The World Series of Poker organisers anticipated a large field for the third starting flight in this year’s $10,000 buy-in NLHE Main Event and they were not disappointed; 4,571 players, many of them respected names in the game, turned up for the last starting day, with the shuffle up and deal call made by the man who inspired online poker back in 2003 with a main event win, Chris Moneymaker.
Unfortunately Moneymaker will not be repeating his achievement this year; he was eliminated during the day’s intense action.
Delighted organisers reported that the total entry list for the Main Event was 8 percent up on last year at 7,874 overall and the biggest in twelve years for the event. It generated a massive $74,015,600 prize pool that will ensure a main prize of $8.8 million and cashes of at least $15,000 for the top 1,182 players.
Notable name spotters reported the presence and survival at the end of the day of formidable players like Loni Harwood, Chino Rheem, Joseph Cheong, Jessica Dawley, Cyndy Violette, Tex Barch, James Akenhead, Joe Cada, Jonathan Duhamel, Robert Varkonyi, Martin Jacobson, Phil Hellmuth, Davidi Kitai, James Obst, Phil Ivey, Robert Varkonyi, Sylvain Loosli, Dario Sammartno, Cliff Josephy, John Juanda, Matt Savage, Brandon Shack-Harris, John Hennigan, Andy Black, Liv Boeree, Chris Moorman, Todd Brunson, Humberto Brenes and Bertrand Grospellier.
The day ended with around 3,480 survivors who will join the 2,453 survivors of the first two starting flights when the fields combine Thursday, creating an impressive combined field of 5,930.
Topping the chip counts at the end of the third starter flight was French cash game player Samuel Touil (33) with 352,800 in chips, hotly pursued by US players Pete Forsstrom (283,200), Robert Covert (240,300).
The French pro’s chip stack is the biggest of all three starting flight leaders.
Big names who did not make it through the last starting day included: Daniel Negreanu, Marcel Luske, Christopher Vitch, Dutch Boyd, John Racener, Niall Farrell, Vanessa Selbst, Mike Watson, and Daniel Colman.