Just 46 players remain of the original 529 entries in the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event after Day 3 of action at King’s Casino in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. Sitting atop the standings is the UK’s Robert Bickley with 1.431 million chips
It can be interesting to see how the standings change day to day in a large tournament. Going into Day 3, Vishal Maini was in first place with 651,000 chips and nobody was close to him, on a relative scale, as he had nearly 200,000 more chips than the second place player. Maini is still among the leaders, but he was unable to amass many chips on Tuesday, finishing the day with only 790,000, about half of what Bickley has.
Whereas Maini had a substantial lead at the end of Monday, the top of the leader board is much more congested (again, looking at the chip stacks in a relative sense) after Day 3. Following Bickley is Jack Salter with 1.396 million chips, then two players – Rainer Kempe and Michal Mrakes – have 1.254 million and 1.245 million chips, respectively. Two more players have over a million: Kristen Bicknell (1.085 million) and Vlad Darie (1.045 million).
Bickley rose to the chip lead through strong play throughout the day, obviously, but the very last hand of the night was what allowed him to leapfrog into the pole position. According to the WSOP.com live report, Philipp Gruissem bet 23,000 pre-flop and Bickley re-raised to 63,000. Gruissem then moved all-in for 256,000 more and Bickley quickly called.
Gruissem was being bold with just K-T, perhaps feeling he needed to make his stand or perhaps thinking Bickley was just bullying him. Either way, he was in trouble against Bickley’s A-K suited. It was largely academic when an Ace flopped and officially locked up when another hit on the turn, eliminated Gruissem and elevating Bickley into the chip lead.
According to TheHendonMob.com, Robert Bickley has $75,871 in live tournament earnings, most of which came in a single cash this summer, when he finished second in a $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em event at the Deepstack Extravaganza III for $56,037. He is guaranteed about one-third of his lifetime total already, even if he is the first to bust out on Wednesday, so not a bad week for Robert!
Normally, we could tell you exactly what the schedule would be for Day 4, but it is a little up in the air. Either six or seven 90-minute levels will be played with 20 minute breaks in between each. After the fourth level played, there will be a dinner break which will last an hour or an hour and a half. It all probably just depends on how things are going. Either way, Day 4 should end with the final table nearly determined.
2017 World Series of Poker Main Event – Day 3 Chip Leaders
1. Robert Bickley – 1,431,000
2. Jack Salter – 1,396,000
3. Rainer Kempe – 1,254,000
4. Michal Mrakes – 1,245,000
5. Kristen Bicknell – 1,085,000
6. Vlad Darie – 1,045,000
7. Marc MacDonnell – 895,000
8. Vishal Maini – 790,000
9. Niall Farrell – 745,000
10. Chi Zhang – 699,000