It was make or break at the WSOP Main Event with the 2,799 remaining players battling it out to reach the money round of 1,182 places. This of course provided plenty of tales throughout the day such as the controversial Phil Hellmuth, the fall of many notable players, and eventually the emergence of the chip leaders and the fall of Matthew Hopkins as the bubble boy. We’ve got those stories for you, a quick look at the numbers once again, and an update on the Asian players in contention.
WSOP Day 3 recap
The Main Event wrapped up Day 3 after USA’s Matthew Hopkins exited as the unfortunate bubble boy. Though Hopkins didn’t leave completely empty-handed, he did receive a free seat to next year’s Main Event as consolation courtesy of the WSOP.
On the opposite end was USA’s In Sun Geoum closing the day with the largest stack of 1,696,000.
Frank Flowers came in a very close second with 1,624,000, and rounding out the top three was Canada’s Alexander Wong with 1,431,000.
Among the notable players that survived the day were Julius Malazanini (1,292,000), Barbara Enright (1,260,000), Chris Moorman (969,000), Day 1C chip leader Samuel Touil (1,013,000), Phil Ivey (827,000), David Kitai (703,000), Jonathan Duhamel (450,000), Manig Loeser (384,000), and Eugene Katchalov (367,000).
Liv Boeree, Mustapha Kanit, Joe Cada, Jake Cody, Jesse Sylvia, and Shaun Deeb also made it through but with below average stacks.
Phil Hellmuth among the fallen
With more than half the field falling before the money, many notable players were part of that long list. One of the earliest to pack up was Jason Mercier. As the day progressed, JC Tran managed to double up but still couldn’t take it far. He was eventually railed and later joined by other pros such as Eli Elezra and Steffen Sontheimer.
Also getting the eject button was Phil Hellmuth. According to the reports, Hellmuth came in late after having created a major incident the day before, ranting out of his turn against another player in a multi-way pot. He did eventually apologize on Twitter that night for his swearing, but the next morning Hellmuth started his day late and quickly lost.
I apologize for swearing. It was a 3-way pot and I shouldn’t have lost it. It was the 15th time you moved all in on me, and my emotions got the better of me. But you were never winning that hand. You snap moved all in, and I was never folding 7-7 on draw heavy board of 10-4d-3d https://t.co/CgwL4ivoRb
— phil_hellmuth (@phil_hellmuth) July 7, 2018
Asians in contention
Moving on to the Asian contingent. As the field downsized, so did the number of Asians still in contention. Leading the compressed group was China’s Xi Yang ranked 61st in chips. Yang bagged up 880,000. Not too far from Yang was Philippine’s Mike Takayama ranked 67th with 862,000. This continues Takayama’s fantastic performance at the WSOP having won a bracelet over a week ago.
Among the other Asians in the running were Israel’s Naor Slobodskoy (811,000), China’s Yang Zhang (797,000), Philippine’s Marc Rivera (724,000), India’s Aditya Agarwal (653,000), Singapore’s Chris Chong (530,000), Hong Kong’s Park Yu Cheung (450,000), Japan’s Shigeho Yoshioka (421,000), Malaysia’s Natalie Teh (417,000). and Taiwan’s Ang Lin Lin Chen An (352,000). For Australia, Craig Blight leads with 697,000 followed by bracelet winner James Obst with 615,000.
Baoqiang Ho (242,000), Takashi Ogura (306,000), Nicandro Filart (113,000) plus several more players from Israel, China, India and Japan through Day 3 but with below the average stack of 333K.
A quick look at the numbers
The Main Event saw 7,874 players take to the felt at the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino making it the second-largest Main Event attendance in WSOP history. Now that the money has been reached, the three days of hard work guarantees the 1,182 remaining players a minimum US$15,000 cut out of the US$74,015,600 prize pool. While that’s a decent take, what everyone will be aiming for is the motherlode US$8,800,000 first prize and the coveted WSOP championship bracelet.
Somuchpoker will continue to update you on the progress of the Main Event and on the Asians in the running. So make sure to check back with us to stay abreast of the action.
Article by Tricia David
Louis Hartwell
Graduated in Media Communication at the University of Lausanne, Louis Hartman is a co-founder of somuchpoker.com. He began his career in Cambodia as freelance journalist. In same time he was making his living by playing poker every night at that time. Intense learner, he read dozens of poker strategy books to improve his skills during many years. With a strong interest about poker "behind the scene" in Asia and his communication skills, Louis launched Somuchpoker in 2014.
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