29 Jun 09

WSOP Event #49: Only 19 Players Survive Day 3

Only 19 of the 95 entrants managed to make it through to the fourth day of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Vitaly Lunkin leads after an action packed Day 3.

After another gruelling day at the tables, 19 players survived to make it through to Day 4 of the $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. Vitaly Lunkin who has already picked up a bracelet (Event #2) and a 2nd place finish (Event #40) in W.S.O.P. 2009 continued his good run by ending Day 3 at the top of the leaderboard with 1,527,000 chips.

The day started with 53 players and saw a number of big names hitting the rails early on. Phil Ivey, Barry Greenstein, David Benyamine, Daniel Alaei, Doyle Brunson, Erik Lindgren, Chris Ferguson and the defending champion Scotty Nguyen all left the tables empty handed.

Freddy Deeb, who won the event in 2007 ended the day strongly at 3rd place with 1,300,000 chips. Overnight leader Gus Hansen finished Day 3 at 7th place, improving his chip count to 801,000 chips.

ups and downs for doyle brunson

Early in the day, two poker legends with 18 bracelets between them fought out a hand (Omaha Eight) which saw Doyle Brunson (pictured left) take a chunk off of Erik Seidel's chip stack. With

on the board, Brunson called a bet from Seidel, to see a

hit on the river. Seidel Check-called Brunson's bet, and Big Papa showed

to scoop the pot with a set of 3s.

Not long after that (Omaha Eight), the 76 year old Brunson took a big hit to his stack, as Jani Sointula showed

, on a board of

to take down the pot. Sointula moved up to 400,000 chips at the expense of Brunson who was left with just 95,000 chips after the hand.

A little over 1 hour later, the 10 time W.S.O.P. bracelet winner was sent to the rails by John Hanson in another hand of Omaha Eight. With the board showing,

, Brunson played

but could not make a low hand as Hanson with

flopped a straight to knock Brunson out of the competition.

Vitaly Lunkin makes a late charge

Towards the end of the day, Vitaly Lunkin made a late charge up the final table. He took down a couple of big hands to end the day at the top with a healthy 212,000 chip lead over second placed Erik Sagstrom. In the first of the two hands (Stud Eight), Lunkin (

)(

)

(

) with two pair (deuces and fives) beat Huck Seed (pictured right) (X)(X)

(X) to take down a big pot and improved to 980,000 chips.

At just around midnight (Razz), Lunkin (X)(X)

(X) crippled Todd Brunson (X)(X)

(X) after this hand and moved up to 148,000 chips. Action opened with a raise and a three-bet by Brunson and Lunkin respectively aon3rd street. Both the fourth and fifth streets were checked down, and Lunkin led-out on the sixth Brunson calls the bet and both players check the river. Lunkin turned over

for a 8-6-4-3-2 low which was good enough to scoop the pot. This left the junior Brunson with just 76,000 chips and an uphill struggle to stay in the game.

With 19 players left in the running, just 3 of the starters for Day 4 will be missing out on the cash. Play on Day 4 will continue until the final table is formed. After 3 consecutive wins by American players since this event started in 2006, the international players are starting to make a big impression after Ville Wahlbeck (5th), Erik Sagstrom (2nd) and Vitaly Lunkin (1st) took 3 of the top 5 spots at the close of Day 3.

The Top 10 after Day 3 are as follows:

World Series Of Poker Event #49 Standings
Rank	Name	Chips
1st	Vitaly Lunkin	1,527,000
2nd	Erik Sagstrom	1,315,000
3rd	Feddy Deeb	1,300,000
4th	David Bach	1,265,000
5th	Ville Wahlbeck	842,000
6th	John Hanson	815,000
7th	Gus Hansen	801,000
8th	Mike Wattel	779,000
9th	John Kabbaj	678,000
10th	Huck Seed	672,000