Welcome to the Biggest Tournament in Europe: Day 3 of the WSOPE Main Event
Good afternoon and welcome to the Hotel Majestic Barriere for Day 3 of the €10,400 World Series of Poker Europe (WSOPE) main event championship. The most prestigious tournament to be held on European soil attracted 593 of the worlds greatest poker players. Over the past three days the players have been busy reducing that field size down to a more manageable chunk. Only 116 players remain and, although we have a long way to go, some prominent names are starting to make their poker shout and people are starting to prick up their ears.
As usual in a tournament as big as this, there was a lot of options available to the poker purist when it came to finding a table to watch. In the end there was simply no competition with table eight needing steel legs to prop it up because of the weight of all the chips. Four of the players who finished in the top ten chip counts were working hard at that table and they included Hoyt Corkins (429,900), Rifat Palevic (353,500), Jake Cody (323,200) and Tom Bedell (301,900). Just when we thought it was a lock that the chip leader would rise up from the heat of that particular table someone else emerged to lead the field. The very popular Constant Rijkenberg knows just what it is like to win a prize of over one million euros after taking down EPT San Remo in 2009 for €1,508,000. Rijkenberg looked cool as a cucumber, all day, and whilst table eight was spewing out heat, Rijkenberg didn't break a sweat, as he quietly went about his business growing his stack to 462,800.
Also in the top ten is the legend himself, the all-time money list leader, Erik Seidel (291,900) and potential player of the series (if there is such a thing) Shawn Buchanan (291,400). But it is still early days and there is plenty of time for the likes of Arnaud Mattern (237,300), James Dempsey (231,100) and Patrik Antonius (228,100) to make their presence known.
Action starts at 12.00 (CET) so make sure you stay right here with Pokernews for the greatest action in the poker world.