Leading the way when chips were bagged for the evening was Dave D’Alesandro, who finished up with 1.1 million, one of four players who managed to top the million mark.  He holds a narrow lead over Sean Rice, Jacob Balsiger and Leo Wolpert.

Vanessa Selbst experienced another roller-coaster day, but it finished well as she ended up on 814,000 chips.  Sorel Mizzi (738,000), Jason Somerville (637,000), Marcel Luske (602,000), Shaun Deeb (598,000), Erik Cajelais (585,500) and JP Kelly (506,000) also had good days, closing above the half million mark in chips.  Other big names who will return for Day 4 include Antonio Esfandiari, Sam Holden, Mike McDonald, Maria Ho, John Juanda, Chris Moorman, Andrew Lichtenberger, David “ODB” Baker, Freddy Deeb, Terrence Chan, Joseph Cheong, Erick Lindgren, Liv Boeree, Shawn Buchanan, Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier.

There were mixed fortunes for former winners of the event; those hitting the rail comprised Dan Harrington, Robert Varkonyi, Jerry Yang, Peter Eastgate and last year’s winner Pius Heinz.  But there was better news for Johnny Chan and Huck Seed, both of whom will return for Day 4, and particularly for Chan who closed just below half a million chips.

Other big names to depart on Day 3 included Abe Mosseri, Chris Tryba, John Racener, Nick Schulman, Faraz Jaka, Eugene Katchalov, Bryn Kenney, Barry Greenstein, Ben Lamb and Brian Hastings.

The top 666 players will get some return on their investment, with the minimum payout being set at $19,227.  Play will continue through until Monday evening, when the final table of nine will be established.  These players will return at the end of October to play to a conclusion.

Heading the field into Day 3, when the entire field is finally merged, is Gaelle Baumann; the Frenchwoman’s total of 505,800 chips being the only one to breach the half million mark.  Several players managed to bag more than 400,000 chips, of whom the most notable is probably Shaun Deeb, who finished with 460,000.

Given the numbers still remaining, it is unsurprising that plenty of quality players remain in contention for this tournament.  Vanessa Selbst, Jason Somerville, Eugene Katchalov, Gavin Smith, Daniel Negreanu, Mike McDonald, Maria Ho, Ali Eslami, Brian Hastings, Shawn Buchanan, ex-footballer Teddy Sheringham, Faraz Jaka, Dan Harrington, Andrew Lichtenberger, Mel Judah, Cary Katz and Erik Cajelais all took through above average stacks from the combined Day 2A/B, a feat matched on Day 2C by Sam Holden and Eoghan O’Dea – both final tablers from last year – as well as Jake Cody, Joseph Cheong, Ben Lamb, Ari Engel, Marvin Rettenmeier, Daniel Idema, Phil Galfond, Nick Schulman, Marcel Luske, former cricketer Shane Warne and Freddy Deeb.  Short-stacked but surviving players include Liv Boeree, Eugene Du Plessis, Barny Boatman, David “ODB” Baker, Huck Seed, Tom Dwan, Erick Lindgren, JC Tran, Barry Greenstein, JP Kelly, Chris Moorman, Jason Mercier, Sorel Mizzi and Bryn Kenney.

There were plenty of big names hitting the rail throughout the second days as well.  Bryan Devonshire, Mike Sexton, Erik Seidel, Brian Rast, Isaac Haxton, Jeff Lisandro, Mike Matusow, Martin Staszko and Scott Seiver all failed to survive on Tuesday, while Wednesday’s play claimed Ted Forrest, Jennifer Tilly, Matt Savage, David Sands, Jennifer Harman, Mike Mizrachi and Phil Ivey.  Late on Wednesday there was a flurry of big name bust-outs, as Doyle Brunson, Gus Hansen, Matt Affleck and Viktor Blom also bade farewell to their chances of winning the event.

There were mixed fortunes for former winners of the tournament, with Jamie Gold, Joe Cada and Tom McEvoy departing, while Pius Heinz, Peter Eastgate, Jerry Yang, Robert Varkonyi and Dan Harrington all manged to stay alive.

Plenty of big names opted to enter on Day 1B, and as usual they endured mixed fortunes.  Vanessa Selbst has had a decent series, with one bracelet win and a couple of deep runs, and her form continued yesterday, helped by being on the right side of an AA v KK match-up on the very last hand of the night.  Her aces held, and she closed the day on 168,350 chips, good enough for third place on the day, and fourth overall so far.

Daniel Negreanu has had a pretty tough series, by contrast; although he has had four cashes, like Selbst, only one of them has resulted in a final table, and he has endured a lot of exits in other events.  Yesterday saw a little improvement, however, and he finished the session in a strong position, bagging up 140,575 chips.

Other players enjoying a good day included Jason Somerville, Maria Ho, Brian Hastings and Shaun Deeb, all of whom closed above the hundred thousand chip mark, while Day 2 will also feature Eugene Katchalov, Shawn Buchanan, Dan Harrington, Sam Farha, Barny Boatman, Erik Cajelais, Barry Greenstein, Neil Channing, Tom Schneider, David “ODB” Baker, Justin Bonomo, Andrew Lichtenberger, Ali Eslami, Mike McDonald, Erick Lindgren, Liv Boeree, last year’s runner-up Martin Staszko, Galen Hall, Layne Flack, Huck Seed, JC Tran, Eli Elezra, Roland De Wolfe, Andy Bloch, Robert Mizrachi, TJ Cloutier, Brian Rast and Erik Seidel, among many, many others.

Not everyone could make it through, however, and the list of those players who won’t be the 2012 Main Event winner includes Bertrand Grospellier, Scotty Nguyen, Men Nguyen, Andrey Pateychuk, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Todd Brunson, Tom Dwan, Theo Jorgensen, Victor Ramdin and former winner Greg Raymer.

Schulman took a healthy chip advantage to the final table, and added to it when he took a huge pot of Juanda with nine-six low to Juanda’s nine-seven.  Juanda was all-in next hand and eliminated in sixth.  Schulman also accounted for Benjamin Parker before a huge hand against George Danzer brought about the heads up.  Both stood pat on their hands, but Schulman held ten-eight to Danzer’s ten-nine.  Facing Mike Wattel, Schulman had a huge chip advantage and Wattel was all-in within ten minutes.  Schulman drew a seven to make himself nine-seven low, while Wattel, also drawing one, had quite a few cards to beat him.  In the event a king appeared and Schulman took down the title.

The payouts from the final table were as follows:

1. Nick Schulman – $294,321
2. Mike Wattell – $181,886
3. George Danzer – $115,295
4. Benjamin Parker – $78,088
5. Ashton Griffin – $55,482
6. John Juanda – $41,270
7. Bob Bright – $32,080

Dominik Nitsche won the $1,000 NL Hold’em title a day ahead of schedule, despite the mammoth field of 4,620 players.  The day began with fifty-one players left, but was down to sixteen within four hours.  Nitsche had being building his chip stack all day, and it was already huge when the final table was reached, but once there he proceeded to steamroller the opposition into submission; by the time three-handed play was reached he was holding seventy percent of the chips.  The heads-up saw him facing Jonathan Hilton, who was never able to pick up momentum and spent most of it with only a stack so small he could only push and hope.  Hilton survived a few all-in situations before he called with A8o against Nitsche’s open push with K5s.  The flop brought 3JQ, before a ten on the turn.  This gave Nitsche an open-ended straight draw to add to his other outs, and the nine on the river sealed his first winner’s bracelet.

The final table payouts in this one looked like this:

1. Dominik Nitsche $654,797
2. Jonathan Hilton $405,156
3. Alex Cordero $291,725
4. Sebastien Comel $215,592
5. Randolph Lanosga $160,665
6. Franklin Johnson $120,748
7. Martin Vallo $91,476
8. Jonathan Miller $69,896
9. Daniel Eichhorn $53,846

The first of the three opening days at the $10,000 Main Event saw 1,066 entrants, with William John finishing the day as chip leader; his total of 266,700 more than a hundred thousand better that of second-placed Gerardo Lubas.

Plenty of notable players decided to make their entrance on Saturday, but for many it didn’t work out too well.  Phil Hellmuth opted to play having originally registered for the final opening day, but he hit the rail in the last level of blinds.  He was in good company, as Day 1A also saw the departures of Greg Mueller, Allen Bari, Kathy Liebert, Erich Froehlich, Frank Kassala and Soi Nguyen.  It was a tough day for former event winners as well; in additional to Hellmuth, Jim Bechtel and Joe Hachem also departed.

Last year’s winner Pius Heinz looked like joining them; short-stacked for much of the day, he managed a late double-through and closed on a respectable stack of 39,275.  Among those also through to the second day, Cary Katz, Eric Baldwin, Faraz Jaka and Yann Dion all enjoyed excellent days, closing the right side of a hundred thousand chips.  They will be joined by Filippo Candio, JJ Liu, Jon Spinks, Isaac Haxton, Andy Black, Chris Bjorin, Toby Lewis, Eugene Du Plessis, John Eames, Donnacha O’Dea and David Williams, among many others.

The $10,000 NL Hold’em Six-Handed tournament began its third day with twenty-seven players remaining, including plenty of big names.  Roberto Romanello, Eugene Katchalov, Jason Mercier, Andrea Dato and Layne Flack all fell outside the final table, but overnight leader Christopher Brammer, Andrew Lichtenberger, Eddy Sabat and Shannon Shorr all managed to make that stage before their challenges ended.  That left Greg Merson heads-up against Keith Lehr, a bracelet winner way back in 2003.  Merson began the two-handed play with a small advantage, and he managed to build on it in the hour of play that remained, although Lehr staged a comeback from his low point in the last few hands.  Merson will take around a 2:1 chip advantage into the additional day, but this event could still go either way.

With thirty-one players contesting Day 3 of the $3,000 Pot Limit Omaha Hi/Lo tournament, a conclusion always looked unlikely, and so it proved as three players will return to complete the event on Friday.  Roch Cousineau has already enjoyed a third place in an omaha hi/lo event at this year’s series, and as chip leader overnight, will be looking for something better.  But he has a pair of formidable opponents in Viacheslav Zhukov, who won a bracelet in a $10,000 buy-in event in this game last year and Chris Bell, who won a $5,000 tournament here in 2010.  The final table was packed with quality players, and those who remain will be glad to have seen the back of David “ODB” Baker, Yuval Bronshtein and Scotty Nguyen.  Some very notable players failed to make it as far as the final table as well, and those collecting their cashes earlier on the third day included Anthony Lellouche, Stephen Su and Bryan Devonshire.

4,620 players entered the $1,000 NL Hold’em tournament across the opening two days, with Alex Cordero set to return on Day 2 as chip leader; his stack of 100,475 more than 20,000 better than that of nearest rivals Ronald Lee and Jake Cody.  Among many notable names still in this tournament, Phil Ivey enjoyed a good day.

The $10,000 2-7 Draw Lowball (No Limit) event attracted 107 players, with 54 of those surviving the first day.  Konstantin Puchkov finished atop the pile in his quest for a record-breaking eleventh cash at this year’s series.  With only fourteen places paid in this tournament, he still has some way to go, especially as the field still includes Rep Porter, Daniel Negreanu – enjoying an all-too-rare good day – Erik Seidel, Andy Bloch, Jason Mercier, last year’s winner John Juanda, Phil Galfond, John Monnette, David “Bakes” Baker, Phil Ivey, Brian Hastings, Jennifer Harman and Barry Greenstein.

Unfortunately, the most important piece of action yesterday happened away from the tables.  Having finished as runner-up in the Big One, Sam Trickett collected more than $10 million in prize money and, unsurprisingly, went out with girlfriend Natasha Sandhu to celebrate.  The two were attacked by six men during the evening, with Trickett getting beaten up while Sandhu had her face spat in.  Fortunately, Trickett didn’t sustain any serious injuries and, while it isn’t clear whether any robbery occurred, it doesn’t seem to have been the motive for the attack.

Back at the tables, Tomas Junek won his first bracelet, along with $661,022 for winning the $1,500 NL Hold’em event.  The Czech player, who had only one small live cash to his name prior to the tournament, overcame a field of 2,798 to bag his prize.  Among the players he had to see off at the final table was former Main Event winner Peter Eastgate.

Twenty-seven players will head to the final day of the $10,000 NL Hold’em Six-Handed tournament, with Britain’s Christopher Brammer atop the leaderboard.  He will face some stiff competition, however, as Andrew Lichtenberger, Eddy Sabat, Roberto Romanello, Jason Mercier, Tony Hachem, Shannon Shorr, Layne Flack and Eugene Katchalov are all still around.

The $3,000 PL Omaha Hi-Lo is also set to enter its final scheduled day, and thirty-one players still remain in this one.  Felicia Johnico, enjoying her third cash this series, is the overnight leader but there are plenty of big names left in this event also, with Yuval Bronshtein, David “ODB” Baker, Stephen Su, Bryan Devonshire, Anthony Lellouche and Scotty Nguyen all still vying for the title.

Esfandiari came to the final table holding a narrow chip lead over Sam Trickett, but the early action inevitably focussed on the short-stacked players.  Malaysian businessman Richard Yong was the first to hit the rail, when his A2 was outdrawn by Brian Rast’s KJ.  He was followed by 1978 Main Event winner Bobby Ball, who pushed his AT into the pocket jacks of event-founder Guy Laliberte.

Rast departed in sixth at the hands of Sam Trickett.  The 2011 Poker Players’ Champion flopped the nut flush with AJs on a board of 843.  Trickett bet into him on flop and on the ten turn.  The river brought a further three, causing Trickett to ponder for some time.  He eventually moved all-in, bringing an instant call from Rast, but the river had brought Trickett quad threes, and Rast had to depart.

Guy Laliberte was the next man out, losing a flip against Esfandiari, whose AK hit on the turn to outdraw the pocket queens.  He was followed to the rail by Phil Hellmuth, who had survived a long time with poor cards.  Hellmuth moved in with AT and was called by Trickett’s AQ.  It was always going to be a dramatic hand when the flop brought Hellmuth two and Trickett the flush draw and a pair.  When a king on the turn raised Trickett’s outs to seventeen, it was guaranteed to be a tense moment on the river, and a jack completed his straight to send Hellmuth away in fourth.

Businessman David Einhorn was by far the shortest stack three-handed but he made some spirited plays to keep his stack going.  But a shove with K9 found Esfandiari holding KT, and a ten on the turn sealed the businessman’s fate.  That gave Esfandiari better than a 2:1 chip advantage going into the heads-up, and Trickett just could not do anything about it.  The decisive hand saw Trickett shove with a flush draw on a board of J55, but he was always going to be called by Esfandiari’s trip fives.  When Trickett’s draw missed, his tournament was over, although he was over $10 million better off, and Esfandiari walked away with the big prize.

The payouts in the event were as follows

1. Antonio Esfandiari – $18,346,673
2. Sam Trickett – $10,112,001
3. David Einhorn – $4,352,000
4. Phil Hellmuth – $2,645,333
5. Guy Laliberté – $1,834,666
6. Brian Rast – $1,621,333
7. Bobby Baldwin – $1,408,000
8. Richard Yong – $1,237,333
9. Mike Sexton – $1,109,333

Plenty of big names hit the rail during the day, with Tom Dwan and the short-stacked Daniel Negreanu among the first to go, in the same hand to Mikhail Smirnov.  Dwan got his money in good with the pocket aces, while Negreanu’s ATo was massively dominated.  But it was Smirnov, holding 99, who came good, when the flop brought him a set and he completed quads on the river.  Phil Galfond, Noah Schwartz, Tobias Reinkemeier and Gus Hansen all headed for the exit as well, before Phil Ivey left in 26^th.  Ivey hadn’t managed to produce much all day, and he got the last of his chips in with pocket queens.  His opponent Phillip Gruissen had A8s, and, when the flop brought him only bottom pair, it looked good for Ivey, but runner-runner diamonds saw Gruissem make a flush.

The biggest hand of the day saw a clash between Jason Mercier and Antonio Esfandiari, with Mercier seven-bet shoving all his chips in with KK.  Esfandiari’s call was an easy one as he had the aces; they held, and he seized the chip lead from Tom Marchese.

Players continued to fall until the tournament reached the bubble stage; at this point Ilya Bulchev was the shortest stack, and when he shoved Q6s from the small blind, Sam Trickett, the last British survivor, made the call with K7o.  A seven was the first card out on the flop, and Bulchev couldn’t find anything to catch up.

There was just time for Mike Sexton to become the first player eliminated inside the money – he took away $1,109,333 – before the chips were bagged for the night.  Esfandiari closed as overnight leader, narrowly ahead of Sam Trickett, but both holding more than 15 million more chips than third-placed Guy Laliberte, whose came up with the idea for the tournament.  In total the remaining eight players have won nineteen WSOP bracelet between them, although Phil Hellmuth’s presence accounts for twelve of those, and Bobby Baldwin four others, although the most recent was over thirty years ago.  Brian Rast is the most recent winner, with both of his coming last year, while a player of Antonio Esfandiari’s quality is overdue another one, his sole triumph coming back in 2004.

The chip counts ahead of the last day are as follows:

1. Antonio Esfandiari – 39,925,000
2. Sam Trickett – 37,000,000
3. Guy Laliberté – 21,700,000
4. Brian Rast – 11,350,000
5. Phil Hellmuth – 10,925,000
6. David Einhorn – 8,375,000
7. Richard Yong – 7,475,000
8. Bobby Baldwin – 7,150,000

Nineteen players came back for the final day, among whom were quite a few well-known names.  Bryn Kenney and 2012 bracelet winner Vincent van der Fluit hit the rail before the final table was set, but Chris Bjorin and Tom Chambers have a wealth of experience and made sure the final table would be no walk in the park.  Neither could survive until the heads-up however, which was contested by Selbst and Michael Saltzburg, himself a bracelet winner back in 2003.  Selbst began with close to a 5:1 chip advantage, and proceeded to win five of the six hands played in a round of 2-7 no limit single draw.  When she inflicted a quartering on Saltzburg in omaha hi/lo shortly afterwards, the tournament was nearly through, and a couple of hands into the 2-7 limit triple draw Selbst closed out her victory when she was dealt the nuts.

The final table positions and payouts were as follows:
1. Vanessa Selbst – $244,259
2. Michael Saltzburg – $150,849
3. Tommy Hang – $97,884
4. Chris Bjorin – $64,649
5. Tom Chambers – $43,099
6. Mike Gorodinsky – $30,169

The first day of the $1 million The Big One for One Drop event attracted a full field of forty eight players, producing a first prize in excess of $18 million.  The day will probably be best remembered for a fold by Mikhail Smirnov, who ditched quad eights face-up when the only possible hand he could be beaten by was a straight flush; opponent John Morgan did not show his hand and refused to comment afterwards.

Eleven players crashed out during the first day, including Jonathan Duhamel, Erik Seidel, Bertrand Grospellier, Nick Schulman, Eugene Katchalov and Mike Mizrachi – the latter recycling two-thirds of his prize for winning the Poker Players’ Championship back into the pot.  Brian Rast had the best day; he closed with more than ten million chips to his name, ahead of Phil Hellmuth, Frederic Banjout and Antonio Esfandiari.  Gus Hansen, who won his place through a satellite, finished the day in fifth, while Sam Trickett in sixth was the best of the four Brits in the events.  Those in immediate danger on the second day include Daniel Negreanu and Phil Galfond, both of whom have fewer than half a million chips remaining.

The format was popular with players, of whom it attracted 939, with many taking to Twitter and other social media to express their approval of the format.  There was some talk that the format might need to be tweaked for future years, as all three days of play in the tournament were quite short (although for those suffering red eyes and exhaustion after days of finishes in the small hours, this was perhaps no bad thing).  As it turned out the bubble burst on the first day, and the final table was reached on the second with nearly two levels of antes still in hand.

Quite a number of big name players decided to try the format, and those achieving a cash but falling short of the final table included Max Pescatori, Mickey Petersen, McLean Karr, John Racener, Martin Jacobson, Martins Adeniya, Melanie Weisner, Men Nguyen, Barny Boatman and Erick Lindgren.  But several big names did reach the final nine, including Mike “Timex” McDonald and Eugene Du Plessis.

That players were still adjusting to the format can be shown by the fact that final table play at one point featured, in consecutive hands, three pre-flop all-ins (all uncalled) followed by an eight-way limped pot (and a little later a nine-way).  The heads-up came down to a battle between Mike Sowers and Greg Hobson, both more renowned for their online prowess; Hobson, at least, believed he had encountered the format once before in an online event, although he admitted he could remember little about it.  Whether some remnant of knowledge did stick, and prove useful, it is impossible to say, but Hobson did duly emerge triumphant to pick up his first WSOP bracelet.

The payouts from the final table were as follows:

1. Greg Hobson – $256,691
2. Mike Sowers – $158,887
3. John Hayes – $99,409
4. Harrison Gimbel – $72,155
5. Eugene Du Plessis – $53,267
6. Mike McDonald – $39,931
7. Seth Davies – $30,373
8. Sameer Aljanedi – $23,413
9. Justin Schwartz – $18,292