Money bubble expected to be reached during Day 4 at the WSOP

More than half of Day 3’s starting field at the World Series of Poker’s Main Event was eliminated from the tournament Thursday at the Rio.

Sometime during Day 4’s action Friday, the field in the $10,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em World Championship will reach the money bubble, when players who finish in 693rd place (or better) are each guaranteed to receive at least $19,359 in prize money.

Last week, 6,865 players, third highest in Main Event history, began play.

On Thursday, 1,864 players took part in Day 3.

Friday’s Day 4 action will begin with 852 players.

The chip leader going into Friday is Patrick Poirier of Tupper Lake, NY, who is one of just two players with more than 1 million in tournament chips. Poirier has 1,328,000 in chips while Daryl Jace of Saugus, Mass., is in second with 1,282,000 in chips.

Ben Lamb of Tulsa, Okla., who started Day 3 as the chip leader, saw his stack dwindle to 354,500 and he sits in 174th.

While many past World Series of Poker champions were eliminated Thursday, 1989 champion Phil Hellmuth Jr., holder of 11 individual event champion bracelets, had a rollercoaster day, surviving with 77,000 in chips.

One player from last year’s Main Event final table of nine remains in contention. Joseph Cheong of La Mirada, Calif., is in 116th place with 410,500 in chips.

Other notables still playing are past World Series of Poker Player of the Year Allen Cunningham, who has 274,000 in chips, and Daniel Negreanu, who spent much of Thursday on ESPN’s feature table, where action was broadcasted live at times during the day on ESPN2 and ESPN3, which is available online.

Negreanu is in 400th place with 207,300 in chips.

Sometime in the early morning hours next Wednesday, the nine-player final table will be determined with the participants returning to the Rio in November to play for the top prize of $8.7 million. Eight of the nine final players will win in excess of $1 million.