The 2021 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event has concluded Day 3 by bursting the money bubble, sending all 1,000 survivors home with a guaranteed min-cash of $15,000. No portion of the $62,011,250 prize pool has been awarded yet in the pinnacle live poker event of the year at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, as all survivors bagged and tagged their chips for the night.
Jessica Cai claimed the Day 3 chip lead with a stack of 1,796,000 with Natural8 ambassador Phachara Wongwichit (1,773,000) hot on her heels. Several other contestants bagged up more than 1.5 million in chips such as Joshua Paige Remitio (1,671,000), Ehsan Amiri (1,574,000), Stephen Song (1,557,000), Neel Choksi (1,552,000), and Andreas Kniep (1,509,000).
The early spotlight on Day 3 belonged to the 2003 WSOP Main Event champion Chris Moneymaker, who was among the first players to run up a seven-figure stack. Moneymaker spent the last levels of the night on the feature table and advanced with one of the biggest stacks in the room as he bagged up 1,432,000. Among the victims of his early hot run was also Robert Kuhn, who ran into pocket aces. Fellow Main Event champions Qui Nguyen (659,000) and Martin Jacobson (142,000) survived the day as well.
Cai was spotted mid-way through the day with a big stack and she continued to rake in big pots to become a contender for the overnight lead. She knocked out several opponents, one of which ran with an overpair into her flopped full house, and she eventually claimed the top spot once the money bubble had burst. Dragana Lim chipped up throughout the day and bagged up a top ten stack as well after claiming 1,539,000 to her name. Other female contenders to advance with above average stacks were JJ Liu (765,000), Laura Desantis (686,000), Mimi Luu (682,000), and Kitty Kuo (528,000) while at least two dozen more will return for the money stages.
2021 WSOP Main Event Day 3 Top 10 Chip Counts
| Rank | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jessica Cai | United States | 1,796,000 | 225 |
| 2 | Phachara Wongwichit | Thailand | 1,773,000 | 222 |
| 3 | Joshua Paige Remitio | United States | 1,671,000 | 209 |
| 4 | Ehsan Amiri | Australia | 1,574,000 | 197 |
| 5 | Roman Valerstein | United States | 1,560,000 | 195 |
| 6 | Neel Choksi | United States | 1,552,000 | 194 |
| 7 | Stephen Song | United States | 1,551,000 | 194 |
| 8 | Dragana Lim | United States | 1,539,000 | 192 |
| 9 | Jordan Jayne | United States | 1,525,000 | 191 |
| 10 | Andreas Kniep | Germany | 1,509,000 | 189 |
Notables with big stacks outside of the top 10 include Chris Dowling, Gianluca Speranza, Day 2abd chip leader Rameez Shahid, Stephen Chidwick, Dillon Ott, Toby Lewis, Aristeidis Moschonas, Nick Petrangelo, Chance Kornuth and Tim Reilly.
Less fortunate were familiar names such as Anthony Zinno, Justin Bonomo, Ben Lamb, Ole Schemion, Greg Mueller, Faraz Jaka, Andy Black, Niall Farrell, the 2007 WSOP Main Event champion Jerry Yang, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Pat Lyons, Joseph Hebert, and Chris Hunichen to name all but a few.
During hand-for-hand play which commenced with 1,005 hopefuls remaining, eight hands were completed to whittle down the field to the 1,000 survivors. The bubble burst in painful fashion when Kevin Campbell saw his aces cracked by the ace-nine of Chris Alafogiannis, triggering cheers from all corners of the Amazon room. While Campbell missed out on the $15,000 payday, he was given a seat for the 2022 WSOP Main Event as consolation prize.
Day 4 Seat Draws
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All players that bagged and tagged their chips will return at noon local time and play one hour and 50 minutes of level 16 along with another four levels of two hours each. The blinds will resume at 4,000 / 8,000 with a big blind ante of 8,000 and the field will be reduced significantly en route to determine the new World Champion in the days to come. Stay tuned for more exclusive updates from the live poker event of the year as the PokerNews live reporting team will be on the floor from start to finish.
and the nine sent a wave of electricity through the large crowd that had gathered around the table. 
and another wave of energy went through the crowd as Alafogiannis picked up a flush draw. 
and a large roar ripped through the crowd for the three nines of Alafogiannis. Campbell's aces were cracked and he was eliminated on the stone bubble.
didn't help him much, but the 
on the turn gave him straight and flush outs. Unfortunately for him, the river bricked out with the 
and Flaherty was eliminated one spot away from the money.
for Jaffee to add some extra outs as he could counterfeit the two pair of Cowen but the river completed the board with the 
. Song led out with a bet of 41,000 and his opponent called to see the 
with around 15,000 in the middle. 
on the river put a straight on the board and Chidwick took a minute before putting out a bet worth 200,000 with only about 75,000 in the pot. His opponent smiled and laughed as if to tell Chidwick "good bet" and let his hand go.
on the board, Mike Matusow checked from early position and Denys Prydvor bet 16,000. Matusow called and the river was 
.
as he tossed the losing hand into the muck. 
as a formality as Lamb made his way out of the tournament area.
, Ugur Ozgur Secilmis with 
and Chang Liu with 
.
on the river.
with around 80,000 in the middle. 