The Champ is Back and On Top
Day 3 of the PokerStars.net North American Poker Tour Mohegan Sun is in the books as the field was cut down to its final 24 players. Heading the pack into Day 4 is defending champion Vanessa Selbst with 1.406 million in chips.
When play began for the day, 74 players returned to the felt, but only 56 of them would be getting paid. That meant a handful of players would have to hit the rail empty handed. Some of those players who were eliminated short of the money included Kevin Eyster, Ronnie Bardah, Team PokerStars Online’s Andrew Brokos, Todd Terry and Dan O’Brien. The official bubble boy went to Nick Binger, who ended his tournament in 57th place.
Selbst was able to build her stack pretty steadily throughout the day, but it wasn’t until right at the end of the night that she took over the chip lead from Vincent Rubianes.
From under the gun, Olivier Busquet raised to 21,000. Rubianes reraised to 51,000 from the cutoff and then action fell on Selbst on the button. She four-bet to 109,000 and play folded back to Busquet. He folded and then Rubianes made the call. The flop came down 
and Rubianes checked. Selbst bet 129,000 and Rubianes made the call, making this pot awfully big between two of the largest stacks in the room.
The turn card added the 
to the board and completed a possible flush draw. Both players checked to see the 
put a fourth club on board on the river. Rubianes checked and Selbst bet 294,000. After tanking for a bit, Rubianes made the call, but only to muck his hand when Selbst tabled the 
for a king-high club flush.
Play resumes tomorrow at 12:00 PM EST where the final 24 players will return to action and play down to just one final table of eight is left standing. There's plenty of firepower still left in the field, but it's Selbst's tournament now and it doesn't look like she's ready to give up her title anytime soon. Be sure to stay tuned to PokerNews for all of the live coverage from the event as only our world class Live Reporting Team can bring it to you!