Day 3 - Like Lambs to the Slaughter
It's lights, camera and action here in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino this morning and the PokerNews Live Reporting Team are front and center once again! It's the Main Event. It's Day 3. It's moving day. This is where dreams are either made or broken. This ... is war!
Out of the 6,865 players that began their journey, only 1,864 are returning today, led by the only two players in the field to have already reached the half-million chip mark. Second in chips overall is American pro Kevin Saul with 542,200 in chips. Saul already has two WSOP cashes this year (adding to his previous five cashes in this series), plus a WPT title. Known for his hyper-aggressive style of play, Saul will be looking to cut through anyone in his path over the next eight hours.
Not if Ben Lamb has anything to say about it. Lamb, of course, has been one of the biggest stories of this year's WSOP - he's now second in the Player of the Year race, has already picked up one bracelet in the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship earlier, plus a runner-up finish in the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha event, as well as final-tabling the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship with a total of four cashes. Lamb also the chip leader heading into today's Day 3 with 551,600.
Keep your eyes peeled though, because there are are lot of big names still remaining in this field - Patrik Antonius, Shaun Deeb, Tony Hachem, Darren Woods, David Oppenheim, Garry Gates, Daniel Negreanu, Joe Cada, Humberto Brenes, Tom McEvoy, JP Kelly, Dennis Phillips and Vanessa Rousso ... just to name a few.
We also can't forget 11-time WSOP bracelet winner and current POTY leader Phil Hellmuth, who will be fighting tooth-and-nail to make it through to Day 4 after having his stack almost blinded away after a big misread of his schedule.
There's all that, and plenty more, coming up in 30 minutes' time when the cards are put in the air, so stay tuned with us right here at PokerNews for all the live updates! Let's do this!