WPT -- Bellagio Festa Al Lago Main Event Day 3

A slow grind.

That is perhaps the best way to describe the play during day 3 of the WPT Bellagio Festa Al Lago main event. After two days of play saw 177 exit, 98 returned for the snail’s pace crawl to the money, which had been relegated to the final 27.

With a $23,855 bubble in front of them, play moved cautiously as the fat (short stacks) was trimmed, and a few notables jumped out to a big lead.

Jason Somerville came into the day with the chip lead and started off on the right foot getting his stack as high as 900,000 before a rough last level saw him finish the day in sixth place, with 669,000.

There was no shortage of players looking to pick up the slack, however, and both Corwin Cole and Jonas Entin battled for the lead before ultimately settling for the top two spots overnight.

Husband and wife team Prahlad Friedman (pictured above right) and Dee Luong (pictured left) were hoping to both make a run at the money together, but Luong managed much more than that, busting Adam Geyer in a big race situation to put her among the chip leaders. She finished in fourth place with 771,500, but her hubby and Legends of Poker champion Friedman is still going strong with 188,000 of his own.

He and others will have a lot of ground to make up, however, with the average stack at 445,945. Play ended after five levels with 37 remaining, putting the players just 10 spots from the ever-important payday.

Interestingly, three players who bought in on day 2 are still in the running for the title. They include Freddy Deeb, Chris Ferguson, and Andy Bloch.

The action continues on Saturday at noon as the field passes the money bubble and settles with the final table of 10.

Here’s a look at the chip counts:

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