WSOP Day 3: Now it gets even more serious

By Simon Young

After four Day 1s, and two Day 2s, the monster field at the WSOP has finally combined to chase its dreams into Day 3. Of the 6,844 players who started this thing, 1,308 are still left, and 666 of them will get in the money.

PartyPoker is delighted for 11 of our qualifiers who are still in the hunt, several with menacing stacks that could see them go really deep.

Relaxing before play: Kenna, left, McManus, centre, and Krost

Top of the tree is Ireland’s James McManus, who has a bulging bag stuffed with 257,000 chips to unzip and stack up again when he sits down shortly. “I had a great last two levels last night,” he said. “Today I’m feeling good.”

Rasmus Nielsen: 172,000 chips at the start of Day 3

Also flying high are Rasmus Nielsen from Denmark with 172,000, Australia’s Tyron Krost on 171,600 and Stephen Kenna, the Irishman who played so well all day with the likes of Johnny Chan, Shawn Sheikhan and Willie Tann. He got through last night with 153,600. “I could not have wished for a better table. It’s such a shame there was a re-draw over night and I’m now with different players,” said Stephen.

Here are all the PartyPoker Day 3 players:

James McManus, Ireland, 257,100

Rasmus Nielsen, Denmark, 172,000

Tyron Krost, Australia, 171,600

Stephen Kenna, Ireland, 153,600

Jiri Hlavaty, Czech Republic, 115,800

Mika Paasonen, Finland, 98,100

Jan Skampa, Czech Republic, 52,500

Martin El-Kher, Denmark, 49,200

Marc McLoghlin, Ireland, 23,600

Neil McCluskey, Canada, 21,200