WPT: Paul Smith Takes Over Chip Lead
27 players survived Day 3 of the Main Event of the 'Legends of Poker' in the Bicycle Casino. Paul Smith conquered the chip lead. Adam Weinraub endured a nasty beat and dropped down to rank 23.
Negreanu out before the Money Ranks
Even before the tournament started, short stack Daniel Negreanu provided for some cheerfulness at the poker table. When he realised that he was supposed to sit at a table with John Phan, he immediately asked the floorman for the clock. Phan is known for taking quite some time for his well thought-out decisions. Already on the previous tournament days, Phan needed up to 20 minutes for some hands only to see the flop. It is also said that one 'Phan unit' corresponds to five minutes.
The first big hand between Phan and Negreanu was rather short-lived though. Negreanu pushed all-in from middle position for about 28,000, and John Phan went over-the-top all-in for about 120,000. Negreanu showed 
and was thus way behind Phan's 
. The flop came with 
and was of little use to Negreanu. The turn brought the 
and thus the set for Phan, but also some outs for Negreanu. The 
on the river meant a runner-runner for Negreanu and thus a double-up.
A bit later though, the sympathetic Canadian was knocked out. With 
he lost against 
for Robert Cheung. Already on the turn he hit his flush and sent Negreanu to the rails.
Bad Beat for Adam Weinraub
Adam
Weinraub started the day as chip leader, but had to endure some nasty setbacks over the course of the third day. In the end, it was pure luck that he was still in the race. First he had to double up John Phan when the latter one went all-in on the board of 
and showed 
. Weinraub only held 
. The river didn't help him.
An even worse hit followed in the next hand though: Pre-flop, Philip Stark went all-in with 
. Weinraub called with 
. Supposedly a no-brainer. But already the flop 
turned the tables completely and gave Stark the quads. The on the turn gave Weinraub a bit of hope as he now still had at least one out. But the river 
sealed the deal. At the end of Day 3, Weinraub only remained with 181,000 chips. Rank 23 in the chip count.
27 Players on Day 4
Besides Adam Weinraub, John Phan, Allen
Cunningham and Lee Markholt also made it through the day amongst others. Chip leader Paul Smith is just below 1M in chips. His closest pursuers are Amit
Makhija on rank 2 and Layne Flack on rank 3.
Below the complete chip count:
| WPT VII - Legends of Poker $10,000 Main Event Chip Count after Day 3 |
||
| Rank | Name | Chips |
| 1 | Paul Smith | 946,000 |
| 2 | Amit Makhija | 842,000 |
| 3 | Layne Flack | 807,000 |
| 4 | Lee Markholt | 779,000 |
| 5 | Matt Keikoan | 744,000 |
| 6 | Ron Jenkins | 740,000 |
| 7 | Kyle Wilson | 619,000 |
| 8 | Denny Lee | 481,000 |
| 9 | Takashi Shiono | 461,000 |
| 10 | Trong Nguyen | 457,000 |
| 11 | Allen Cunningham | 420,000 |
| 12 | Kirk Conrad | 416,000 |
| 13 | Zach Clark | 388,000 |
| 14 | Jinyun Lin | 363,000 |
| 15 | Marco Johnson | 310,000 |
| 16 | Philip Stark | 307,000 |
| 17 | Tan Le | 294,000 |
| 18 | John Phan | 244,000 |
| 19 | Rodeen Talebi | 230,000 |
| 20 | Samuel Ngai | 220,000 |
| 21 | Gary Najaryan | 211,000 |
| 22 | Jim Hof | 201,000 |
| 23 | Adam Weinraub | 181,000 |
| 24 | Sirous Baghchehsaraie | 176,000 |
| 25 | Benjamin Fineman | 159,000 |
| 26 | Maria Ho | 158,000 |
| 27 | Raymond Voskanian | 16,000 |
