WSOP Day 40 Recap: Main Event Day 3 Bubble Drama, Six Former Champions Survive!

A thrilling Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Main Event saw the bubble burst, former champions and money list leaders make the money and other stars of the felt crash and burn. With over 3,000 players reduced to just 1,299 hopefuls still in the fight for the $10 million top prize, there were four other bracelet events in action too, with one bracelet finding a new home.

Main Event Day 3 Sees Mermelstein Make His Mark

A huge day of action in the WSOP Main Event saw Day 3 of the infamous tournament reach the final 1,299 players, with the money bubble bursting just before the close of play in the Bally’s ballroom. Of the total field of 8,663 player, just over a thousand now remain, with five former WSOP Main Event winners in their ranks.

With a $80 million prize pool and $10 million top prize now confirmed, it was Aaron Mermelstein who led the way at the close of play, having piled up a monster stack of 2,059,000 chips. He is the only player above two million chips, but close rivals Nick Howard (1,850,000) and Gabi Livshitz (1,835,000) will not be daunted by chasing his total on Day 4.

Just outside the top 10, Martin Zamani bagged up a brilliant total of 1,483,000, as he made the next day’s seat draw along with Bryn Kenney (230,000) and Ali Imsirovic (960,000), with some potential fireworks on Day 4 sure to amaze and delight some poker fans. Other big names with very big stacks include Michael Moncek (1,244,000), Ryan Torgersen (1,134,000) and Mitchell Halverson (1,044,000), with British powerhouses Chris Dasilva (906,000) and Toby Lewis (790,000) comfortably inside the top 100. Craig McCorkell is not out of contention at all with his stack of 368,000.

Six former champions made the money and survive with a stack into the next day’s play, with 2021 winner and reigning champion Koray Aldemir chief amongst them with 537,000. Behind him, 2003 winner and Poker Boomer Chris Moneymaker (470,000), the 2020 ‘Hybrid’ winner Damian Salas (396,000), 2018 winner John Cynn (310,000), 2013 champion Ryan Riess (243,000) and 2012 Main Event title holder Greg Merson (168,000) are all very much in with a chance of repeating their success.

Others were not so successful and fell just short in their bid to make the money, with players such as Nick Maimone, Ken Aldridge, Sergio Aido, Ryan Feldman, Gregg Merkow, Daniel Smiljkovic, Scotty Nguyen, Tamon Nakamura, Kevin Gerhart, Katie Swift, Ben Spragg all failing to make the money.

One Drop Day 1c Ends with Parodi on Top

A total of 488 players survived the final Day 1 flight of Event #71, as the $1,111-entry One More for One Drop event stopped play with Argentine player Mauricio Parodi in charge of the vent with the overall lead. With a total of 2,713 entries, Parodi’s stack ended the day a long way ahead of Rami Owera (356,500) and Charles Thomas (347,500) as players such as William Kassouf (221,000), David ‘ODB’ Baker (156,000) Pat Lyons (69,500), Jason Wheeler (58,500) all made the counts too.

Players such as Martin Kabrhel and Vanessa Kade busted on the last Day 1 flight of the event, with registration still open for a dozen levels in Day 2. That will leave the prize pool even bigger and the top prize just the same. It’s sure to be a huge day when all three Day 1 flights convene on Day 2 to play down to a winner.

Bradley Anderson Wins Mixed Omaha Event

Bradley Anderson won Event #72, where both chip leaders at the start of the final day’s play saw Mark Erickson and Barny Boatman finished inside the top six but missed out on gold. With 23 players starting play, many eyes were on Adam Friedman to see whether the mixed game specialist could battle back into contention for the top prize. He very much could, reaching the final table, but unfortunately for him, he would lose out in ninth place for a consolation prize of $16,740 rather than challenging the podium places.

By the time the top four places had been reached, we’d already lost the overnight chip leader, with Mark Erickson busting in sixth place for $30,026 to Scott Abrams. Once play was down to four, Peter Neff looked strong, but he slid all the way down the leaderboard to miss out on the podium.

British two-time bracelet winner Barny Boatman was going for number three, but he couldn’t make it, finishing in that position instead despite some masterful play across the final two days in particular. Abrams made the heads-up, but he had a mountain to climb in order to overcome Anderson, who began the heads-up match with a 5:1 lead. That levelled up a little, but eventually Anderson put himself into a similarly dominating position and closed it out for his first WSOP title.  

Final Nine in Razz Event Led by Strelitz

The last nine players left in Event #73, the $1,500-entry Razz event, saw Daniel Strelitz lead them into the final day, with seven Americans, and two South Americans making up the remaining table of players all looking to bag over $115k and most importantly a WSOP gold bracelet. Strelitz (1), Frank Kassela (3), Calvin Anderson (2) and Andres Korn (1) all have previous bracelet wins, but behind Strelitz’s monster stack of 2,215,000 chips, it is a potential first-timer in Kijoon Park (1,740,000) who will be desperate to leapfrog the leader on the final day.

Elsewhere in the final nine, Players such as Timothy Dalessandro (215,000) and Phuong Tran (180,000) look like they need a miracle to challenge at all, and on a day where Strelitz’s stack and the generally action-packed play of the day put paid to the bracelet hopes of players like Scott Clements, KT Park, John Cernuto, Marcel Vonk and Joseph Couden, there will be everything on the line in tomorrow’s final.

Bounty PLO Event Sees Kamel Over the Hump

The final event of the day to close saw British semi-pro Tamer Kamel bag up the chip lead in the $1,500-entry Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo event. He grabbed 1,064,000 chips on the day, a chunk ahead of Canadian player Amir Amini in second place with 930,000. From there, a longer gap to the field exits, but Amini’s fellow Canadian Alex Livingston will be a huge threat from fourth place on the leaderboard with 615,000 chips.

Elsewhere in the top 10, another Biritsh player will be a big threat, as Patrick Leonard bagged 380,000 chips. While they are a lot shorter and nowhere near the top 10, poker legends Daniel Negreanu (60,000), Phil Hellmuth (54,000) and Josh Arieh (45,000) will all be hoping to use their vast experience to negotiate their way back into contention on Day 2.

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