Day 3 of the 2009 World Series of Poker Main Event saw all our potential champions finally come together, not only on the same day but eventually even in the same room.  2,044 players began the third day of poker's biggest dance and only 789 finished it, not quite in the money but awfully close. 

Within that group of survivors still sit some incredibly talented and feared players including Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier, who used the day to begin his own unique style of poker domination, that outside of the WSOP has already earned him serious respect as well as $5,000,000 in tournament cashes and major titles in both the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour.  ElkY has yet to earn his first WSOP bracelet, but after ending Day 3 with over 1.3 million in tournament chips- more than 5 times the current average, perhaps he was just waiting to win the big one.

Of course no one in the Amazon room is willing to exactly tip their king just yet,  Bertrand still needs to get through an incredibly tough group of survivors that includes Phil Ivey, Phil Hellmuth, Jimmy Fricke, Hevad Khan, Maridu Mayrinck, Dennis Phillips, Scott Ian (of the band Anthrax), Tom Schneider, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Kristy Gazes, Isaac Baron, Kara Scott, Antonio Esfandiari, Joe Hachem, J.C. Tran, Jordan Morgan, Greg "FBT" Mueller, Bobby Baldwin,  Blair Hinkle, Kevin Saul, Defending Champion Peter Eastgate, and the President of PokerRoad Joe Sebok, who ended the day with an above average stack despite dealing with the evil flu bug that has sidelined so many pros already during this WSOP.

Top players that weren't so lucky and instead saw their WSOP end on Friday include Erik Seidel, Roland de Wolfe, Brian Micon, Pam Brunson, Bill Gazes, Jesse Jones, Eric "Rizen" Lynch, Jennifer Harman, Bill Edler, Sammy Farha, Kirill Gerasimov, Humberto Brenes, Jean-Robert Bellande, Darus Suharto, Greg Raymer, Carlos Mortensen, Liz Lieu, Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler, Raymond Rahme, Kirk Morrison, Eugene Todd "Bro," John Juanda, Nam Le, Jason Alexander, Shawn Buchanan and now "official" 2009 World Series of Poker Player of the Year Jeff Lisandro.

With Day 3 of the World Series of Poker Main Event quickly becoming a distant memory, the survivors have already begun contending with Day 4, and as Day 4 is "money bubble day" things are about to get even more interesting.  For further details or to follow the action live online visit www.worldseriesofpoker.com, powered by PokerNews.


Story by Mark Anderson

Sweet Tweets* from Day 3 of the big dance.

Locked and loaded. About to get started. Send some solid, good vibes. And perhaps some white blood cells too!
-Joe Sebok

Omfg some 70 year old guy just tried to barrel some 20 something asian kid.
-Jimmy Fricke

sigh..guy on my left doesnt stop talking..thank g*d for ipods
-Kevin Saul

Sorry to see Seidel get eliminated-great guy and great player...I am playing tight and agressive.
-Phil Hellmuth

Just got moved to new table. Right into big blind. Should of pretended I missed the table. Lol. I got 80k
-Eugene Todd

I Wish my name was Elky... I flopped top set and lost 50k with it.
-Fabrice Soulier

Horrible table as blair rodman and fabrice soulier are w big stacks. I have 245 and I'm 5th in chips at my table.
-Kelly Kim

Back at it after dinner break. Slept on a bench in the hallway for most of it. That's right. A guy even put $1 in my hand. Ship it
-Joe Sebok

Zomg i've never grinded so patiently a short stack. I deserve a double up and a cookie imo
-Maria Mayrinck

Thought I would be miserable getting knocked out. Wrong I'm suicidal
-Eugene Todd

Thanks Jennifer N for letting me touch ur rack!!!!
-Kristy Gazes

*A sampling of Twitter posts from Event #57, courtesy of the PokerRoad Nation.