On Thursday the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event will see all of the starting fields combined for the very first time as the tournament heads into Day 3. A total of 1,753 players from the starting field of 6,598 runners have managed to make Day 3 of the WSOP Main Event, but the tournament is still a long way from the money bubble, which is set to burst at 666 players.
The field still has a number of notable names vying for the most prestigious title in poker (WSOP Main Event Champion) including poker superstars like Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Selbst, and recent Big One for One Drop winner Antonio Esfandiari. Other players will have to wait for the 2013 WSOP to make their Main Event dreams come true, as Doyle Brunson, Phil Hellmuth, and Phil Ivey have all been eliminated from the tournament.
The overall chip-leader heading into Day 3 is Frenchwoman Gaelle Baumann who accumulated a very impressive stack during her Day 1 and Day 2 flight, and heads into Day 3 as the only player above 500k chips. There are also a number of well-known poker pros towards the top of the chip-counts including online legends Shaun Deeb and Taylor Paur, as well as Team PokerStars Pro Vanessa Selbst and 2011 November Niner Sam Holden.
Here is a look at the Top 25 chip-counts heading into Day 3:
1. Gaelle Baumann – 505,800
2. Mark Demirdjian – 499,900
3. Shaun Deeb – 460,900
4. Michael Hack – 457,000
5. Marco Bognanni – 452,100
6. Jonathan Fountain – 435,400
7. Randy Haddox – 407,300
8. John Leathart – 404,900
9. Erik Hellman – 397,900
10. Kevin Davis – 394,800
11. Jan Kasten – 391,800
12. Taylor Paur – 391,600
13. David Kluchman – 383,000
14. Jim Burns – 381,600
15. Matthew Woodward – 381,000
16. Luke Brereton – 372,000
17. Jacob Schindler – 371,600
18. Thanh dat Tan- 369,300
19. Jeremy Allen — 364,200
20. Burt Boutin– 363,800
21. Jesse Sylvia — 355,100
22. Wayne Peterson — 352,700
23. Sam Holden — 352,600
24. Julio De La Rosa Santo – 350,700
25. Vanessa Selbst – 350,400
The total prize-pool for the 2012 WSOP Main Event reached $62,021,200 and will see the winner of the Main Event walk away with over $8.5 million. In all, seven players will cash for seven-figures in the 2012 Main Event, while a min-cash will pay $19,227 this year (so pencil Allen Kessler in for a 660th place finish for $19k!).
The WSOP Main Event will resume at Noon Vegas-time at the Rio, and five more levels are on the schedule Thursday. The money bubble ‘could’ burst on Thursday, but more likely players will have to wait until Day 4 on Friday to see if their efforts in the 2012 WSOP Main Event are going to rewarded.
