Three to Get Ready...
Well, good afternoon.
It's Day 19 of the 2011 WSOP, and it's Day 3 of our Event #29. It's the first-ever 10-Game Mix event, and the $2,500 price tag attracted a robust field of 431 players to the tables on Thursday. Eighteen levels into the event, the field is thinning at 19, and Shaun Deeb sits perched atop the pack with nearly twice the average chips. There has been a bit of a running joke about Deeb this summer, who's been the Day 1 chip leader in more events than anyone else. He's racked up four cashes thus far. They've all been small, though, and Deeb's career record is still conspicuously missing a WSOP final table.
Today could well be the day he erases that mark, but there's still plenty of work to be done to pick through this small and skilled surviving field. Among the others still in contention are Jason Stern, David Benefield, Tad Jurgens, Roland Isra, Daniel Makowsky, John D'Agostino, Matt Vengrin, and Brian Powell. The latter was a big stack heading into Day 2, but he comes into Day 3 dangerously short with just a couple big bets.
We're set for a 4:00 restart time, and that means a later-than-normal night. Still, we've got ten levels to try and play this thing out, and crowning a champion in the next 12 hours is within the realm of possibility. We'll have to wait and see, though; the restart is just about 30 minutes away.