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Fifty six players came into day 3 of the Mandalay Bay Poker Classic, 6 would fail to cash, and only 18 would go on to day 4 and compete for a place on the TV table.

With all of the big name casualties on day 2 only John Juanda, Carlos Mortensen, Erik Seidel, Hasan Habib, Tuan Le, and Harry Demetriou were left flyign the flag of recognised pros.

When Danny Smith became the bubble boy going out in 51st place it meant Juanda, Demetriou and Kristy Gazes would finish in the money for the second consecutive WPT tournament.

Gazes, whos husband Bill is no stranger to WPT events himself, making the final table in the LA Poker Classic, was playing strongly but found trouble in the shape of pocket aces. She moved all-in pre flop and when Patrik Antonius flipped up pocket jacks she looked in great shape, K-Q-T on the flop changed all that, and when the ace spiked on the river Antonius had his straight and Gazes was heading home with her aces cracked.

Antonius then found himself in trouble when he was moved to at a table with Day 2 chip leader Brad “Yukon” Booth ($335,500), Carlos Mortensen ($205,000), and Joe Tehan ($355,000). With two spades in hand and 3 on the board at the turn Antonius pushed when the river came blank possibly putting Joe Tehan on a draw, unfortunatly Tehan called and he also had 2 spades in hand, including the ace. Tehan who was already chip leader now had a commanding lead, a lead he held for the rest of the day, followed closely all day by WPT boot camp instructor Alex Outhred and Brad “Yukon” Booth.

The chip leaders at the end of the day were:

1. Joe Tehan - $1,056,000

2. Alex Outhred - $902,000

3. Brad “Yukon” Booth - $721,000

4. Thomas Koral - $590,000

5. Mike Landers - $531,000

The other notables not in the top are Tim Phan $388,000 and Carlos Mortensen $243,000 who both have enough chips and enough gamble to make a serious tilt on the final day.

Shane @ Poker.com