Photo Recap: Day 3 of WPT Foxwoods

By BJ Nemeth

Day 3 of WPT Foxwoods began with 68 players, and it seemed like they would be able to break the money bubble — but they didn’t. Play ended after five levels, and there were still 28 players left. With 25 finishing in the money, that means three players will return for Day 4 but go home empty handed.

At the end of Day 3, there were 28 players left, with an average chip stack around 260,000. Here is the top of the leaderboard:

1. Chris Hunichen – 714,000 (142 bb)
2. Nikolai Yakovenko – 580,000 (116 bb)
3. Josh Arieh – 548,500 (109 bb)
4. Ben Klier – 465,500 (93 bb)
5. Keven Stammen – 387,000 (77 bb)
6. Mohsin Charania – 349,000 (69 bb)
7. Jeff Forrest – 342,500 (68 bb)
8. Jason Mercier – 342,000 (68 bb)
9. Gavin Smith – 307,500 (61 bb)
10. Bryon Springer – 293,000 (58 bb)

And now, a photographic look back at Day 3 of the WPT Foxwoods World Poker Finals:

Foxwoods Casino has set up a webcam to provide overhead streaming video of one table each day, and the featured table for the start of Day 3 was packed with notable players. In clockwise order from the dealers left: Miami John Cernuto (seat 1), Erik Seidel (seat 2), Ben Klier (seat 3), Nikolai Yakovenko (seat 4), Chris McCormack (seat 5), Gavin Smith (seat 6), Chad Brown (seat 7), Barry Greenstein (seat 8), and Bryon Springer (seat 9).

During the first level of Day 3, chipleader Kyle Bowker took some hits to his stack, opening the door for Josh Arieh (pictured) to take over the tournament chip lead. Arieh stayed strong throughout the day, finishing third on the leaderboard with 548,500.

The grey chips on the left are worth 5,000 each, while the light purple chips on the right are worth 500 each. If you think they look similar in this close-up photo, imagine looking at them from across a poker table and trying to determine how much somebody has bet or how many chips a player has behind.

An unfortunate situation was created when a table was broken one player too early, and Howard Lederer was stuck without a seat. The staff decided to make one table 10-handed temporarily, and the randomly selected table included Allen Kessler (left) who questioned the situation. To read the full post, click here.

Mohsin Charania was one of several players who held the chip lead on Day 3. Charania finished the day sixth on the leaderboard with 349,000.

After Chad Brown was eliminated from the featured table early in the day, a politician took the seat next to Gavin Smith. John Matson is running for Congress, and he had one of his vote-for-me bumper stickers on the table next to his chips. Shortly after Matson sat down, Gavin sent the following message on Twitter: @oleGSmith: "Have 250k, just got rivered for 100k pot by a nice old guy who is running for congress in RI, he lost my vote :)" Unfortunately, Matson lost more than that, because he didn’t survive the day.

Kimberly Lansing tries to pass some good luck to Gavin Smith through his hair during a break interview on Day 3. Gavin finished the day among the top 10 in chips, so it may have worked.

Sorel Mizzi (pictured) and Thomas Marchese are not only vying for their first WPT final tables, but they are also ranked in the top three for a couple of 2010 Player of the Year rankings. Depending on how deep they both finish, this tournament could have a big impact on those POY races.

Hoyt Corkins (left) faces a bet on the river from Mohsin Charania (right) as Ben Klier sits between them at the featured table. Corkins is the last remaining former WPT Foxwoods winner in the field, and he picked up his second WPT title earlier this year in Biloxi. Could Corkins join Gus Hansen as the players with three WPT titles? All three of these players survived the day — Ben Klier (465,500), Mohsin Charania (349,000), and Hoyt Corkins (239,000).

Jason Mercier is widely recognized as one of the best young players in the world, but to this point in his career, he has found success everywhere except the World Poker Tour. In 15 attempts, Mercier has only cashed once. Mercier hopes to improve to 2-for-16 by reaching the money tomorrow, and if he goes all the way and wins this event, he’ll become only the third player in history to win poker’s triple crown. Mercier finished the day eighth in chips with 342,000.

In one of the final hands of the day, Nikolai Yakovenko (left) bet 75,000 into Gavin Smith on the river with the board showing [Ks9c6d10sJh]. Smith tanked for several minutes before calling with [8c7c] for a ten-high straight on the turn. But Yakovenko turned over [AsQc] to win the pot with an ace-high straight on the river. This was the pot that knocked Smith out of the top five and propelled Yakovenko into second place to end the day with 580,000 in chips.

Day 4 begins tomorrow (Sunday) at 12:00 noon ET. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for continuing live coverage, including hand updates, frequent chip counts, video interviews with Kimberly Lansing, and the still-unnamed recap show starring Jessica Welman and BJ Nemeth.