2,572 players started Day 3 action at the World Series of Poker Main Event mid-morning Thursday local time in Las Vegas, and by late last night just 1,138 of them were still in the competition as it neared the money bubble.
Cashes of a minimum of $15,000 start at the 1,085th elimination, and the player who busts at that point gets a hard luck prize of a $10,000 seat in next year’s main event.
The competition was at Level 15 with blinds of 2500/5000 and ante at 500, and average stacks of just over 300,000 chips. Current chip leader Mickey Craft holds 1.47 million chips, but there are a slew of million-chip holders pursuing him, including the Brit chip leader at the start of the day, UK player Artan Dedusha (7th on 1.14 million).
Former main event champion Greg Raymer has joined the growing list of former main event winners who have been eliminated.
Day 3 is the first Main Event day in which all the survivors of the original 7,221 starting field are playing together.