Americans Dominating Play On Day Three Of WSOP Main Event

Americans have long been known to be some of the most savvy poker players in the world. US players take pride in their poker playing skills, and those skills are on display big time at the World Series of Poker main event.

Coming into day three, which began on Thursday, over 2,000 players remained from the field of 6,865. As the day wore on\, two things became clear, players would start being eliminated in quick bunches, and Americans would work their way towards the top of the chip stack counts.

As day three nears completion, Patrick Poirier has the chip lead with over one million chips. Daryl Jace and Brian Park also are sitting on over a million chips. The three Americans are joined in the top five by Christopher Bonita. The only non-American in the top five is Guillaume Darcourt of France.

Not many big name professionals are sitting near the top of the leaderboard. Interestingly, it is several online players that have made strong runs early, and are in position to challenge for the coveted gold bracelet.

A couple of months ago, the US Department of Justice indicted executives from PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker, the largest and most successful online poker sites in the world. The sites immediately stopped allowing US players, and it left millions of players without a place to enjoy the game of poker online.

The result has been an exodus to the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. With their funds tied up in the online sites, thousands of players took their talents to Sin City with hopes of winning the main event. With only a couple of days left until the final table is reached, hundreds of these online players remain alive in the tournament.

One player that is standing out in the crowded field is Hayden Fortini. The poker pro from Florida has been too young to play in the WSOP in the past, but this year he has shown fellow players that he is a force to be reckoned with. Fortini is currently sitting in the top fifty in chip stacks, with over 400,000 chips.

Professional players Dennis Phillips, Allen Cunningham, Eli Elezra, Patrik Antonius, and Jeff Lisandro all have over 90,000 chips. Phil Hellmuth, who has had as strong a WSOP as any player this year, is also still playing. Hellmuth has 65,000 chips, and remains in the top twenty percent in terms of overall chip counts of remaining players.

The final 693 players will all cash at the main event. Play is expected to slow down on day four when the players get close to the bubble. In past years, once the bubble player has been busted, play picks up on the way to the final table.

July 15, 2011
Posted By Tom Jones
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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