After another 5 full levels day 3 play is complete, with a mere 24 players left with chips. The last level of the day saw some action, excitement and big pots. Some standard, some leaving eyebrows raised and heads shaking. At the end of play John Juanda, Daniel Negreanu and Justin “Boosted J” Smith (below left) had the biggest piles in front of them and will lead the way starting day 4 play tomorrow.

Brian “sbrugby” Townsend came out on the good end of one of the head shakers. In a pot where Scott “emptyseat88″ Fischman was raised preflop by Townsend, and then Townsend was raised by Ivan Demidov things got whacky. Fischman decided to put in another raise, enough to commit him to the pot were either Townsend or Demidov willing to go all in.

Brian went into the tank for a long time before finally putting the rest of his chips in. Once Demidov passed it was back to Fischman who had to call the few more chips no matter his holding. He did, turning over the solid holding of T-2 offsuit. Townsend had one of the very few hands he could have in this spot with his pocket kings.

“I wasn’t trying to bluff you,” Fischman said after the hand. “I was trying to bluff him,” indicating Demidov. Townsend waking up with kings put a kink in Fischman’s plan and cost him 200k chips that ended up going to Townsend who finished the day with 424,500.

The top 3 all finished with over 600k, with John Juanda and his 657,500 just ahead of Negreanu’s 653,000. Smith is not far behind with 624,500. All three have had a lot of chips for most of the tournament and are playing really well with large stacks in front of them.

For Peter “#1Pen” Neff (right) his 213,500 is less than he would like to have, especially after spiking up to around 400k late in the day, but he is still in decent shape and has plenty of chips to work with relative to the blind levels for the first few levels tomorrow. The first level of play tomorrow will be at 2,500 / 5k with a 500 ante and the next level goes to 3k / 6k with a 1k ante.

While Neff has 42 big blinds to start the day Tim “Tmay420″ West is in a familiar spot. His 63,500 represents just over 12 big blinds. He has been hanging around with just over 10 big blinds for most of the tournament, his patience never waning. Tim will be looking for a quick start tomorrow to give him some room to work.

A full rundown of the players still in, their chip counts and tomorrows starting table and seat are listed below. Day 4 play will take the field down to the final 9.

• October 1, 2008 -- Boosted Busted, Townsend Gone Too
• September 29, 2008 -- Finish Strong, Day 2 Complete
• October 1, 2008 -- One Level, 6 Players Down
• October 1, 2008 -- WSOPE Day 4, West Out Early