WSOP Main Event Day 3 Recap
There was excitement in the air when the 1,308 players returned on Day 3. They had survived through a field of 6,844 in the main event of the 2008 World Series of Poker and knew there was a good chance that the money bubble would burst on the third day of play. And it did.Try as they might, some of the shorter stacks coming into Day 3 could not hold on long enough to hit that money bubble. Many were forced to move early and couldn’t hit the cards necessary to keep them around. Some who fell into that category were notables like Patrik Antonius, Noah Boeken, Chris Moneymaker, Arnold Spee, Jennifer Harman, Darrell Dicken, and Scott Clements.
It was after three levels and the dinner break that the remaining players would have a chance at the money. The excitement in the air was palpable as the official clock showed that only 675 players were left. Knowing that only 666 were to be paid, the tournament staff coordinated a complicated but fairly smooth hand-for-hand process that would get them to the money bubble. Even though it took approximately an hour of the slow action to get to the bubble, it happened with the clock stopped.
Mickey Appleman was the 668th player eliminated, and eventually it was Steve Chung who was the official bubble boy. His pocket 8’s couldn’t hold up against the pocket Kings of Jesse McEuen, and Chung was soon mobbed by photographers, media, and tournament staff. As a good sport, he gave the staff his name and an announcement was made about his bubble status, which in turn earned him a free seat into the 2009 WSOP main event. And that process meant that the rest of the players were in the money, at which point a rousing cheer came from those tables.
During the hand-for-hand action, it should be noted that Jeremiah Smith, who had successfully chipped up steadily throughout the day, was the first player to surge so far ahead of his opponents that he hit the one million chip mark. At that point, the average stack was barely more than 200K, so Smith was en route to end the day on a very high note.
The end of the night came a bit late due to the hand-for-hand action in the fourth level, but when the end of the fifth level neared, a card was drawn by still-competing player Mike Matusow to determine how many hands would be played before ceasing for the day. It was eight, and as each table finished that number of hands, they left knowing that the minimum amount of money they would see on Day 4 would be $27,020, which is not a bad return on the $10,000 buy-in.
The final end of the day chip counts found that one other player surpassed Smith on the leader board, and others were definitely in the hunt. Recounting the top ten players at the end of Day 3:
Jeremy Joseph 1,458,000
Jeremiah Smith 1,079,500
Mark Ketteringham 950,000
Kyle Carlston 932,500
Dag Martin Mikkelson 931,000
Alan Jaffray 908,500
Owen Crowe 900,000
Alexander Kostritsyn 887,000
James McManus 875,000
Chris Barrile 873,500
Stay tuned for the Day 4 action as the field dwindles further and the “November Nine” final table players are ever closer to being discovered.
*One notable of PokerWorks sentiment is Iggy 177,500*
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