Forty Eight Return to Battle For the Bracelet
Yesterday, we saw 304 players whittle themselves down to our final 48. These remaining players will tentatively play down to a winner today depending on time (as there is a 3:00 AM hard stop rule in effect). Standing tall as chipleader going into Day 3 is Kyle Julius with 876,000 in chips.
Yesterday we saw many notable players attempt to make a deep run at this thing only to fall short, including Jeff Lisandro, Jennifer Harman, Andy Frankenberger, Peter Eastgate, Jonathan Duhamel, Pius Heinz and Phil Hellmuth - who met his end after his opponent spiked an ace on the river after getting all in on the turn.
Some were "luckier" than others, however. Those who survived the money bubble and cashed include Nam Le (103rd), Allen Kessler (99th), Neil Channing (97th), Matt Matros (79th), Matt Brady (75th), Brock Parker (74th), Will "The Thrill" Failla (67th), Ana Marquez (59th) and JP Kelly (50th).
Despite the vast number of pros eliminated, you can be sure that with a field this stacked - there are still plenty of notables chasing the gold bracelet at the end of the tunnel. Some include Joseph Cheong, Tommy Vedes, Galen Hall, Alexander Kravchenko, Ronald Lee, Randy Lew and Dan Smith - who has been on quite a hot streak this year. Smith has already won three big events, including the Aussie Millions $100,000 buy-in event back in January. He will be looking for his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet, however.
Here is the seating assignment heading into Day 3:
| Table | Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|---|
| 438 | 1 | Micah Raskin | 461,000 |
| 438 | 2 | Konstantin Puchkov | 162,000 |
| 438 | 3 | Ronald Lee | 189,000 |
| 438 | 4 | Tommy Vedes | 363,000 |
| 438 | 5 | — Empty -- | |
| 438 | 6 | Kyle Julius | 867,000 |
| 438 | 7 | Amir Lehavot | 209,000 |
| 438 | 8 | Andrew Weisner | 258,000 |
| 438 | 9 | Daniel Perper | 292,000 |
| 439 | 1 | Thiago Nishijima | 269,000 |
| 439 | 2 | Andres Garcia | 441,000 |
| 439 | 3 | Galen Hall | 305,000 |
| 439 | 4 | Derek Gregory | 536,000 |
| 439 | 5 | Andrea Dato | 745,000 |
| 439 | 6 | Stanislav Barshak | 690,000 |
| 439 | 7 | Jason Mann | 361,000 |
| 439 | 8 | — Empty — | |
| 439 | 9 | Randall Pfeifer | 294,000 |
| 440 | 1 | Brendon Rubie | 343,000 |
| 440 | 2 | Thomas McCormick | 180,000 |
| 440 | 3 | Dan Smith | 477,000 |
| 440 | 4 | Chamath Palihapitiya | 456,000 |
| 440 | 5 | — Empty — | |
| 440 | 6 | William Pierron | 144,000 |
| 440 | 7 | Alexander Kravchenko | 266,000 |
| 440 | 8 | Rodrigo Caprioli | 146,000 |
| 440 | 9 | Cary Katz | 263,000 |
| 441 | 1 | Randy Lew | 143,000 |
| 441 | 2 | Pratyush Buddiga | 244,000 |
| 441 | 3 | Robert Macdonald | 138,000 |
| 441 | 4 | Erik Aude | 688,000 |
| 441 | 5 | Jonas Wexler | 188,000 |
| 441 | 6 | — Empty — | |
| 441 | 7 | Anders Wessman | 270,000 |
| 441 | 8 | Andrew Lichtenberger | 258,000 |
| 441 | 9 | Fernando Brito | 82,000 |
| 443 | 1 | Jason Wheeler | 215,000 |
| 443 | 2 | Foster Hays | 124,000 |
| 443 | 3 | Thomas Conway | 422,000 |
| 443 | 4 | — Empty — | |
| 443 | 5 | Panayote Vilandos | 218,000 |
| 443 | 6 | Sam Chartier | 179,000 |
| 443 | 7 | Sami Nassar | 217,000 |
| 443 | 8 | Madison Bergeron | 231,000 |
| 443 | 9 | Joseph Cheong | 482,000 |
| 444 | 1 | Samuel Ngai | 448,000 |
| 444 | 2 | Bryan Leskowitz | 125,000 |
| 444 | 3 | Dominykas Karmazinas | 58,000 |
| 444 | 4 | — Empty — | |
| 444 | 5 | Kevin Schulz | 128,000 |
| 444 | 6 | Eric Cloutier | 136,000 |
| 444 | 7 | Jeremy Ausmus | 391,000 |
| 444 | 8 | Matt Giannetti | 361,000 |
| 444 | 9 | David Diaz | 568,000 |
There you have it - will Julius be able to use his chiplead to coast into a final table and claim victory? Will Dan Smith ride his impressive momentum thus far to his first gold bracelet? Or will one of the many other talented players stand tall as champion? Please stick with us here at PokerNews to find out!