WSOP Day 40 Recap: Main Event Day 3 Bubble Drama, Six Former Champions Survive!

A thrilling Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Main Event saw the bubble burst, former champions and money list leaders make the money and other stars of the felt crash and burn. With over 3,000 players reduced to just 1,299 hopefuls still in the fight for the $10 million top prize, there were four other bracelet events in action too, with one bracelet finding a new home.

 

Main Event Day 3 Sees Mermelstein Make His Mark

 

A huge day of action in the WSOP Main Event saw Day 3 of the infamous tournament reach the final 1,299 players, with the money bubble bursting just before the close of play in the Bally’s ballroom. Of the total field of 8,663 player, just over a thousand now remain, with five former WSOP Main Event winners in their ranks.

 

With a $80 million prize pool and $10 million top prize now confirmed, it was Aaron Mermelstein who led the way at the close of play, having piled up a monster stack of 2,059,000 chips. He is the only player above two million chips, but close rivals Nick Howard (1,850,000) and Gabi Livshitz (1,835,000) will not be daunted by chasing his total on Day 4.

 

Just outside the top 10, Martin Zamani bagged up a brilliant total of 1,483,000, as he made the next day’s seat draw along with Bryn Kenney (230,000) and Ali Imsirovic (960,000), with some potential fireworks on Day 4 sure to amaze and delight some poker fans. Other big names with very big stacks include Michael Moncek (1,244,000), Ryan Torgersen (1,134,000) and Mitchell Halverson (1,044,000), with British powerhouses Chris Dasilva (906,000) and Toby Lewis (790,000) comfortably inside the top 100. Craig McCorkell is not out of contention at all with his stack of 368,000.

 

Six former champions made the money and survive with a stack into the next day’s play, with 2021 winner and reigning champion Koray Aldemir chief amongst them with 537,000. Behind him, 2003 winner and Poker Boomer Chris Moneymaker (470,000), the 2020 ‘Hybrid’ winner Damian Salas (396,000), 2018 winner John Cynn (310,000), 2013 champion Ryan Riess (243,000) and 2012 Main Event title holder Greg Merson (168,000) are all very much in with a chance of repeating their success.

 

Others were not so successful and fell just short in their bid to make the money, with players such as Nick Maimone, Ken Aldridge, Sergio Aido, Ryan Feldman, Gregg Merkow, Daniel Smiljkovic, Scotty Nguyen, Tamon Nakamura, Kevin Gerhart, Katie Swift, Ben Spragg all failing to make the money.

 

WSOP 2022 Event #70 $10,000 Main Event Top 10 Chipcounts:
Position	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Aaron Mermelstein	U.S.A.	2,059,000
2nd	Nick Howard	U.S.A.	1,850,000
3rd	Gabi Livshitz	Israel	1,835,000
4th	Moshe Refaelowitz	Israel	1,700,000
5th	Brandon Lulov	U.S.A.	1,679,000
6th	Jake Abdalla	U.S.A.	1,615,000
7th	Thi Xoa Nguyen	France	1,600,000
8th	Ian Armstrong	United Kingdom	1,600,000
9th	Jordyn Miller	U.S.A.	1,590,000
10th	Michael Rocco	U.S.A.	1,540,000

 

One Drop Day 1c Ends with Parodi on Top

 

A total of 488 players survived the final Day 1 flight of Event #71, as the $1,111-entry One More for One Drop event stopped play with Argentine player Mauricio Parodi in charge of the vent with the overall lead. With a total of 2,713 entries, Parodi’s stack ended the day a long way ahead of Rami Owera (356,500) and Charles Thomas (347,500) as players such as William Kassouf (221,000), David ‘ODB’ Baker (156,000) Pat Lyons (69,500), Jason Wheeler (58,500) all made the counts too.

 

Players such as Martin Kabrhel and Vanessa Kade busted on the last Day 1 flight of the event, with registration still open for a dozen levels in Day 2. That will leave the prize pool even bigger and the top prize just the same. It’s sure to be a huge day when all three Day 1 flights convene on Day 2 to play down to a winner.

 

WSOP 2022 Event #71 $1,111 One More for One Drop
Position	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Mauricio Parodi	Argentina	521,000
2nd	Rami Owera	U.S.A.	356,500
3rd	Charles Thomas	U.S.A.	347,500
4th	Catherine Valdes	U.S.A.	341,000
5th	Roman Ilin	Romania	334,000
6th	Ernest Smith	U.S.A.	298,500
7th	Jae Wook Shin	South Korea	285,000
8th	Gurpreet Lubara	Canada	279,000
9th	Lee Kyung Min	South Korea	273,500
10th	Ronan Nally	Ireland	261,000

 

Bradley Anderson Wins Mixed Omaha Event

 

Bradley Anderson won Event #72, where both chip leaders at the start of the final day’s play saw Mark Erickson and Barny Boatman finished inside the top six but missed out on gold. With 23 players starting play, many eyes were on Adam Friedman to see whether the mixed game specialist could battle back into contention for the top prize. He very much could, reaching the final table, but unfortunately for him, he would lose out in ninth place for a consolation prize of $16,740 rather than challenging the podium places.

 

By the time the top four places had been reached, we’d already lost the overnight chip leader, with Mark Erickson busting in sixth place for $30,026 to Scott Abrams. Once play was down to four, Peter Neff looked strong, but he slid all the way down the leaderboard to miss out on the podium.

 

British two-time bracelet winner Barny Boatman was going for number three, but he couldn’t make it, finishing in that position instead despite some masterful play across the final two days in particular. Abrams made the heads-up, but he had a mountain to climb in order to overcome Anderson, who began the heads-up match with a 5:1 lead. That levelled up a little, but eventually Anderson put himself into a similarly dominating position and closed it out for his first WSOP title.  

 

WSOP 2022 Event #72 $1,500 Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo Final Table Results:
Place	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Bradley Anderson	U.S.A.	$195,565
2nd	Scott Abrams	U.S.A.	$120,881
3rd	Barny Boatman	United Kingdom	$83,050
4th	Peter Neff	U.S.A.	$58,089
5th	Men Nguyen	U.S.A.	$41,377
6th	Mark Erickson	U.S.A.	$30,026
7th	Jarod Minghini	U.S.A.	$22,205
8th	Shawn Carter	U.S.A.	$16,740
9th	Adam Friedman	U.S.A.	$16,740

 

Final Nine in Razz Event Led by Strelitz

 

The last nine players left in Event #73, the $1,500-entry Razz event, saw Daniel Strelitz lead them into the final day, with seven Americans, and two South Americans making up the remaining table of players all looking to bag over $115k and most importantly a WSOP gold bracelet. Strelitz (1), Frank Kassela (3), Calvin Anderson (2) and Andres Korn (1) all have previous bracelet wins, but behind Strelitz’s monster stack of 2,215,000 chips, it is a potential first-timer in Kijoon Park (1,740,000) who will be desperate to leapfrog the leader on the final day.

 

Elsewhere in the final nine, Players such as Timothy Dalessandro (215,000) and Phuong Tran (180,000) look like they need a miracle to challenge at all, and on a day where Strelitz’s stack and the generally action-packed play of the day put paid to the bracelet hopes of players like Scott Clements, KT Park, John Cernuto, Marcel Vonk and Joseph Couden, there will be everything on the line in tomorrow’s final.

 

WSOP 2022 Event #73 $1,500 Razz Final Table Chipcounts:
Position	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Daniel Strelitz	U.S.A.	2,215,000
2nd	Kijoon Park	U.S.A.	1,740,000
3rd	Frank Kassela	U.S.A.	1,630,000
4th	Calvin Anderson	U.S.A.	1,360,000
5th	Sergio Braga	Brazil	1,150,000
6th	Andres Korn	Argentina	575,000
7th	Mark Gerencher	U.S.A.	510,000
8th	Timothy Dalessandro	U.S.A.	215,000
9th	Phuong Tran	U.S.A.	180,000

 

Bounty PLO Event Sees Kamel Over the Hump

 

The final event of the day to close saw British semi-pro Tamer Kamel bag up the chip lead in the $1,500-entry Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo event. He grabbed 1,064,000 chips on the day, a chunk ahead of Canadian player Amir Amini in second place with 930,000. From there, a longer gap to the field exits, but Amini’s fellow Canadian Alex Livingston will be a huge threat from fourth place on the leaderboard with 615,000 chips.

 

Elsewhere in the top 10, another Biritsh player will be a big threat, as Patrick Leonard bagged 380,000 chips. While they are a lot shorter and nowhere near the top 10, poker legends Daniel Negreanu (60,000), Phil Hellmuth (54,000) and Josh Arieh (45,000) will all be hoping to use their vast experience to negotiate their way back into contention on Day 2.

 

WSOP 2022 Event #74 $1,500 Mixed Omaha Hi-Lo Top 10 Chipcounts:
Position	Player	Country	Chips
1st	Tamer Kamel	United Kingdom	1,064,000
2nd	Amir Amini	Canada	930,000
3rd	Michael Thomas	U.S.A.	760,000
4th	Alex Livingston	Canada	615,000
5th	Anderson Ireland	U.S.A.	570,000
6th	Ryan Scully	U.S.A.	495,000
7th	Evan Avery	U.S.A.	485,000
8th	Johann Ibanez Diaz	Colombia	400,000
9th	Patrick Leonard	United Kingdom	380,000
10th	Bradd Fisher	U.S.A.	360,000

 

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