Johnny Chan among the leaders after Day 3

Poker legend Johnny Chan continued to hover near the top of the leader board following Day 3 of the World Series of Poker’s Main Event.

When play resumes today at noon at the Rio in the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em World Championship, Chan will find himself in 10th place out of the remaining 1,240 players.

Chan, is a 10-time individual event bracelet winner at the World Series of Poker and won the event twice, in 1987 and 1988. In 1989, Chan was runner-up to champion Phil Hellmuth.

In his career, Chan, who lives in the Los Angeles area, has more than $4.24 million in career World Series of Poker earnings, about half of the top prize of $8.9 million that the 2010 winner will collect.

Monday saw the departure of defending World Series of Poker Main Event Champion Joe Cada, who was knocked out late in the afternoon.

Also eliminated Monday were noted professionals Phil Laak, Jennifer Harman, 2003 champion Chris Moneymaker, David Williams, and Erik Seidel. Also sent to the rail were Vanessa Rousso and Daniel Negreanu and University of Kentucky student Billy Kopp, who made a valiant run toward the top last year, but just missed reaching the final table.

A field of 7,319, second highest in World Series of Poker history, began play last week in the tournament.

According to event updates on the World Series of Poker website — www.wsop.com — Henderson’s James Carroll is the chip leader going into Day 4, about 60,000 chips ahead of Chicago’s Imari Love.