Pius Heinz, Lamb, Staszko Final Three in WSOP Main Event

The World Series of Poker’s Main Event is down to its final three players, who will return to the Rio one last time Tuesday evening to decide who will be crowned the 2011 World Champion.

On Sunday, the action eliminated two-thirds of the remaining players, pairing down what was a nine-player final table to the final three. Leading the way is Germany’s Pius Heinz, who stormed to the front of the pack after beginning the final table in 7^th place. Heinz now has over half of the chips in play, making him the definite favorite to take home the crown in tomorrow’s action.

But there are two other players still in contention, and both still hold fairly sizable stacks, making them legitimate contenders to overtake Heinz. In second place is Ben Lamb, who had a rollercoaster ride through the final table action. The WSOP Player of the Year took a difficult beat for more than half his stack when Phil Collins moved all-in with QJ against Lamb’s AQ, only to make a flush on the river to stay alive. But later in the action, Lamb came from behind twice with all of his chips at risk to stay alive.

In fact, the second of those come-from-behind victories was critical in forming the final three. With four players remaining, Lamb moved all in with A7 suited, which Matt Giannetti quickly called with pocket jacks. Lamb’s hand improved, however, turning the nut flush to claim victory and cripple Giannetti, who would go out a few hands later when he ran into Lamb’s pocket kings – which fittingly improved to quads on the flop.

The short stack coming into Tuesday night’s action will be the Czech Republic’s Martin Staszko. Staszko came into the final table as the chip leader, and in contrast to Lamb, had a relatively quiet day at the office. While he did get short late in the action, a key double-up through Heinz gave him a stack he could work with.

The chip counts heading into the final session are as follows:

Pius Heinz – 107,800,000

Ben Lamb – 55,400,000

Martin Staszko – 42,700,000

The action will resume at 5:30 PM local time on Tuesday evening. The tournament will continue on level 40, with 600k/1.2 million blinds and a 200k ante. The winner will take home $8,715,638, with second place earning over $5.4 million, and third taking just over $4 million.