Maxx Coleman Leads Day 4 as Money Bubble Looms
On Day 3 of the 2013 Main Event, 1,753 players were whittled down to just 666. Unfortunately for 18 of those players, three long, grueling days of poker will all be for not, as only 648 will be making the money. The player who is least concerned about bubbling is Maxx Coleman, who is the chip leader with 1,071,500. He is the only player in the millionaire club, as the next two players are Joshua Prager (993,000) and Max Steinberg (987,500), who busted Phil Ivey in a huge cooler in Level 14 yesterday.
One of the biggest stories to come out of this main event so far is the continued success of the man, the myth, the legend, Doyle Brunson. Brunson had announced that he would be skipping the WSOP altogether this year for the first time ever, but a handful of side bets drew him back in for the $50,000 Poker Players' Championship. Well, it appears that Brunson got the tournament bug again, as he entered the Main Event. As we approach the money bubble, Brunson is one of the bigger stacks with 626,000. The 79-year-old legend is likely to cash in the Main Event for the first time since 2004, where he finished 53rd for $45,000.
Four members of last year’s Octo-Nine are still alive, including the defending champion Greg Merson. Merson, who comes into today with an above average stack of 390,500, was down for much of the day yesterday before he found a huge double up while on the main stage. The other three who are looking for back-to-back Main Event final tables are fourth-place finisher Russell Thomas (562,000), eighth-place finisher Steve Gee (292,000), and ninth-place finisher Robert Salaburu (218,000).
Some of the many other notables who are still in the hunt for the November Nine are Chris Johnson, Kyle Julius, Tuan Le, Annette Obrestad, Melanie Weisner, Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, Greg Mueller, Marvin Rettenmaier, Michael "The Grinder" Mizrachi, Jake Cody, Ronnie Bardah, Vivek Rajkumar and Carlos Mortensen, amongst tons of others.
Bardah, along with Christian Harder, will be looking for their fourth consecutive Main Event cash. If both hit the money, they will tie the record that Chris Bjorin currently holds.
The doors of the Amazon room will be opening shortly, as play is scheduled to get underway at noon local time. We will be playing five two-hour levels today, and the money bubble will be arriving soon. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews.com for all of your live updates all day. Until we get started, check out Sarah Grant’s recap from yesterday’s action-filled night.