According to the ESPN crew, Brian Rast was just all in and at risk preflop with ace-king against the pocket aces of Ken Yamamoto and spiked a king on the flop and river to double up in fortunate fashion. Reduced to 14,000 earlier, Rast has recovered and doubled to a healthy stack of 84,000.
That's still not the biggest stack at the table, though, as Aymon Hata and Chris Fraser have it beat, and Florian Duta is not far behind.
Antonio Esfandiari appears to be the far shortest stack on the three feature tables right now and John Vossoughi has become the biggest stack ahead of Brian Yoon and Julian Stuer. Qui Nguyen is no longer featured and joined the list of former Main Event champions on the rail.
The board read 
and a player checked from early position. Govert Metaal bet 5,000 from middle position and his opponent called.
The 
landed on the river, the early-position player bet 5,000, Metaal raised to 17,000, and his opponent thought for several moments before making the call.
Metaal tabled 
for the nut flush and his opponent said, "So unreal!" as he turned over 
for the second-nut flush. Metaal took down the pot with his flush and will be looking to add a lot more to his stack by day's end.
Michael Perrone opened to 1,000 from middle position. Lisa Pickell in the cutoff called, along with Don Aylor in the small blind.
The flop came 
. Aylor bet 1,000 and Perrone raised to 2,500. Pickell folded, but Aylor three-bet to 5,000. Perrone called.
The turn came the 
. Aylor moved all in for 11,400 and Perrone called. Aylor tabled 
, but that wasn't good enough as Perrone showed 
. The river completed the board and Aylor was eliminated.
Matt Berkey got off to a red-hot start and he was one of the first players to cross the century chip mark. He has been involved in plenty of pots and his aggressive strategy is paying off.
Berkey is showing no signs of slowing down as he continues to add to his stack and he is now sitting behind a mountain of 217,000 chips.
A player raised to 1,000 and Toby Lewis called. One seat over, Ernest Hammerschmidt pushed all in for a total of 54,300. George Hamati was in the next seat and he wanted a count. When the amount was confirmed, Hamati called and the blinds and other players in the hand folded.
George Hamati: 
Ernest Hammerschmidt: 
The board ran out 
and Hamati took down the 270-big-blind pot with a full house.
Brian Rast and Bruce Virga were heads-up on the 
flop and both players checked. The turn was the and Rast led out with a bet of 2,600 into a main pot of about 9,000.
Virga called and the river was the 
. Rast fired out a bet of 8,500 and Virga moved all in for 10,125. Rast quickly called, turning over 
for a set of nines and Virga showed . Rast dragged in the pot and Virga was eliminated.
Christopher Cobb limped from middle position. Charles Barker, in the hijack, raised to 1,200. Stig Billgren called on the button.
Players saw a flop of 
. Cobb checked and Barker bet 1,400. Billgren and Cobb called. The turn brought the and Cobb checked again. Barker checked. Billgren fired a bet of 3,250 and that was enough to claim the pot.
"I am a live newcomer," David Lehnen said, as he doesn't have any WSOP cashes yet. The first three levels have been kind to the German as he jumped up to almost three times the starting stack.
Meanwhile, Jonathan Little, also seated in the Purple section, has experienced quite the opposite.
"I lost the minimum with top pair, top kicker against a set and lost kings to aces." Little will enter the fourth level of the day with half the starting stack.
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