With a field of stars like Jennifer Harman, Phil Hellmuth, Patrik Antonius and Gus Hansen, Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Europe L10,000 Main Event was guaranteed to be exciting. And exciting it was, as the 84 remaining players converged on the Empire Casino in London to play down to the money bubble and continue their quest for the first ever WSOP Europe Main Event Title.
Former champs did not fare well on Day 3, with Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth and Jamie Gold all heading to the rail, ending any chance for one of them to lay claim to the title of first intercontinental Main Event champion. Hellmuth went out very early in the day, and Chan went out just before the money bubble, leaving Gold to be the only former Main Event champ to cash, as he finished in 35th place.
Patrik Antonius was in the catbird seat as the day began, sitting atop both the biggest chip stack and a monster feature table. With a made-for-tv feel to it, the feature table lineup looked like this-
Seat 1: Patrick Antonius - 28,3200
Seat 2: Erik Joergensen - 22,100
Seat 3: Magnus Persson - 165,600
Seat 4: Matthew Carter - 58,400
Seat 5: Daniel Negreanu - 31,700
Seat 6: Will Durkee - 92,600
Seat 7: Sam Norman - 29,600
Seat 8: Gus Hansen - 349,400
Seat 9: Sergey Feklisov - 115,500
As the money bubble neared and the stacks shrank in proportion to the blinds, a host of big-name players headed to the rail. Daniel Negreanu, Tony G, Jimmy ‘Gobboboy' Fricke and Jon ‘Pearljammer' Turner all headed to the rail on Day 3. Other notable eliminations included Jen Harman, Hoyt Corkins and Joe Beevers.
After a seemingly interminable bubble period (at least for the short stacks), Jeff Buffenbarger was the bubble boy, heading to the rail in 37th place when his A-9 couldn't top John Tabatabai's flopped pair of fours, and he headed to the rail. The 36 players remaining would all take home at least L27,150.
The standard flurry of post-bubble eliminations occurred, with Bob Willis being the first man to go home smiling. Aleksander Vathne insta-called Willis' shove with 
. Vathne's 
held up and Willis was first to grab his payout from the Main Event. Jamie Gold went to the rail next when Marco Traniello called his all in move with pocket Queens. Gold didn't catch a King to go with his 
, and the 2006 World Champion was eliminated in 35th place, good for L27,150. Before the night ended, Gold and Willis were joined by Ian Frazer and Martin Johnson, who both busted before the end of Day 3.
Aleksander Vathne captured the chip lead as Day 3 drew to a close, but he has plenty of company atop the leaderboard. Gus Hansen finished the day 4th in chips, and online superstar Annette ‘Annette_15' Obrestad was lurking among the top ten chip counts as well. Other notable players surviving the bubble and Day 3 included Erick Lindgren (on a very short stack), Kenny Tran, Patrik Antonius, William Durkee and Marco Traniello.
Here is what the chip stacks and seating assignments will look like when play begins on Day 4 -
Table 1
Steven van Zadelhoff 259500
Annie Duke 286500
Julius Colman 78000
Theo Jorgensen 457000
Oyvind Riisem 401500
Terry Cook 147000
Erick Lindgren 54500
Patrick Jouven 39500
Table 2
Dominic Kay 430500
Marco Traniello 101500
Will Durkee 264500
James Keys 247500
Kenny Tran 64500
Nicolas Levi 98000
John Tabatabai 335000
Marcello Marigliano 65000
Table 3
Tino Lechich 184500
Karl Mahrenholz 297000
Henrik Waltersson 159500
Aleksander Vathne 470500
Shaun Needham 39000
Jakob Paulsen 383500
Abishek Khaitan 178500
Annette Obrestad 311400
Table 4
Patrik Antonius 174,000
Janne Lamsa 120,000
Magnus Persson 238,500
Pat Scanlon 200,000
Andreas Bergren 215,000
Matthew McCullough 182,500
Gus Hansen 398,000
Johannes Korsar 346,000