All the chips went in the middle preflop between Heitor Saraiva, and David Richards who was at risk for his last 36,000.
David Richards: J♠J♣
Heitor Saraiva: A♠K♥
The flop first showed 7♦5♣A♦ to give the top pair to Saraiva, but a J♥ showed up on the turn to save Richards with a set of jacks and the double up after the 7♣ completed the board.
Robert Bickley opened to 5,500 and called the all in raise from Christopher Brand who had a remaining stack around 35,000.
Brand had the dominating hand with A♣Q♣, versus K♠Q♠ for Bickley, but the latter found a board J♣9♠J♠5♠6♠ to get the flush and bust Brand right after the day began.
Welcome to Day 3 of Event #76: $10,000 WSOP Main Event World Championship here at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. Yesterday was the end of late registration and when all was said and done, it turned out that this year’s Main Event drew a record-setting 10,043 players – shattering the old record of 8,773 set way back in 2006. Today, the remaining 3,538 players from Days 2abc and 2d will combine into a single field.
Leading the pack is Maurice Hawkins, who took the overall chip lead after bagging 941,000 last night. Not far behind him is Nicholas Rigby, who was responsible for busting Phil Hellmuth on stream yesterday en route to ending Day 2d with 921,500.
Hawkins has yet to win a bracelet, but he is the current World Series of Poker (WSOP) Circuit ring leader after winning his 15th earlier this year at Harrah's Cherokee. Hawkins only has three modest cashes from this year's WSOP, but he is now in prime position to make a deep run in the Main Event and add to his $4.7 million in career tournament winnings.
Start of Day 3 Top Ten Chip Counts
Rank
Player
Country
Chip Count
Big Blinds
1
Maurice Hawkins
United States
941,000
376
2
Nicholas Rigby
United States
921,500
369
3
Christopher Brammer
United Kingdom
879,000
351
4
Jeffrey Shapiro
United States
878,000
351
5
Julio Belluscio
Argentina
825,500
330
6
Beqir Salihu
United States
801,000
320
7
John Sofillas
United States
780,000
312
8
Nick Marchington
United Kingdom
716,000
286
9
Heitor Saraiva
United States
665,500
266
10
Jacob Mitich
United States
660,000
264
Some other notables still in the hunt with big stacks include Patrik Antonius (584,500), Shota Nakanishi (500,500), Kathy Liebert (477,00), Stephen Chidwick (472,500), Chris Brewer (467,000), Chance Kornuth (449,500), and Tom Dwan (426,500).
The remaining players will all be looking to take a piece of the staggering $93,399,900 prize pool. A total of 1,507 players will take home at least $15,000 for their efforts and the eventual winner will receive $12,100,000 in addition to the coveted Main Event bracelet.
Play is set to begin at 12 p.m. and continue for five two-hour levels. Day 3 will begin on Level 11, which features 1,000/2,500 blinds with an 2,500 big blind ante. As with previous days, players will get a 20-minute break after each level and a 75-minute dinner break will be held after Level 13 (~6:40 p.m.).
Be sure to stick with PokerNews as we continue to bring you all the action from this historic, record-setting World Series of Poker Main Event!