Welch Leads Going Into Day 3
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We began Day 2 with 178 players and a burst of the money bubble within the first level of play. When all was said and done, we were down to our final 12.
Our chip leader is Ryan Welch (1,524,000) who scored a massive double up in the last level of play. Welch has had some impressive online results as well as live scores, including a bracelet win in 2010.
Mark Dube came into the day as our chip leader and made a good run, but would bust in 35th place. Some notable players that made the money, but fell short of Day 3, included Scott Clements (70th), Joe Serock (52nd), Jude Ainsworth (46th), Phil Hellmuth (29th) and Nick Schulman (14th).
Hellmuth ran his pocket kings into the pocket aces of Will Failla late in the day and never really recovered. Hellmuth would bust a short time later.
Failla seemingly played steady and disciplined poker throughout the day to end under average, but with a workable stack of 421,000. Also steady and focused was Dan Smith who managed a big double late in Day 1 that allowed him to position himself for a deep run here on Day 2 and he is stacked at 887,000, which is good for second in chips.
We will be back at it tomorrow at 1 p.m. PT and the players will combine to one table after two eliminations and then one elimination later we will have our official final table of nine. We will play down to a winner and see someone walk away with 1st place prize money of $408,953 and a shiny WSOP bracelet. Please join us tomorrow for complete Day 3 action.