2,560 Players Remain for WSOP Main Event Day Three

After the end of the second day of play for all players at the World Series of Poker Main Event, just 2,560 out of the original field of 7,319 participants remain in the quest to win the coveted championship. While it’s still far too early to pick out a likely winner, several interesting storylines have begun to emerge.

Typically, the early chip standings might have a few big names at the top, but will feature mostly new names – often, players who have gotten lucky in extremely large pots that have vaulted them to an early lead. But at the 2010 Main Event, there are plenty of big names with big stacks. At the end of the 2A session, Johnny Chan, Patrik Antonius, Jason Somerville, Sammy Farha and several other professionals were among the top 25 in chips.

But session 2B was another story entirely. Big name professional poker players were eliminated left and right, none more accomplished than Phil Ivey himself. His early elimination might have been more notable if it weren’t for the litany of names that followed him out the door. Chris Ferguson, Doyle Brunson, Todd Brunson, Andy Bloch, Freddy Deeb, JC Tran and Gavin Griffin were just the biggest names in a day that saw plenty of the world’s best go down in their quest for a Main Event bracelet. Of course, there were a few big names that were able to escape the carnage and come out with big stacks to work with heading into Day 3. Among them are Allen Cunninghham, Jason Mercier, Vanessa Selbst and David Benyamine.

The overall chip leader heading into Day 3 is Canadian player David Assouline, who has accumulated 387,800 in chips. He’s closely followed by Brazil’s Ricardo Fasanaro with 380,000. Some of the more notable chip stacks among the leaders include Vanessa Selbst (265,000), Johnny Chan (281,600), Patrik Antonius (258,600), Jason Mercier (186,300) and David Banyamine (173,000). The average stack is currently around 80,000 chips.

Another great story in this year’s Main Event has been the performance of the entire Mizrachi family. All four brothers – Michael, Rob, Eric and Donny – are not only still alive in the tournament, but have stacks that are well above average, ranging from 145,000 for Eric to 232,000 for Donny.

After a rest day today, the players will be back into action for Day 3 on Monday.