Yorky Pud

Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Main Event has been completed and the money bubble, although not burst, is fast approaching. The 1,864 surviving players from Day 2a and 2b took their seats in the Amazon Room and Pavilion Room of the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino and after 10 long hours of play they had been whittled down to just 852.

Amongst those players returning later today is Betfair Poker's Thomas “Nunchok” Pedersen who will start the day over on Table 313 Seat 7 in the Amazon room armed with an impressive 416,500 chips, almost double the 241,725 average. Pedersen has more than $45,000 in live tournament cashes, the bulk of which was earned when he came second in a $300 Deep Stack tournament at the Venetian last year. If he wants to best the $31,212 he won that day he will need to finish at least 351st but everyone at Betfair Poker will be hoping he goes on to win the $8,711,956 first place prize.

Currently leading the way is Patrick Poirier who is only one of two players to have passed the 1,000,000 chip mark. Poirier will return to his seat armed with a colossal 1,328,000 chips and must be odds on to secure at least a min-cash when the bubble bursts. Daryl Jace is the other player with a monster stack, his containing 1,282,500 chips.

There are a number of notable players still in with a chance of WSOP Main Event glory including Germany's Sebastian Ruthenberg who starts Day 4 with 889,000 chips which is a scary proposition for anyone who faces him when play resumes. He has over $3,300,000 in live tournament cashes and will be a formidable opponent now he has chipped up. As will the likes of Peter Jetten, Sami Kelopuro, Daniel Negreanu and even Phil Hellmuth, though the latter finds himself short stacked with only 77,000 chips.

A number of British players are also still in the hunt of poker's biggest prize, some of whom have well over the average stack size. Rupert Elder is the best placed of the Brit-pack, his 606,000 chips enough for 20th place when play resumes. Also flying the flag for Britain is double WSOP bracelet winner JP Kelly, EPT London winner David Vamplew and Jake Cody amongst others.

The money bubble bursts when the 694th player heads for the rail, at that point everyone will be guaranteed no less than $19,359 for their efforts over the past week. Tune in over the weekend to see who has made it to the money and who has been left high and dry.