All 480 players who walked into the Encore Ballroom on Day 3 of the WPT World Championship at Wynn Las Vegas had something to be happy about: they’ve made the money.
The next significant stage of the uphill climb to the final table and the $5.6 million first-place prize is behind them and either they make it through the day or collect, at the very least, a min cash of $18,700. With five-plus levels of play slated for the day, it shouldn’t take too long for the payouts to escalate and players to start to really feel the pressure of playing for a major payday.
Not interested in settling for the minimum are the chip leaders at the start of the day. Italy’s Alessandro Siena is the only player with more than 3 million in chips with Mateus Carrion, David Levy, 2019 PSPC runner-up Julien Martini and 2020 WPT Player of the Year Jake Ferro round out the Top 5, all four with 2.6 million effective. Igor Kurganov, Chance Kornuth, Keith Lehr, and Hossein Ensan are a few of the notable names that return to Top 20 stacks.
Eliot Hudon’s championship defense is still alive as he leads 30 WPT Champions Club members (~ 6% of the field) into the money. That group includes Masato Yokosawa, who has been routinely vlogging his journey, as well as online poker savant Chris Moorman, Alex Foxen, Nick Petrangelo, Scott Seiver, Phil Laak, David Williams, Istvan Briski, and Joe Hachem who survived the say with a jaw-dropping fold right on the money bubble.
Lynn Gilmartin, Brad Owen, and WPT Chairman Lyle Berman return to representing the World Poker Tour and are just a couple of the high-profile players to come back to a bag. High rollers Kristen Foxen and Artur Martirosyan both have healthy stacks.
A quick look at the chip counts and you’ll find Wynn tournament phenom Jeremy Becker and content creators Caitlin Comeskey and Nate Hill return as well along with Anton Wigg, David Coleman, WSOP champ Joe Cada, Mustapha Kanit, Jay Farber, Brian Hastings, Jason Somerville, Steven Jones, Sean Winter, and Kevin Rabichow just to name a few.
There are also two players, Jay Lu and Bob Buckenmayer, who have made the final table of the WPT Prime Championship and still could have a major effect on the WPT Player of the Year race.
Follow along with all the action by visiting WPT Live Updates.