Day 3 at the 2008 World Series of Poker main event brought about the albatross of the poker world -- the money bubble. When the clock read 10:30 p.m., 675 players went to hand-for-hand action in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em world championship, and just over an hour later, the ironically lucky number of 666 players remained. The roar that came from the depths of the field was deafening when the money bubble burst, for every player still in his seat was guaranteed to walk away with, at the very least, $21,230 in prize money.
The unfortunate bubble boy was Steve Chung, but it wasn’t all bad for him, as he was awarded a $10,000 buy-in for the 2009 main event by Milwaukee’s Best Light. The day had begun with 1,308 players, but the way the field melted down quickly to the money bubble, the 633 eliminations that took place on the way to hand-for-hand play seemed like the blink of an eye when compared with the nine that had to be forced out during the final march to the money. Here is a look at the notable players who fell on the way to the money bubble:
Scott Clements, Jennifer Harman, Erik Seidel, Phil Gordon, John D’Agostino, Alex Kravchenko, Toto Leonidas, Noah Boeken, Chris Moneymaker, Barny Boatman, Steve Zolotow, Jason Strasser, and Nenad Medic.
Not too surprisingly, the pace of play picked up after the bubble burst, and the payout out desk was inundated with players cashing out for $21,230. Some notables that went out in the money during the final stretch of play included:
651: Men “The Master” Nguyen
645: Pat Pezzin
635: Jason Gray
625: Vanessa Rousso
618: Brandon Adams
616: Bill Gazes
600: Thor Hansen
536: Farzad Rouhani
526: Bob Slezak
518: Chau Giang (pictured at right)
Many of the big names in poker still remained at the end of the day, and two of them happened to be (arguably) the biggest names in the game -- Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Other big professionals who could make an intriguing and entertaining run deep into the tournament include Mike Matusow, Jean-Robert Bellande, Allen Cunningham, Evelyn Ng, Jeff Madsen, Brandon Cantu, Hoyt Corkins, Adam Levy, Jon Friedberg, and Victor Ramdin.
Two players gathered the lion's share of the attention on day 3, although only one of them was a household name. Hellmuth obviously gathered attention with his antics and his claim as the most famous poker player on the planet, while Jeremiah Smith attracted attention with a chip stack that was so large that he needed a cocktail serving tray to move it when his table was broken after the money bubble burst.
Here are a few of the hands from each player featured today in CardPlayer.com'slive coverage of the event:
Smith's monster stack gets even bigger
Preflop, Ryan Daut raised to 6,300 from early position, and he was called by both Jeremiah Smith and the player in the big blind. The flop came J 9 5, and when it checked around to Smith, he bet 12,000. Daut called, and the turn was the J. Daut checked, and Smith quickly fired 20,000. Daut again called, and then checked after the 10 came on the river. Smith again bet quickly, this time for 25,000. Daut folded, and Smith took down the pot. After the hand, Smith was over 700,000.
Hellmuth moves all in, gets fold, 'so sick'