WSOP Main Event 2011 - Day Three Report - Poirier and Jace break 1million mark

RIO CASINO, LAS VEGAS - Day 3 of the Main Event saw 1,864 players return to the Rio Casino's Pavilion and Amazon Rooms to do battle to make Day 4 and get a step closer to winning poker's biggest prize. It was an historic day for the WSOP as it was the first time that the Main Event had been streamed live on ESPN. Live coverage, without hole cards, will continue for all remaining days.

Over a thousand players were knocked out during the four two-hour levels and 852 will return at 12pm (Pacific Time) Friday to try and build a big stack for the inevitable "bubble" that will burst tomorrow. 693 players are paid in the Main Event this year and with only 158 players remaining to be knocked out, Day 4 will see the money bubble burst.

From the thousand or so players to be knocked out there are plenty of big names including Patrik Antonius, Annette Obrestad, Huck Seed, Jason Mercier and Shaun Deeb who will not be returning to the Rio on Friday.

Deeb, a reknowned tournament pro from the United States, lost most of his chips after a raising war before the flop saw him all-in with pocket Aces against the Ace-Six offsuit of German pro Max Heinzelmann. A six came on the flop and brutally on the river to reduce Deeb's stack to just under 20,000 and he was knocked out soon after. The American will have impressed many watching the ESPN stream with his conduct after the bad beat and his willingness to be interviewed after the event; he was just happy to get his chips in good.

Two players who seemingly managed to get their chips in good all day are the two big stacks Patrick Poirier and Daryl Jace, who sit atop of the leaderboard with 1,328,000 and 1,282,500 respectively. There chip counts are particularly impressive when the fact that last year's end of Day 3 chip leader James Carroll has just over 800,000.

The top two in the Player of the Year race survived a tough day on the felt to make it through to Day 4. Ben Lamb, who went into Day 3 as chip leader with 551,600, trod water for most of the day and ended up with a still above average stack of 450,000. Phil Hellmuth on the other hand will be nursing a short stack on Friday as he only has 77,000 chips after another rough day in the Main Event saw the Poker Brat's stack fluctuate from majorly short to just about average for the whole day.

Joseph Cheong (pictured) is the only player from last year's November Nine still standing this year. He has a stack of 410,500 going into Day 4.

Chipcounts from WSOP.com

Day 4 begins Friday at 12pm PT (8pm BST)