Foxwoods Poker Classic Day 3

The first two days of play at the World Poker Tour Foxwoods Poker Classic were devastating for the original field of 346 players, and at the start of day 3, only 75 players remained. The plan was to play five full levels of poker or until the field was sliced down to the final 18 players, whichever came first. The money bubble would burst when the 41st player was eliminated, and play was lethargic all the way to the bubble. Hand-for-hand play was reached shortly after 6 p.m. EDT, and it took a full 25 minutes for the bubble to burst. The unfortunate bubble girl was Svetlana Gromenkova.

Lost en route to the money bubble were most of the familiar faces in the field, including: John Juanda, Paul Spitzberg, Kathy Liebert, Will “The Thrill” Failla, Young Phan, Vincent Procopio, Erick Lindgren, Nam Le, Alan Goehring, Barry Greenstein, and Paul Matteo (who was the runner-up at last year’s event).

This left just a handful of professionals in the field once the tournament was in the money, but they faired well for the rest of the day. Paul Darden, Ted Forrest, and Joe Simmons spent the day working their way to the top of the leader board. Darden experienced the largest reversal of fortune; at one point he was almost all in for his tournament life. But he built his stack to 304,000 when he had his opponent covered by 20,000 and showed down a set of jacks over a set of tens. This hand kick-started a run for him that grew his stack to 469,000 around the time when many were folding their way to a cash.

Defending champion Raj Patel continued to play well, and he remained in the top five (670,000) as he continued his attempt to make back-to-back final tables here at Foxwoods. While all of these players did well, Paul Snead did them one better and took the chip lead heading into the money bubble with a stack of 740,000 — he also ended the day in the top five (595,000).

The most outrageous hand of the day took place at table 2 shortly after the money bubble:

After a flop of 7 4 2, Mike Santoro checked, Joe Tehan bet 20,000, Santoro raised to 55,000, and Tehan made the call. The turn brought the 10, Santoro moved all in, and Tehan called with 10 9 for a pair of tens, 9 kicker. Santoro showed down 10 8 for a pair of tens, 8 kicker. The river card was the A, and Tehan took down the pot with his 9 kicker. Everyone gathered in the crowd was shocked that Tehan flat-called Santoro's bet on the flop with nothing but 10 high, and several players commented that it was the sickest hand of the tournament. A few went so far as to claim it was the sickest hand they had ever seen. After the hand, Santoro shaked his head and said to Tehan, "Dude, you're out of your F-ing gourd! Seriously!" Despite his double up, Tehan got all of his chips in just a few hands later and busted to give Allen Bari one of the biggest stacks in the room, which Bari further built up to 814,500 for the chip lead by the end of the day.

After Gromenkova’s elimination, a little more than a level was left in the day and the field continued its march to the final table. Only seven players fell on day 3 after the bubble burst — and they included:

The remaining 33 players will return at noon EDT tomorrow and play down to either the final 18 or the final 10. Here is a look at the top of the leader board:

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