Photo Recap: Day 3 of WPT World Championship

By BJ Nemeth

The season-ending WPT World Championship continued on Day 3 as 116 players battled another five levels, finishing with 52. About half of them would finish in the money (27 get paid), which should happen on Day 4. Here’s a photographic look at what happened on Day 3:

Phil Hellmuth takes a closer look on Day 3 of the WPT World Championship. Unfortunately, Hellmuth would finish Season IX like he finished the first eight seasons of the World Poker Tour — without a WPT title. Hellmuth busted in the second-to-last level of the day.

On Day 2, Table 49 was labeled the "Table of Doom" when six out of the nine players had WPT titles under their belt. Surprisingly, the same situation occurred on Day 3, as Table 49 had a different lineup that included six former WPT winners.

Seat 1. David Williams – WPT World Championship (Season VIII)
Seat 2. Daniel Alaei – WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic (Season VIII)
Seat 3. Elky Grospellier – WPT Festa al Lago (Season VII)
Seat 4. Scott Clements – WPT North American Poker Championship (Season VI)
Seat 5. Tom Drivas
Seat 6. Scott Seiver
Seat 7. Alan Sternberg – WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star (Season IX)
Seat 8. Justin Young
Seat 9. Roberto Romanello – WPT Bratislava (Season IX)

WPT Anchor Kimberly Lansing interviewed WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star champion Alan Sternberg during the first break. Lansing may have passed along some good fortune, because when action resumed after the break, Sternberg flopped a set to win a pot that moved him into the chip lead.

When Alan Sternberg won the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star earlier this season, who was the runner-up? It was Steven Kelly, pictured here, and in the middle of Day 3 the two players were ranked #1 and #2 in the chip counts. Seeing their names at the top of the leaderboard added a little stress to current WPT Player of the Year points leader Andy Frankenberger, because Sternberg and Kelly are both in the hunt to pass Frankenberger for the POY title.

Galen Hall (far right) studies the board of [7s6s6c8s4s] after Andrew Lichtenberger (far left) bet 180,000 on the river. Hall would eventually fold, forfeiting the pot to Lichtenberger.

Hafiz Khan was all in preflop with [KsJs] and facing elimination at the hands of Season IV WPT World Champion Joe Bartholdi, who dominated Khan with [AhJh]. But the table cheered when the flop came [AsQs10s] — giving Khan a royal flush. Amazingly, the [9s] on the turn gave Khan the even-rarer six-card straight flush. Khan doubled up, and went on to survive the day with a short stack, while Bartholdi busted a little while later.

WPT Player of the Year points leader Andy Frankenberger (top right) watches as Nenad Medic (top center) calls a bet on the turn from Shawn Cunix (foreground, left). Cunix would then move all in on the river with the board showing [Ac7h5sAdAh], and Medic insta-called with [AsKs] for quad aces. Cunix mucked, claiming to have 7-7. With this pot, Medic catapulted into the chip lead.

Doyle Brunson never made a lot of noise on Day 3, and wasn’t among the chipleaders. But it was impossible to not feel his presence, and as long as he still has chips, he is a threat to win it all. Brunson survived the day with a below-average stack.

In a preflop three-way all-in situation, Season VI WPT World Champion David Chiu (center) eliminated two players — Curt Kohlberg (standing, left) and Joe Elpayaa (right). Chiu’s [KcKd] held up against Kohlberg’s [QcQh] and Elpayaa’s [2d2h] on a board of [10s5s4sAh5d]. Ashton Griffin, who folded [10d10h] after two players moved all in behind him, would have won the pot to become chipleader if he had, in his own words, "made a bad call." Both Chiu and Griffin survived the day.

As the final level of the day began, dusk was turning into night and the famous Bellagio Water Fountains lit up the mini-lake in front of the casino.

Shannon Shorr (left) raised from late position to 15,000, Scott Seiver reraised from the cutoff to 42,500, and Shorr reraised to 104,500. Seiver thinks for a few moments with his hands in front of his face before he folds.

Defending WPT World Champion David Williams plays the final hand of the day while Steven Kelly counts his stack before the bag-and-tag process begins. Kelly finished third in chips with 1,005,000, while Williams survived with an average stack of 480,000.

The Day 3 chipleader is Sam El Sayed, who won the WPT Amneville event in France earlier this season. (El Sayed is seen here in this photo from Day 1 at Bellagio.)

1. Sam El Sayed – 1,107,000 (138 BBs)
2. Nenad Medic – 1,098,500 (137 BBs)
3. Steven Kelly – 1,000,500 (125 BBs)
4. Christian Harder – 887,000 (110 BBs)
5. Roger Teska – 846,000 (105 BBs)
6. Shannon Shorr – 819,500 (102 BBs)
7. David Chiu – 772,000 (96 BBs)
8. Justin Young – 688,000 (86 BBs)
9. Alan Sternberg – 676,500 (84 BBs)
10. Galen Hall – 659,000 (82 BBs)

Day 4 begins at 12:00 noon PT. Return to WorldPokerTour.com for continuing live coverage, including hand updates, frequent chip counts, video interviews with Kimberly Lansing, and another episode of the Jess & BJ Show.