Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg (pictured at left) has never had any luck in the WSOP Main Event. Not only has he not cashed in any of his four attempts in the Main Event, he’d never gotten any higher than 12k in chips when the Main Event started with 10k and never much more than the initial 20k starting stack last year.

So to see Friedberg with 48k in Level 3 of Day 1D in the Main Event, it’s quite a start for a man who’s hardly even dragged a significant pot in the Main Event until this year. Don’t feel too sorry for Friedberg, however, he did win a bracelet in a huge No-Limit Hold’em field in 2006, taking home $526K.

Senovio “DorsalFin” Ramirez had been stuck in neutral today before scooping a big pot that he wishes would have been bigger. Ramirez check-raised his opponent’s 1,100 bet to 2,800 on a T4T flop and his opponent called. The K peeled off on the turn and Ramirez bet 2K and his opponent called. Ramirez went all-in for over 8K on the river when the 8 dropped. After tanking for a few minutes, his opponent mucked and showed the T. Ramirez later told PocketFives that his opponent made a great lay-down as he turned a boat with K-10. Ramirez’s stack moved up to 18K after the hand.

Devin “TranquilChaos” Porter took some time away from his Phil Jackson novel to win a nice pot in the past level. With blinds at 150/300, Porter raised to 800 in middle position and two players called. On a T76 flop, Devin led out for 1,300 and one player called. The 3 came on the turn and Devin bet 3,000. His opponent made the call and watched the A fall on the river. Devin threw out an orange 5K chip and his opponent thought for two minutes before finally calling. Devin flipped over a monster, the 89 for a flopped straight, which caught the other player by surprise. Porter is up to 29K.

James “POKERPRO33″ Campbell is having a difficult time even staying awake today, but has still managed to pick up blinds here and there in between naps. He is currently at 25K.

Ladbrokes team pros Azad Pirooti and Andreas Hoivold were seated in the Green section of the Amazon room, neck-deep in a sea of players clad in Ladbrokes polo shirts. Though his stack remains healthy compared to the 150/300 blinds, Azad Pirooti was sitting a bit short-stacked compared to his tablemates with only 10K - half of his starting stack. Regardless, when we caught up with his table, he remained aggressive, taking down a couple of pots preflop in position and increasing his stack by a few chips each time. Meanwhile at a few tables over, Andreas Hoivold guarded a 38.5K stack, playing tight and conservatively after nearly doubling up.

Here are some other chip counts midway through Level 3:

Ben “bfineman” Fineman - 65K
Gary “Debo34” Debernardi – 60K
Gus Hansen - 44k
Bryan “bparis” Paris – 43K
Mike “BraveJayhawk” Jensen - 40K
Scott “BigRiskky” Clements - 40K
Ryan “Daut44″ Daut - 39K
Clayton “clayton_27″ Newman - 38.5K
Aaron “ndgrinder59″ Steury - 36K
Shane “shaniac” Schleger - 35K
Glen “choron” Chorny - 32k
Ryan “youngluc” Young - 32K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 30k
Scott “mindwise” Pendergrast - 30K
Tom “titantom32″ Braband - 30K
Kyle “kwob20” Bowker – 28K
Tony “Bond18″ Dunst - 27k
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 27k
Brandon Schaefer - 25K
Brett “gank” Jungblut - 22K
Frank “Round42” Rusnak – 21K
Russell “rcrane082985″ Crane - 20k
Sasha “bikocruz” Rosewood - 20K
David “ComptonMasta” Barter - 18k
Adam “adamoos” Elpayaa - 18K
Mark “AceSpades” Rodoja – 18K
Tracey “xtrACEy” Nguyen - 11K
Mike “theredbaron” Beaton - 9K

• July 12, 2008 -- Friedberg Busts, Beckman Builds Stack
• July 11, 2008 -- Money Makin’, Super Tables Breakin’
• July 11, 2008 -- People Don’t You Know It’s About Time?
• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips