Of the 545 players that entered the WPT Championship only 188 remain after 2 days and 10 levels of play. Players finished up today at the 1k / 2k 300 ante level and tomorrow’s first level will be the first big jump in the blinds, going up to 1,500 / 3,000 with a 400 ante for level 11 play. Robert Mizrachi came out of day 2 as the chip leader and the only player over half a million chips with 523,200.

Bryan Devonshire finished up 4th in the counts with 393,400 and is just ahead of Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll who has 384,700. The top 13 players in the field all have over 300k chips coming into day 3 play.

Full chip counts and day 3 seating assignments are available here.

Other Chip Counts:
Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach - 281,900
Joe Sebok - 278,100
Anna Wroblewski - 277,300
Dario Minieri - 186,000
Matt “plattsburgh” Vengrin (pictured) - 172,000
Steve “MrSmokey1″ Billirakis - 156,600
Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby - 116,500
Barry Greenstein - 111,100
Steve “Thorladen” Weinstein - 105,300
Jordan “iMsoLucky0″ Morgan - 100,600
Tom “durrrr” Dwan - 98,800
Thayer “THAY3R” Rasmussen - 98,300
Jordan “Octavian_C” Rich - 92,800
David “Nutstr84444″ Redlin - 90,300
Chris “Genius28″ Lee - 89,600
Peter “#1Pen” Neff - 84,000
Tim “Tmay420″ West - 83,400
Jonathan “FatalError” Aguiar - 68,200
Eric “Rizen” Lynch - 56,000
Steve “MrTimCaum” O’Dwyer - 35,100

• April 22, 2008 -- Around The Room
• April 22, 2008 -- Not So Rich
• April 23, 2008 -- Day 3 Complete, Late Eliminations
• June 26, 2008 -- Six-Handed Players Making Moves

Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach (left) busted Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy earlier and has continued to accumulate chips throughout the rest of the day. A rough count as the last level of the day winds down puts him at 250k chips. Bryan Devonshire has jumped out to the chip lead, sitting with 415k chips at last check. Not only has Bryan amassed a huge pile of chips, he has done it at a difficult table with Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby, Daniel Negreanu, Matt Hazards21″ Gianetti and Isabelle Mercier all at his table.

Fohrenbach’s table is no cakewalk either. He was able to grab some of his chips from Erik Seidel earlier and also has Mark Newhouse, Tim “Tmay420″ West, Nick Binger and Kristy Gazes at his table.

In the hand with Seidel, Fohrenbach bet 20k on a board of K952 and Erik raised to 55k. Richard asked how much he had behind (over 100k) and after a couple of moments announced he was all in. Erik folded and Fohrenbach raked in the pot. A little later in the day Fohrenbach picked up another pot with a bet on the river to push his stack up to 250k.

Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll (right) was almost out the door earlier, but he hit his flush and took a huge pot off of Tom “durrrr” Dwan. After a table break Carroll has continued to pick up chips, eliminating a player when his pocket fours held up against AQ. Cory had opened the pot and a player moved all in for 25,200 more. Cory counted out the chips, glanced back at his cards, and after a short pause tossed in the chips to make the call. The board came T-9-9-9-K to send the pot Carroll’s way. Corey is up to 350k as the day winds down.

Joe Sebok has also continued to chip up and is around 280k as players go into the last 9 hands of play for the day.

The field has just dropped to an even 200 players, so by the time these last 9 hands are played out over half the players left will make the money.

• April 21, 2008 -- Quads
• April 22, 2008 -- Not So Rich
• April 22, 2008 -- Around The Room
• April 23, 2008 -- Day 3 Complete, Late Eliminations

Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy (left) has been eliminated from the WPT Championship. Bax had opened and Richard “Lee Nickel” Fohrenbach raised. Cliff then moved in based on his past experience with Fohrenbach but his timing was bad as Richard quickly called with his pocket aces.

Cliff had AK and was headed out the door after a quick check on a few other players in the tournament. Fohrenbach is up to almost 200k chips.

Shannon Shorr has also been recently eliminated.

The field has dropped below 300 remaining players with the board currently showing 270 players active in the tournament. Players still have a long way to go before the money bubble is reached, but with the top 100 getting paid it will get here quicker than usual for a field of this size.

• April 21, 2008 -- Staying Hot
• April 21, 2008 -- Quads
• July 11, 2008 -- Together They Fall
• July 10, 2008 -- Berlin Benefits from Big Laydown

You put your opponent on a big hand and you call to see the flop, knowing that if you hit there is a good chance you will get paid off. Tim “Tmay420″ West (right) was in that kind of situation recently with pocket sixes. He hit the flop pretty hard, with a 6 in the door and another right behind for flopped quads in a three way pot with one player he read as really strong and Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy also involved.

Bax didn’t go much farther with the hand but Tim was able to check call a bet from the other player on the flop and then when he checked the turn he was getting to call a 35k all in bet. His quads were up against an unimproved AK and after eliminating the player Tim is up to 150k and feeling very good about his stack at this stage of the tourney.

Alvin “alsmooth” Zeidenfeld has also been chipping up lately. In his words he has “been making hands against players that can’t be bluffed.” Al is up to 75k after two levels of play on day 2.

The trademark green Baylor Bears hat that always sits atop Jared “TheWacoKidd” Hamby’s head during tournaments is well known throughout the poker world. For this tournament Tom “durrrr” Dwan’s selection of headware is drawing more attention than Hamby’s standard cap. Dwan lost a bet with Alan Sass and as a result Tom is wearing an assortment of colorful, JJ Liu style, headwear.

Pictured Left: Dwan and Hamby in their hats.

Hamby recently had to fold after betting 7k on a J43 flop and having Cory “UGOTPZD” Carroll come over the top for 17,500. Cory had 57k behind and Jared seemed to be contemplating putting him all in. After a few minutes he decided it wasn’t worth it though and threw his hand away.

The good run continued through the second level for Joe Sebok. He started the day with only 13k but after a few early double ups he was up to 60k and has continued the upswing all the way to 145k at the end of the second level.

• April 21, 2008 -- Staying Hot
• April 22, 2008 -- Not So Rich
• April 22, 2008 -- Around The Room
• April 23, 2008 -- Day 3 Complete, Late Eliminations

• April 22, 2008 -- End Of Day 2
• April 21, 2008 -- Staying Hot
• April 21, 2008 -- Fohrenbach Busts Bax
• April 21, 2008 -- Quads