Pay Up!: WPT World Championship Day 3

It's hard not to compare the WPT World Championship to its European counterpart, the EPT Grand Final, but on Day 3 of the former it became obvious that the two couldn't be more different - and not in the way you might expect.

The WPT blasted through 143 players in just five levels of play and smashed the money bubble in a matter of minutes. The EPT was the exact opposite, with more than two and a half hours devoted to bursting the bubble. Somewhat ironic considering the number of Europeans who are known for their aggressive game.

What do you mean, Phil Ivey didn't win?

Day 3 began with 188 players all looking to get a piece of that monstrous $13 million prize pool. Robert Mizrachi and Jayde Tran were at the head of the pack, with $523,000 and $406,000 respectively.

As soon as the day started there was a steady stream of players leaving the Fontana Room. Among them were Scotty Nguyen, John Juanda, Dan Harrington, Phil Ivey and Mike Matusow. Ivey was probably the most surprising eliminatee because he's been playing so well lately you almost expect the guy to make the final table by default.

On the other hand, Jayde Tran was almost unbeatable in the early stages and quickly built her stack up to around $700,000 chips. Jayde is Kenny Tran's wife and at one point in the day they were sitting at adjacent tables with their backs almost touching. Both players merely had to lean back to see how their partner was doing.

At least the Celtics are still kicking ass...

The money bubble was not a painful experience for the media covering the event, but it was another story for Jordan Rich. The WPT Five Diamond final-table finisher was ousted one place out of the money in a rather nasty hand. Rich got all-in pre-flop with aces and got called by Amir Vahedi with pocket eights. The flop brought an eight and the rest is history.

The bubble bursting combined with a relatively flat payout structure ensured that play wouldn't slow down. In the next 30 minutes 10 players were eliminated and the action simply didn't let up until the last hand of the day.

One of the biggest stories of the day besides the fast play was Tournament Director Jack McClelland's decision to let players show one card instead of the old "Show one, show all" rule. It's been a rule that many players, including Daniel Negreanu, have been campaigning to change for past couple of years and after a quick vote in the Bellagio it was instituted as a new rule.

It remains to be seen if other poker rooms and poker tours will follow suit but the Bellagio will always be remembered as one of the first facilities to jump on board.

The rule change didn't help Negreanu, on this particular day, as he was eliminated shortly thereafter in one of the most talked-about hands of the day.

In it, Negreanu saw a flop of T 9 4 against Brian Rast and two other players. Rast bet $65,000 and Negreanu moved in over the top for $189,000. Player 3 decided to re-shove for about $190,000 and Player 4 implemented the seldom used re-re-shove. After thinking for a long time Rast decided to call, feeling that he was priced in. When the dust had settled the players' hands looked like this:

Rast: 8 7

Negreanu: J J

P3: T T

P4: T 9

The board finished with the Q and then... the J! Negreanu made his set but Rast made his straight and knocked out three players in the process. Kid Poker is left to wonder what might have been if he had been able to rake the $800,000 pot.

You might have thought that was enough action for one day but there was one more gigantic hand coming before the day would finish. On the second-to-last hand of the day chip leader Tim Phan decided he wanted to dance with Gus Hansen who was also stacked, holding approximately $1 million.

Advantage goes to Gus Hansen.

In the hand there was $200,000 invested in the pot before the flop which ended up coming A 4 3. Phan checked to Hansen and the Great Dane made a pot-sized bet of $200,000. Phan immediately went all-in and Hansen made the call for his last $860,000, flipping over A K, which had Phan's A Q crushed.

The board finished 8 and then J. The $2+ million pot is shipped to Hansen while Phan was left with only $110,000 chips to his name and will likely not sleep well tonight.

Hansen finished the day on top with $2.2 million, while Canadian Cory Carrol is right behind him with $1.9 million and David Chiu slides into third with $1.2 million. PokerListings blogger Steve Wong, Martin de Knijff, Nick Binger, Tom Dwan and Robert Mizrachi are all still in the running as well. Defending champion Carlos Mortensen is still in this thing as well and despite all odds still has a shot at repeating.

Check back tomorrow to see if Hansen can take his $2.2 million and get yet one step closer to what will likely be a historical final table of the 2008 WPT World Championship.