WSOP 2015 Main Event - ITM and Down to Three Digits

If there is one thing that's been constant for the past decade or so that's the Main Event of the World Series of Poker starting as a massive field that would seemingly take forever to size down. However, after few days of marathon poker sessions, the field is always reduced to a fraction of its initial size, and WSOP 2015 is no exception.

1,796 players returned yesterday for the Day 3 of the Main Event and by the time tournament officials announced bag 'em and tag 'em, only 661 were still in with the hope. For the rest, the adventure called Main Event was over.

Thanks to changes to the payout structure this year, many of those eliminated were not too disappointed, as they still got to take home $15,000 to show for their efforts. Namely, 2015 Main Event paid total of 1,000 players and many players were able to breathe sigh of relief yesterday, knowing that no matter what happens next, they have netted a profit.

A dubious title of the luckiest amongst the unlucky went to Roy Daoud who was eliminated in 1,001 spot, as close to the money as one can get without actually cashing. It wasn't all bad news for the Lebanon born now living in Dubai, as he draw for the next year's Main Event seat with other bubble players and got lucky, becoming the first player to earn the seat for the next year.

Honorable mention to the notables

A number of well known names hit the rail yesterday as well, some of them making the money, others not quite. Former WSOP champ Greg Raymer ended his performance in the tournament early, so despite of a decent run, he takes home nothing more than a story. Scotty Nguyen had somewhat better luck in a sense that he was able to wait out the bubble before following his fellow champion to the rail.

Other top tier pros whose quest for the most coveted of all WSOP bracelets has also ended include Antonie Saout, Denis Philips, Martin Staszko and Billy Pappas (all former members of November Nine at one point or another), Jennifer Shahade, a chess master and OFC specialist, Jacquelyn Scott, this year's Ladies Championship winner, Dan Colman, Sorel Mizzi and many others.

Still going strong

While some hit the rail, others accumulate the chips and grow their stacks - that's just the nature of the beast. 2015 Main Event list still contains quite a few well known names, including five former champions: Phil Hellmuth, Joe Hachem, Jonathan Duhamel, Ryan Riess and 1993 winner Jim Betchel.

Chip leader to start the day, Amar Anand, was able to build on his lead and still remains on the top with more than 1.1 million. However, hot on his heels are Brian Hastings (who won two bracelets this year already) and Fedor 'CrownUpGuy' Holz, both hovering just around one million chips mark.

Also in with very decent stacks are Stephen Graner, Matt Jarvis, Scott Baumstein, Justin Bonomo and Max Steinberg. Daniel Negreanu bagged the stack of 444k, Jake Cody is sitting on 355,000 while George Danzer and Mukul Pahuja will be returning to the stacks of around 155k each.

Apart from all these, one man stealing the show is William Wacher, 94-year old World War Two veteran who has made the money and is still holding his own with a stack of about 160,000.

Remaining players will return later today to continue the chase until it is all finally paused in several days time when the names of November Nine will become known.