Pablo Fernandez defended his big blind against the button raise by Leonardo Vilela and checked the flop. Vilela moved all in and Fernandez reluctantly called for his last 102,000.
Fernandez:
Vilela:
The turn and river were both blanks and Fernandez doubled.
At the same time on a different table, Chi Zhang raised from the button and Pete Chen defended his big blind. Chen check-called a continuation bet for 25,000 on the flop and did so again for 63,000 on the turn. The river compared the board and Chen checked again. Zhang moved all in and Chen double-checked his cards to make sure he had the right suit, then snap-called.
Zhang showed for a busted straight draw and Chen doubled for 203,000 with for the nut flush.
After two raises and successful three-bets on other tables, Matthew Bucciero raised to 25,000 from under the gun and Asi Moshe three-bet to 76,000 after asking his opponent for the stack size. Bucciero called and checked the flop. Moshe bet 50,000 and Bucciero gave it some consideration before shoving for his last 160,000. Moshe said, "Was that a misclick preflop?" but called it off and the cards were tabled.
Bucciero:
Moshe:
The turn left Bucciero drawing dead, making the river a formality.
Only 30 players out of the original 1,086 entries still have a chance to win gold in Event #29: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em. From a total prize pool of $2,443,500, the top prize up for grabs is $456,822. All players returning for Day 3 are guaranteed a minimum payout of $10,868 and the top five players will be receiving six-figure paydays.
Eddy Sabat is the overwhelming chip leader heading into Day 3 with a stack of 1,866,000. Though Sabat has had success in the WSOP, he is looking to win his first bracelet. He is in good position to battle for the win starting the day with more than twice as many chips as the second biggest stack of 921,000 which belongs to Asi Moshe. Tom Thomas is third in chips at the start of play with 861,000.
Several other top players are still in the field, including UK's Scott Margereson (712,000) and Chi Zhang (674,000), Giuseppe Pantaleo (568,000), Curt Kohlberg (376,000), John Dolan (305,000), Jonathan Abdellatif (252,000), and 2015 November Niner Federico Butteroni (236,000).
Players return for the Day 3 restart Saturday at 12 p.m. local time. Levels will be 60 minutes long again with breaks every 20 minutes and an hour-long dinner break after 6.5 levels of play, at approximately 7 p.m. Play will continue for ten levels or until a winner is declared.
Be sure to follow along right here at PokerNews.com to catch all the action.