Day 3 of the WPT World Championship

It was payday today at Bellagio, at least for the final 100 players. Day 3 began when the remaining 188 players descended upon the Fontana Lounge, and they were able to fit in the room at ninehanded tables for the first time all tournament. The close proximity of the tables may have been uncomfortable for some, but as many found out, there would be room soon enough.

The big story of the day was tournament director Jack McClelland and his change of the rule “show one, show both.” The rule to prevent against needling has been a hot topic in the poker world, and none have been more vocal in protest than Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu stood with McClelland at the top of the stage as a vote was announced to determine the rule’s future. The end result was an overwhelming vote to discontinue the rule, and just like that, McClelland changed his policy. There were a few that were upset by the rule change, including Kenny Tran, who didn’t understand why the masses would be against such a rule. After a brief applause, the tournament began.

Despite the large stacks in play, and despite the slow-moving blind structure, players busted out at a rate seldom seen in this level of competition. By the end of the day’s third level, it was already down to the money bubble.

There were numerous short stacks in play, so the bubble was expected to burst relatively quickly. But nobody expected it to burst so quickly, as Jordan Rich took a bad beat, much to the delight of 100 other players. Rich got it all in with pocket aces against the pocket eights of Amir Vahedi, but an eight on the flop sent Rich home empty handed.

Once a payday was secured, the players wasted no time getting their chips into the middle. In the span of just two levels, more than 40 players were sent home with $39,570, the most notable of which was Negreanu.

After a flop of 10 9 4, Brian Rast bet 65,000 from the big blind. Negreanu moved all in for 189,000. Then Dino French moved all in for 195,000, and Saifuddin Ahmad moved all in behind him for 290,000. Rast had everyone covered and called with 87 for an open-end straight draw. Negreanu had pocket jacks, French showed a set of tens, and Ahmad had top two pair. The turn was the Q, giving Negreanu his own straight draw, and the river was the J, giving him a set too little, too late. Despite the large pot, Rast ended the night with only 114,000.

Other notable eliminations included Joe Cassidy, Quinn Do, Anna Wroblewski, Padraig Parkinson, Burt Boutin, Eugene Todd, Kristy Gazes, and Mark Seif.

Jayde Tran, wife of Kenny Tran, took a nasty beat in the last level when her pocket aces were beat by David Chiu’s A-3. Chiu hit a runner-runner straight to make a wheel to cripple Jayde down to just 27,000 in chips. But Jayde would not be denied, as she more the doubled up several times to end the day with 179,000.

Cory Carroll made a surge up the leader board late in the day when he took out two players with pocket queens. Mikael Thuritz and Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond were both holding A-K, and a queen on the flop put Carroll well over 1-million mark. Carroll finished the day with 1,900,000.

Out of nowhere, just a few hands before the day concluded, Gus Hansen surged up the leader board when he made a monster call against Tim Phan with A-K on a A-4-3 flop. Phan showed A-Q, and the turn and river came 8-J. Phan ended the day crippled, and Hansen took in the more than 2.4 million pot.

The remaining 55 players will return tomorrow at noon PT to play down to the final 27.

Here are the top 10 chip counts: