WSOP Main Event Days 2 – 4: The Bubble Burst, 282 Players Left

It is time to review what happened in the past days of the 43rd World Series of Poker. Among others, the bubble has burst and only 282 players are returning to Day 5.

Vanessa Selbst

Players from Day 1A and 1B were united on Day 2A/B for a total player pool of 2,054, of which 842 players made it to Day 3. Two ladies were in the Top 10: Vanessa Selbst (350,400) and chipleader Gaelle Baumann (505,800), while favourites who were eliminated included Kevin MacPhee, Mike Sexton, Tony Dunst, Justin Bonomo, Scott Seiver, Brian Rast, Erik Seidel, Martin Staszko, Mike Matusow, Barry Shulman, Galen Hall and Isaac Haxton.

2,300 players returned from Day 1C to Day 2C and 911 remained, with some of the biggest names in the industry eliminated in the process. Those out included WSOP Main Event first timer Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom, 8 times WSOP champion Phil Ivey, Ted Forrest, Arnaud Mattern, Joe Cada, Prahlad Friedman, Michael Mizrachi, Tom Marchese, Randy Lew, Gus Hansen, Doyle Brunson, Dan Kelly and Andy Frankenberger.

Phil Ivey

Grinders who made it through the 1st and 2nd Event Days were united in a single field for Day 3 for the first time in the ongoing Main Event and Day 2A/B qualifier Gaelle Baumann had the chiplead. Eventually, a total of 720 players survived, while 5 former champions got eliminated: current title holder Pius Heinz, Dan Harrington (1995), Robert Varkonyi (2002), Jerry Yang (2006) and Peter Eastgate (2009). In addition, Sammy Farha, John Racener, Barry Greenstein, Brian Hastings, Eugene Katchalov, Nick Schulman, Ben Lamb and Phil Galfond were also out.

Gaelle Baumann

On Day 4, the bubble burst in a hand-for-hand play of five players with the busted four playing an additional single table tournament for a 2013 Main Event entry. Paul Volpe leads the field of the remaining 282 players with 2,750,000 in chips but notable names like 2009 WSOP Main Event 4th finisher Eric Buchman, Vanessa Selbst, JP Kelly, Jason Somerville, Sorel Mizzi, Daniel Negreanu and John Juanda are also returning.

Daniel Negreanu

The top finishers of Event Day 4 are the following: