Day 3 of the World Poker Tour Legends of Poker was completed on Sunday and only 21 players remain. Leading the way is Jeff Vertes with a big, 800,000-chip-plus lead. He holds 2.712 million in chips to James Carroll’s 1.9 million. David Daneshgar rounds out the top three with 1.85 million.
When the day began, Ken Aldridge led the way. Aldridge did very well to continue to build his stack throughout Day 3. In fact, he gathered enough chips, 1.541 million, to find himself finishing sixth overall moving into Day 4.
With 99 players coming back and the money line set at 81 places, that meant an unfortunate 18 players would go home empty-handed. The most unfortunate of them all was Joe Ressler who fell in 82nd place and earned the very unwanted title of “tournament bubble boy.” According to the WPT Live Update Team, Ressler was all-in with 
to Brent Hanks’ 
. Hanks went on to make a flush and cripple Ressler before eliminating him on the very next hand.
Some of the other notable players to fall prior to the money were Tom Braband, Jason DeWitt, Jon Friedberg, Hafiz Khan and Jeff Madsen. From there, there were plenty of eliminations en route to the end of the day including Greg Mueller (78th – $7,000), Owen Crowe (77th – $7,000), Dan O’Brien (69th – $7,300), Jamie Gold (67th – $7,300), Allen Cunningham (54th – $8,480), Amnon Filippi (41st – $9,250), J.C. Tran (39th – $9,250), Dwyte Pilgrim (33rd – $10,280) and Allen Kessler (28th – $10,280).
Former WPT champion Pilgrim fell at the hands of Carroll. With the blinds at 6,000/12,000 with a 2,000 ante, Carroll raised to 28,000 from middle position and Pilgrim moved all-in for approximately 175,000. Action got back to Carroll and he made the call holding 
. Pilgrim was all-in and dominated with 
. The flop, turn and river ran out 
and Carroll finished with a Broadway straight to win the hand.
Kessler’s 28th-place elimination came at the hands of Tuan Nguyen. From under the gun with the blinds 6,000/12,000 with a 2,000 ante, Kessler jammed all-in for 40,000. After Tyler Cornell called from middle position, Nguyen rereaised all-in for 157,000 from the cutoff seat. That knocked everyone out of the way and isolated Kessler.
When the hands were tabled, it was Kessler’s 
up against Nguyen’s . The flop came down 
to give Kessler some hope as he picked up the lead with a pair of eights, but the turn and river had other things in mind. Nguyen finished with a Broadway straight and Kessler was left felted.
Top 10 Chip Counts
| Place | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeff Vertes | 2,712,000 |
| 2 | James Carroll | 1,900,000 |
| 3 | David Daneshgar | 1,850,000 |
| 4 | Joshua Pollock | 1,645,000 |
| 5 | Mike Eskandari | 1,597,000 |
| 6 | Ken Aldridge | 1,541,000 |
| 7 | Will "The Thrill" Failla | 1,450,000 |
| 8 | Shawn Buchanan | 1,343,000 |
| 9 | Owais Ahmed | 1,134,000 |
| 10 | Adam Aronson | 1,082,000 |
The final 21 players will return on Monday at 1300 PDT (2100 BST) for Day 4 to continue play. Everyone left is guaranteed a payday of $14,315, but it’s the $758,085 first-place prize they’re all chasing. First things first though and in order to keep the shot alive, the players must first make the final table and that will be determined on Monday. Be sure to check back with PokerNews for the recap.
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