While he had several outbursts, 2 of them stood out from the rest.  In one hand, he went to the flop with the lead of KQ to KJ.  His opponent took the lead on the flop with a J hitting and the K on the river spelled disaster for Hellmuth.  He continued to call down and then expected to win when he hit the river.  He went off on the dealer about how he allowed a dominated hand to catch up to him as though it is unacceptable for anyone to hit a hand against him.

His last tirade of the day came during the last few minutes.  The tournaments have had countdowns in the last 10 minutes by drawing cards to decide how many hands would be played.  This prevents players from stalling so that they can avoid the blinds at the end of the day.  For some reason, the tournament director allowed them to play down to zero and Hellmuth once again went off.  While his point was correct, the scenes that he makes are quite annoying.

While the antics of Hellmuth tend to steal the headlines, the real story is the humongous stack that Bertrand Grospellier has managed to build.  With a stack of 1,380,500, he holds over 400,000 to the second place player.  While he was building his stack, well over 1,500 players found the rail.  Some of the most notable victims of the day were: Jennifer Harman, Grey Raymer, Marco Traniello, John Cernuto, John Juanda, Robert Mizrachi, Jason Alexander, Matthew Vogel, Jeff Lisandro and David Ulliott.

Even though he was knocked out, Jeff Lisandro has wrapped up the Player of the Year Award as he had outlasted everyone that was within striking distance.  There is no denying that he was far and away the best of the season with 3 bracelets to his credit and several other deep runs.

Day 4 will kick off at noon and there should still be plenty of fireworks to see.  With 800 players still alive, we are over 100 people away from the bubble.  Expect some aggressive play until there are about 10 players to go when the play will slow down dramatically.  The short stacks will delay every hand in the hopes that someone else will get knocked out before them and the big stacks will get hyper-aggressive in the hopes of stealing blind after blind.

The field has to be worried that three of the hottest players in this year’s WSOP are gathering chips in much the same fashion that they did on their way to bracelets already this year.  Phil Ivey (376,000), Greg Mueller (287,300) and Jeff Lisandro (229,300) all have formidable stacks and they way that they have been playing this year, people have to be worried when they take a seat at their tables.

Friday marks the first time that all of the players will be sitting in the same room.  The field got a rest day on Thursday  and everyone comes back fresh for the big run at the final table.  The overall chip leader will be Amir Lehavot (610,500) when they get started again.  He has caught an amazing run of cards and has a 150,000 chip lead over the next closest player.  That is quite amazing at this level of the tournament.  It is actually reminiscent of the run that Jamie Gold put together when he won his championship.  He continue to hold a huge lead throughout as nobody ever seemed to be able to put the hands together that could make a dent in his stack.

Other notable players that still have chips in front of them are Eric Cloutier (383,500), JC Tran (284,600), Kenny Tran (273,000), Justin Bonomo (223,300), Paul Wasicka (184,900), Dutch Boyd (163,600) and Phil Hellmuth (142,900).

Day 3 should see some decent movement as some of the newbies start to get antsy, especially when they are sitting at a table with one of the big name pros.  If any of these players can catch a run of cards, their stack will get humongous as the amateurs seek to be the one that took them out.  Someone like Hellmuth could walk out of the session with well over 1,000,000 in chips if the poker gods are looking down at him in a positive way.

While Mueller was at the top of the leader board throughout this tournament, the heads up battle was anything but easy. Marc Naalden gave him everything he could handle and actually looked as though he was going to win this at one point. The cards ended up changing and Mueller was able to take down the event. Naalden won $120,614 for second place.

In other tournaments…

The $50 K H.O.R.S.E. Event continues on and they are now down to 19 players and should be playing down to a champion on Monday. Vitaly Lunkin continues to impress with his play and while he was not able to dramatically increase his overall chip lead, he is still in first place with 1,527,000. Freddy Deeb is having a wonderful tournament and you can expect to continue to see him among the leaders. The one notable downfall has been Gus Hansen. At one time, he was way ahead of the field, but he has since come back to reality and now only has 801,000 in chips.

Event 51 players have already played to the max time for the last two days and will be back early on Monday to try and finish this event. We knew they were in trouble with a low elimination number in day one and with 30 players left, they will have to come back at 1pm to play down to a winner. Thibaut Durand has taken over the lead and has 1,650,000 in his stack.

The Triple Chance Tournament has been a lot of fun to watch and has some interesting names at the top of the leader board. Of course, Jeff Lisandro is making his customary appearance, but Antonio Esfandiari is finally being heard from and sits in the top 5. John Juanda is also still kicking in this one, but his stack is screaming for help with only 42,600 in chips.

Event 53 is well under way and has only 143 players left in the field of 467. Allie Prescot is the current chip leader with 52,500, but there is still some high powered talent close behind. Most notably, Annie Duke is sitting in 6th place with 36,600 and Daniel Negreanu rounds out the top 10 with 33,100 in chips.

In other tournaments…

There are only 20 players left in the Omaha Split tourney, but nobody is even close to Brandon Cantu at this point. He has had an unbelievably dominating day and is almost seems as though he is the only player winning big hands. While he entered this day with a very close leader board, he has since taken over the tournament and accumulated almost a million in chips. With the next closest player only having 280,000, this is his tournament to lose.

The $50,000 World Championship H.O.R.S.E. Tournament may have a short field, but the first place prize is anything but. The winner of this very prestigious tournament will walk away with $1,276,802 and the title of the best all around player in the game. Justin Smith has made some early moves and currently leads the tournament with 290,000, but he is going to have to fight off the likes of Jeff Lisandro, Daniel Negreunu and Scotty Nguyen if he wants to take down this tournament. Nobody has been eliminated yet, but there are some amazingly short stacks from the 150,000 starting point.

The Limit Hold’em Shootout tournament has gotten underway and has a surprisingly small field of 571 players. This format is very popular and you would have thought that they would have hit the 1,000 player max on this one. Perhaps everyone is catching some rest before the Main Event gets here or they are enjoying the H.O.R.S.E. tournament. This one has just gone to dinner break.

In other tournaments…

While it has already been mentioned in a previous post, Jeff Lisandro winning a third bracelet in a single WSOP warrants a quick review. The last time that someone won 3 bracelets in a single season was when Ivey did it in 2002. However, the fact that he has done it in all three versions of 7 Card Stud is simply incredible. He has been playing incredible and is now one of the favorites for player of the year.

Event 45 is down to the final 14 and should be an early finisher on Thursday. This is a tournament that has moved along nicely during each session and with the chip leader having about 30% of the chips in play, the rest of the field is going to have a very tough time of it when they get into pots with him. Expect fast and furious action when this one resumes on Friday.

Event 46, the Omaha Hi/Low Split Event, has made it down to the final 23 and they will play to a winner on Friday. This one has seen some radical changes on the leader board for the entire tournament and it would be no surprise to see that trend continue. Mark Tenner is current chip leader with 285,000 in his stack.

The Mixed Hold’em Event got underway on Wednesday and had a star studded field. Barry Greenstein has taken the chip lead with 177,200 in chips, but the every annoying Hasan Habib is a close second with 165,000. If you don’t remember Habib, he is the one that did this little monkey dance around the tables a few years back every time he eliminated a player. A new rule has been invoked just because of his antics that does not allow a player to leave their seat to celebrate a victory in a hand. Eli Elezra is also high up on the leader board as well as Daniel Negreanu.