Day 3 of the Bellagio Five Diamond World Poker Classic began with the announcement that someone will be taking home $1,477,890 and etching their name on the Champion’s Cup come Saturday at the final table. With 586 total entries and a prize pool of $5,684,200, there is plenty of money up for grabs and plenty of huge names and a couple of Cinderella satellite stories in the hunt for a piece of the payday.
Of the 78 players who survived day 3, 54 will earn a payday of at least $22,737, with the winner taking home seven figures.
The current chip leader is well aware of what it takes to win a WPT title. Last season’s bestbet Jacksonville Fall Scramble winner, Jared Jaffee, is in pole position heading into Day 4 with a monstrous stack of 768,000. At a table stacked with some tough competition like Cliff Josephy, Ryan Julius, Isaac Baron, and Kevin Eyster, Jaffee collected pot after pot to climb to the top, then jumped wayout front when he won a crucial coin flip to bust Sean Winter.
Two other players who know what it takes to win this tournament, in particular, are back in action tomorrow too. Antonio Esfandiari, who won this event in Seaon IX and final tabled it an astonishing three times, survived the day, but is below average with 69,500. Season III Five Diamond Champ Daniel Negreanu, on the other hand, is in much better shape, finishing the day with 246,000.
One Five Diamond winner who did not survive today was reigning champ Dan Smith, who came in with a short stack and exited early, but plans on playing the $100,000 WPT Alpha8 event when it gets underway tomorrow.
Smith was one of many players who exited over the course of the day, including past Five Diamond winner Joe Hachem, Ryan Riess, Jason Somerville, JC Tran, Faraz Jaka, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Scott Clements, Brian Rast, and David Benyamine.
The 78 Day 3 survivors return to the Bellagio Poker Room Thursday at 12pm for another day of action, including the money bubble. The list of big names with big stacks is impressive and includes reigning WPT World Champion Keven Stammen (533,500), Kathy Liebert (388,500), and Will Failla (292,500).
Garrett Greer is another big stack who is very much proving he deserves to be a BLUFF.com WPT Ones to Watch, as he bagged up 386,500.
Finaly, it is worth noting that two of the 13 DraftKings qualifiers into this event are still in the hunt for a big payday. Known poker player Brandon Adams is sitting on 363,500, while Neval Gupta bagged up 170,000.
Here is a look at the top five heading into tomorrow:
1. Jared Jaffee – 768,000
2. Chane Kampanatsanyakorn – 584,500
3. Ralph Thomas – 582,000
4. Keven Stammen – 533,500
5. Aaron Massey – 463,000