Day 3 of the World Series of Poker main event ended in the early hours of Thursday Vegas time when officials called a halt for the day after an extra level was added to reach the money bubble.
And what an exciting stage that was as players Roger Campbell and Quan Zhou tied as the 1,085th elimination and a race off flip was called to decide who would get the consolation prize of a free seat at next year’s $10,000 buy-in main event.
Quan Zhou won the decider, and officials then called it a day at just after 1am with all remaining 1,084 players assured of at least a $15,000 pay day.
Unofficial numbers position US player Patrick Lavecchia as the chip leader on 11.55 million going into Day 4 on Friday, closely pursued by Portuguese player Pawel Brzeski (1.54 million) but there are dozens of plus-one million stacks still in the competition, including the Day 3 starting chip leader Mickey Craft, who bagged up 1.34 million chips.
It was another tough day for former main event champions as Joe Hachem, Tom McEvoy and two-time champ Johnny Chan all joined Greg Raymer in heading to the exit, but Joe Cada, Scotty Nguyen and Carlos Mortensen are still alive and go forward to Day 4.
A large number of notable names also hit the skids and are out, but this remains a large field well populated by top players. Play resumes mid-morning Friday local time.