Baumann Leads as 1,738 Return for Day 3
Four days ago, the 2012 World Series of Poker $10,000 Main Event kicked off at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. After three stating days and subsequent Day 2s, the original field of 6,598 was reduced down to 1,738. For the first time, the entire field will play at the same time here on Day 3, each eager to make the top 666 and lock up a portion of the $62,021,200 prize pool, $8,527,982 of which is reserved for the eventual winner.
On Tuesday, Days 2a and 2b played out with a approximately combined 842 players advancing to Day 3. Among the notables returning to action from that field are overall chip leader Gaelle Baumann, Vanessa Selbst, Jason Somerville, Eugene Katchalov, Gavin Smith, Daniel Negreanu, Eric Baldwin, Brian Hastings, Sammy Farha, Peter Eastgate, Liv Boeree and Kevin Pollak, just to name a few. In addition, former champs Dan Harrington (1995), Robert Varkonyi (2002), Jerry Yang (2007) and Peter Eastgate (2008) will all be returning, as will the defending champ, Pius Heinz albeit on a short stack of 36,300.
Likewise Day 2c saw approximatley 911 players advance to Day 3 including that flights chip leader, Michael Hack, who bagged up 457,000. He was joined by Antonio Esfandiari, Ben Lamb, Johnny Chan, Jake Cody, Joseph Cheong, Ronnie Bardah and Sam Holden.
Here’s a look at the top ten chip counts headed into Day 3:
Start of Day 3 Top 10 Chips Counts
| Place | Player | Counts |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Gaelle Baumann | 505,800 |
| 2nd | Mark Demirdjian | 499,900 |
| 3rd | Michael Hack | 457,000 |
| 4th | Shaun Deeb | 460,900 |
| 5th | Marco Bognanni | 452,100 |
| 6th | Gerardo Lubas | 449,500 |
| 7th | Jonathan Fountain | 435,400 |
| 8th | Randy Haddox | 407,300 |
| 9th | John Leathart | 404,900 |
| 10th | Erik Hellman | 397,900 |
Action is set to kick of at Noon PST, which is about 45 minutes from now, so join us then as we look to put another five levels in the books here at the 2012 WSOP.