Day 3 marked two big firsts for the 2006
World Series of Poker main event - all the participants played in the Amazon Room together at the same time and, more important, some folks walked away with a little cash.
The key word in the above sentence being some: With the money bubble set to burst at 874, the field of 1,159 needed to lose bodies before players could see any green.
Defending
WSOP champion Joe Hachem, still very much in the hunt, performed the "shuffle up and deal" duties at noon PDT. Action began in the 11th level with $600-$1,200 blinds and $200 antes.
Despite the looming money bubble, a number of players, both on big and short stacks, mixed it up early.
"I'm here to win the event,"
Full Tilt representative Barny Boatman said, "not win my money back."
Daniel Negreanu entered action with over $300,000 but lost two all-in pots to shorter stacks. First, James Johnson doubled up when his pocket queens held up against Negreanu's pocket nines.
On the second hand, Negreanu called an all-in raise by Jason Fields on a 10
8
4
flop. Negreanu called out Fields' exact hand, a set of fours, but called anyway with his 10
8
after admitting he was already priced in.
The losses dropped Negreanu's stack down to $195,000.
Theo Tran proved to be another player who saw a drastic decline in his chips. Like Negreanu, Tran lost a big pot in which he indentified his opponent's superior hand (A-K), yet called for strategic spot odds reasons.
While Negreanu rebounded, Tran failed to recover and exited the tournament soon after.
Two big-name pros followed Tran to the rails in early action. Josh Arieh bowed out of play after he moved all in preflop with pocket eights, only to have an opponent call him with pocket queens.
Half an hour later, Phil Ivey became the next notable to drop out of contention. Short stacked coming into play, Ivey pushed all in and found his Q
8
up against A
9
. The J
9
5
flop gave Ivey a number of draws, but he missed them all after the 8
turn and 9
river.
At 4:18 p.m. PDT, and with 890 players remaining, the action switched to round-for-round - a tactic used to counteract stalling and slow-playing right outside the money.
Ryan Beatty earned the dreaded "bubble boy" title after an opponent rivered broadway (K-Q off suit) to crack his A-K suited. Beatty, and the other top finishers on the bubble, will return tomorrow for a single-table freeroll, with first place taking home entrance into next year's main event.
An additional 11 players busted during round-for-round, but after the bubble burst. The group split the prize money for spots 873 - 866, which meant each player earned $10,616.
The 851st elimination went to Nam Le, a position that paid him the full $14,597 cash prize.
Le's elimination represented only one in a series as 140 players busted within 15 minutes of the bubble bursting.
Notables who finished outside the money included Kassem "Freddy" Deeb, Layne Flack, Chris Ferguson, David Grey, Richard Brodie, and Juan Carlos Mortensen.
With the field dropping below 700, a number of players made late pushes and moved up the leaderboard.
Aaron Bartley bumped his stack up to $235,000 after a series of bets on a A
J
9
6
5
board ended when he flipped over A
J
and dragged the pot.
An all-in preflop raise by Hoyt Corkins led to a double-up for him after his pocket queens held against an opponent's pocket jacks. The win put Corkins' stack over the $130,000 mark.
Using a
Rocky motif for inspiration, Negreanu launched one of the biggest comebacks of the day as he went from $20,000 to over $100,000 in less than 20 minutes.
Come back never entered the picture for Humberto Brenes. The Costa Rican pro controlled his table during every level, and ended action with over $400,000.
The last hour also saw the crowning of a new chip boss. Dmitri Nobles' lead appeared untouchable until the Texas online player tangled with Mitch Schock. After a $10,000 bet on the A
10
7
flop, and a $80,000 reraise call on the 9
turn, Nobles moved all in with the 5
river. Schock, after thinking for several minutes, called and Nobles mucked his hand when Schock showed the 9
9
.
Nobles' loss put him at $534,500. Minutes later, David Chui won a huge pot with queens full of aces and became the chip boss with a $590,000 stack.
At 1:10 a.m. PDT, the day ended and 481 players remained.
Notables who survived action included Joe Hachem, Allen Cunningham, Devin "TranquilChaos" Porter, Jeffrey Lisandro, Ted Forrest, Allyn Jaffrey Shulman, Mark Vos, Annie Duke and Surinder Sunar.
Some pros who failed to advance were Barny Boatman (854th - $14,597), Jeff Cabanillas (789th - $15,504), Stuart Paterson (731st - $16,493), Paul Wolfe (715th - $17,730), Darrell "Gigabet" Dicken (672nd - $17,730), Hieu Ngoc "Tony" Ma (589th - $20,617), John Gale (522nd - $22,266), and David "The Dragon" Pham (498th - $26,389).
Final Day 3 chip counts, and payouts, can be found via the "Featured Chip Count" link on the
CardPlayer.com home page.
The road to the final table continues at noon PDT when the remaining players return to the Amazon Room for Day 4.
Stay tuned to
CardPlayer.com for live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and for a new episode of "The Circuit."
For more information on bracelet winners and other
WSOP news stories, please visit
http://www.cardplayer.com/tournaments/wsop/2006s.
Quote of the Day: "Do you know how to say 'shark' in Spanish? Huuuummmbbbbeeeerrrrrttttoooo!" - Humberto Brenes to an
ESPN cameraman after eliminating an opponent.
