsiger | 1,065,000 |
| 4 | Leo Wolpert | 1,003,500 |
| 5 | Ben Greenberg | 963,000 |
| 6 | A.J. Jejelowo | 928,500 |
| 7 | Daniel Rudd | 834,500 |
| 8 | Michael Ferrell | 821,000 |
| 9 | Paul Volpe | 820,000 |
| 10 | Vanessa Selbst | 814,000 |