Day 3 Done and Dusted: Coleman Leads; Brunson and Merson Going Strong; Ivey Eliminated
Day 3 of the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event is all over. Today marked a very important day for the event, as the survivors from all starting fields finally united together in one field of play. Another five levels were completed, and the remaining field sits oh so close to the money. With the top 648 places making the money, the bubble will burst within the first couple of hours tomorrow, making it a day you will not want to miss. There are 666 players remaining to end the night.
The man standing on top of the mountain at the end of the day proved to be Maxx Coleman from Derby, Kansas. He bagged up 1,071,500 in chips. Coleman has several smaller cashes on his record, with his largest being for $11,130 coming from a Mid-States Poker Tour event in 2012. He has one WSOP cash, and it came this year when he placed 98th in Event #3: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $3,388.
While Coleman may have the chip lead moving forward, today was all about the continued success of two former champions of this event, one old and one new, and one who did it twice. The first was 10-time WSOP gold bracelet winner and two-time WSOP Main Event champion Doyle Brunson. The second was the defending champion Greg Merson. The story of these two players will be focused on immensely for Day 4, where Brunson will begin with 626,000 in chips, and Merson will start with 390,500 in chips.
While Brunson and Merson thrived throughout the day, another poker juggernaut, Phil Ivey, had his hopes dashed in Level 14. Ivey had what many would call a very rough day on the felt. First, he flopped two pair against Phil Mader on the 
flop with the 
. The money went in on the flop, and Mader held 
. Unfortunately for Ivey, the turn was the 
and the river the 
, propelling Mader to the double up. That pot would've given Ivey around 475,000 in chips, but instead kicked him back to 185,000.
Then in his elimination hand, with the blinds at 1,500/3,000/500, Ivey ran a set of threes — 
— on the 
flop into Max Steinberg's set of tens — 
. Ivey failed to hit the miracle case three and his 2013 WSOP was over. On the way out, the usually stoic Ivey exited through the back of the ESPN stage with his hat in his hand, slapping it with authority as he made his way to the back hallways of the Rio.
In the realm of the other gender, both Annette Obrestad, champion of the 2007 WSOP Europe Main Event, and Melanie Weisner both had a very successful day on the felt. They climbed the ranks throughout the day en route to finishing on 564,000 for Obrestad and 536,000 for Weisner.
Other players advancing with hefty stacks include Guilherme Garcia, Donald Swartz, Kyle Julius, Somar Al-Darwich, Guillaume Rivet, Vladimir Geshkenbein, Jaime Kaplan, Jon Turner, Jamie Armstrong, Kevin Williams, Umang Dattani, Luke Schwartz, Joshua Prager, Chris Johnson and Matthew Huey.
Two more players are chasing a record-tying in-the-money finish, and those are Christian Harder and Ronnie Bardah. The record each is looking to tie is the one for most consecutive cashes in the WSOP Main Event. Currently, Chris Bjorin holds the record with four straight cashes from 2008-2011. Harder and Bardah have done it each of the past three years, and they less than a couple dozen players from hitting the money again. Harder will enter Day 4 with 345,500, and Bardah will come in with 321,500.
Day 4 will come back once again at 12 p.m. Las Vegas time, just like the previous bunch of days. Another five levels are on the slate, but more importantly, it's the bubble day and you don't want to miss it. Be sure to stay tuned right here to PokerNews for all the live coverage from the 2013 WSOP Main Event.