In addition to Day 3 of the $10,000 buy-in Main Event, the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) offered its last starting flight for a gold bracelet event on Thursday.
The Main, which began with 7,221 players, played down to the money, which guaranteed the survivors a $15,000 payday. Meanwhile, the Little One for One Drop raised nearly half a million for charity.
PokerStars Champ Bubbles WSOP Main Event
Day 3 of the 2017 WSOP Main Event saw 2,572 players return to action, and after 14 hours of play, the field was whittled down to 1,084 players, which was the exact money bubble.
Pennsylvania’s Patrick Lavecchia finished the day as the chip leader with 1.552 million, though a total of 34 players finished with seven-figure stacks, including last year’s November Niner Kenny Hallaert (1,258,000), Triple Crown winner Davidi Kitai (1,116,000), and 2011 WSOP Player of the Year Ben Lamb (1,016,000).
Not far behind were 888poker Ambassador Sofia Lövgren (996,000), recent WSOP.com bracelet winner Thomas Cannuli (990,000), 2017 SCOOP winner Charlie Carrel (964,000), and three-time MSPT champ Carl Carodenuto (885,000).
The night ended with players making the money, which meant one of them had to leave empty-handed. That ended up being Quan Zhou, who earned an entry into the 2018 WSOP Main Event as his consolation prize for hitting the money bubble.
In that last hand, three-time bracelet winner Kitai raised to 14,000 under the gun and Zhou, who won the PokerStars Championship Macau Single-Day High Roller back in April, three-bet to 32,000. Action folded back to Kitai, who held the K♦K♠. He just called to see a 10♦J♣10♥ flop.
Both players checked, the 7♥ appeared on the turn, and Kitai bet 27,000. Zhou responded by raising to 70,000, Kitai called, and the K♥ completed the board on the river. Kitai, who made a full house, checked, and Zhou moved all in for 376,000. Kitai snap-called and Zhou, who was bluffing with the A♦9♦, was eliminated in 1,085th place.
Not everyone was fortunate enough to make the money. Among those to meet their (non-money) maker on Day 3 were Brian Rast, Mike Matusow, Shack Shine franchisee Matt Jarvis, Jason Mercier, and Doug Polk. Likewise, former champs Joe Hachem, Greg Raymer, Johnny Chan, and Tom McEvoy all hit the rail on Thursday.
Others who’ll be returning on Friday are Dominik Nitsche (829,000), David Peters (680,000), Tony Gregg (651,000), Super High Roller Bowl champ Christoph Vogelsang (620,000), David “The Dragon” Pham (435,000), Allen Cunningham (427,000), Liv Boeree (384,000), and Isaac Haxton (293,000).
Day 4 will resume at 11 am PT with one hour left in Level 16 (3,000/6,000/1,000). Everyone remaining is guaranteed a $15,000 minimum payday.
Top Ten Day 3 Chip Counts
1 Patrick Lavecchia (Selllersville, PA) 1,552,000
2 Pawel Brzeski (Strzepcz, Portugal) 1,546,000
3 Antoine Saout (Paris, France) 1,529,000
4 Jeremiah Fitzpatrick (Charolotte, NC) 1,523,000
5 Derek Bowers (Alliance, OH) 1,376,000
6 Mickey Craft (Elizabeth, WV) 1,345,000
7 Edward Nassif (Ames, IA) 1,345,000
8 Scott Blumstein (Morristown, NJ) 1,340,000
9 Artan Dedusha (London, UK) 1,288,000
10 Greg Dyer (Minneapolis, MN) 1,276,000
Little One Raises Nearly $500K for Charity
The third and final starting flight in Event #74: $1,111 Little One for One Drop drew 2,484 entrants, which brought the total field up to 4,391, raised nearly $500K for charity, and created a $3,951,900 prize pool that will be distributed to the top 659 players. The eventual winner is slated to walk away with $528,316 and the last bracelet of the summer.
From the Day 1C flight, no one bagged more than Giuseppe Pantaleo with 335,800. His next closest competitor was Laurent Manderlier with 264,800, while no one else managed to crack the 200K mark. Others advancing from the flight were Pierre Neuville (166,000), Matt Stout (141,100), Matt Berkey (126,900), and Daniel Negreanu (56,500), who fired six bullets into the unlimited re-entry tournament.
Among those to fall were Ari Engel, Will Kassouf, Ryan Laplante, Bryn Kenney, and Johnny Lodden. On Friday, the surviving 784 players from all three flights will return at 2 pm PT to play ten more levels. The minimum payday is worth $1,500 while the winner will walk away with $528,316.
Top Ten Day 1C Chip Counts
1 Giuseppe Pantaleo (Bielefeld, DE) 335,800
2 Laurent Manderlier (Belgium) 264,800
3 Alex Foxen (Cold Spring Harbor, NY) 186,000
4 Christopher Chalkley (Waipahu, HI) 176,400
5 Jean Gaspard (Evanston, IL) 169,300
6 Pierre Neuivlle (Knokke-Heist, Belgium) 166,000
7 Matthew Green (Birmingham, AL) 165,000
8 Ryan Buckholtz (Studio City, CA) 163,900
9 Ryan Murphy (Mokena, IL) 159,700
10 Seungbeom Seo (Columbus, OH) 154,800
