One name lurks above all others in fifth place, that of 11 time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth. He has been close to winning two bracelets already this WSOP finishing second in two $10k non-Hold'em events. With a strong finish in the Player's Championship, he could ascend to the top of the WSOP Player of the Year standings where he currently sits in fourth position.
At present, only Ben Lamb has crossed the magical threshold of 500 points that is given to the Main Event winner. Lamb is also still in the tournament, sitting in 14th, so he will be fighting to hold onto his POY lead and go deep as well.
P.O.Y Standings:
1. Ben Lamb 572.65
2. Chris Moorman 486.20
3. Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier 479.25
4. Phil Hellmuth 458.25
5. Samuel Stein 416.13
Despite the tough poker economy and a handful of notable big poker stars sitting out this event due to affiliations with Full Tilt Poker, the field broke last year's number and reached 128 players.
Phil Laak was the first player eliminated, but many notables followed him on Day 2 were Daniel Negreanu, Jean-Robert Bellande, Jason Mercier, Allen Bari, Dan O'Brien, Mike Matusow, Justin Bonomo and Tom Dwan.
Only 74 players made it to Day three. On Day 3 eliminations included Steve Sung, Steve Billirakis, Brian Hastings, Sorel Mizzi, Jennifer Harman-Traniello, Erick Lindgren, Fabrice Soulier, Carlos Mortensen and John Racener.
Entering Day 4 Phil Galfond is the shortest stack and will need to double, triple or quadruple very early to continue to play into Day 4 and hope the reach the money. Other player who have made it deep but need some help to make the money include Barry Greenstein, Jeffrey Lisandro, Michael Binger, and David Oppenheim.
Top 12 with 29 players remaining:
1. Josh Arieh – 1,819,000
2. Brian Rast – 1,633,000
3. George Lind – 1,304,000
4. Vladimir Shchemelev – 1,181,000
5. Phil Hellmuth – 1,174,000
6. Scott Seiver – 1,137,000
7. Jon Turner – 948,000
8. Jason Lester – 948,000
9. Yan Chen – 887,000
10. Shaun Deeb - 876,000
11. Gus Hansen – 774,000
12. Minh Ly - 715,000
The goal Tuesday is to play down to the final table of eight, but the 10-level rule may come into effect.
Only 16 of the remaining 29 players will make the money:
1st - $1,720,328
2nd - $1,063,034
3rd - $665,763
4th - $482,058
5th - $376,750
6th - $300,441
7th - $243,978
8th - $201,338
9th-10th - $168,529
11th-12th - $143,400
13th-14th - $124,723
15th-16th - $108,503
