WSOP main event Days 3 & 4

DAY 3:

Heading into Day 3 it was the first day in which all the remaining players were playing on the same day in the same room. Naturally there were media members and ESPN cameras swarming the remaining players all day making it hard for anyone to even breathe in the poker room. Many people must have been feeling the pressure as the first level of play for the day (2hrs) saw over 300 people bust out. We had reached under 1,000 players by the time the first break rolled around.
Going into Day 3 there were 6 big name pros still going for the title; Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham, Mike Matusow, Johnny Chan, Shawn Sheikhan, Phil Hellmuth. The pros all had mediocre days, but they did survive the day mainly by taking advantage of short stacks who were trying to survive to make the money. Usually the money bubble doesnt come around until early in Day 4, although this year the pace of play is very quick and we are way ahead of schedule. By the time the dinner break rolled around (10pm ET/7pm PT) the money bubble had arrived. With the top 666 players getting paid I would hate to be busted out in 667th place. However, someone has to be the bubble boy, and this year that guy's name is Steve Chung. Steve busts out in 667th place but it isnt all that bad. The WSOP will give Steve a free seat in next year's main event, not a bad consolation prize. When it was all said and done there were only 474 players who survived through day 3. Heading into Day 4 were 5 big name pros left, all hovering near the middle of the pack.

DAY 4:

Day 4 begins with 474 players left in the main event. We are so far ahead of pace that tournament directors actually started play an hour later than usual, this is the first time a WSOP main event day hasnt begun at 12pm PT. As many know, Phil Hellmuth's trademark is showing up 2 hrs late to the main event every year for Day 1. Well today it seems Hellmuth is in total focus mode as he arrived at the casino 2 hrs EARLY. Hellmuth was quoted as saying, "I need to sit down and get in the zone so I can get up to 1 million chips by the end of the day."

BIG NAME PRO/POKER LEGEND BUSTS OUT EARLY:
Johnny Chan came into the day with a little over 300,000 chips, but today just wasnt his day.
The two-time World Champion moved all in for his last 143,000 before the flop holding and Damien Creurer called with . Chan got no help from the board and his quest to win his third title came to an end..

ALLEN CUNNINGHAM FLYING HIGH:
Allen Cunningham, who finished in 4th place in the 2006 main event, just took down one of the biggest pots of the tournament. The exact cards were not reported but Cunningham apparently made a flush on the river to rake in a major pot. Cunningham seems poised to make a big run at another final table as he takes the tournament chip lead with over 1,200,000 million chips.

Day 4- THE PHIL HELLMUTH STORY:
After losing much of his stack during play today Phil Hellmuth finally saw a good hand win some money for him. He doubled up through Allen Kennedy who raised to 20,000 before the flop and Hellmuth called from the button. They saw a flop and when Kennedy bet 25,000 Phil moved in for his last 112,000. Kennedy called and his was well behind Hellmuth's . Kennedy needed to find an ace but the fell on the turn and the on the river and Hellmuth doubled up to 241,000.

Later in the night, Phil Hellmuth raised preflop to 18,000, and Keith Ferrera called. The flop came . Hellmuth bet 20,000, and Ferrara called. The turn was the , and both checked. Both also checked the on the river. "Ace high," said Hellmuth. Ferrera turned over A-Q, and Hellmuth mucked in disgust. Ferrera's queen kicker played. "I just got called for 20,000 with ace high on the flop," said Hellmuth. "I'm gonna get some bucks from that guy for sure." Hellmuth dropped to a respectable 415,000 at that point in time.

After dropping most of his stack and facing elimination, Hellmuth got a late double up right before played ended on Day 4 to get his stack just under 600,000... well short of his 1 million chip goal, but enough chips to give him a chance on Day 5.

MIKE MATUSOW AND GUS HANSEN PUT ON A SHOW ALL DAY:
Mike Matusow was running his mouth as usual to his tablemates whom he had never met before today. However he took a pause and saw none other then Gus Hansen heading his way to take a seat at his table. These guys are great friends, and had some hilarious banter back and forth all day long. The first example came when Matusow made a preflop raise to 22,000. The action folded to Hansen in the big blind. "You get 20 seconds, then I'm calling the floor. We're not going through all the bullshit," said Matusow. Hansen put in a re-raise, which prompted a fold from Matusow. Matusow continued mocking Hansen as the pot was pushed toward the Great Dane. Hansen, who often carries a tape recorder with him at tournaments to document his play, flipped it on. "I just bluffed Mike Matusow," he said, to laughter from the crowd.

Things weren't so funny later in the day for Matusow who found himself in the midst of a big hand. Matusow had about 500,000 on him going into the hand was staring at a big raise from his opponent. Matusow responded by making an even bigger re-raise and pushing all of his 500,000 in the middle. His opponent called instantly and flipped over pocket Aces, causing many "ohhh-s and ahhh-s" from the crowd. Everyones eyes shot to Matusow expecting F-bombs to start flying, but instead Matusow started laughing his ass off and also flipped over pocket Aces. The pot was split and neither guy seemed to play a pot the rest of the night, Matusow finished the night a little under stacked at about 475,000.

END OF DAY 4:
At the end of Day 4 we only had 189 players left. Tournament directors let the players go home 45 min early which drew major celebrations from the exhausted players. The chip leader is Jeremy Jospeh with 2,187,00. With the average chip stack in the room sitting at about 675,000 chips here is the chip counts for the 5 remaining big name pros.

Shawn Sheikhan- 1,516,000
Gus Hansen- 1,367,000
Allen Cunningham- 1,141,000
Phil Hellmuth- 581,000
Mike Matusow- 458,000

blog for day 5 will be released tomorrow....... BASIC KNOWLEDGE........