The Race for the Money Continues at 11 a.m.

After three Main Event Day 1 starting flights and dual second-day flights, those still remaining will return to the Rio for Thursday’s Day 3. A total of 2,572 players remain from the field of 7,221, making for an average stack of 140,377 (70 big blinds). The future 2017 World Series of Poker Main Event champion will be in the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino today, so much is guaranteed.

Play gets underway at 11 a.m. again, with blinds at 1,000/2,000 with a 300-ante. Another 5 levels are on the schedule, 120 minutes long each. The dinner break is 90 minutes long and takes place after level 13, which should be around 5:40 p.m. The 100-value chips get raced off after level 12.

With 1,084 players cashing, it's likely that the money will be reached today. Traditionally, that takes place after the dinner break on Day 3, usually around Level 14 or 15. With the bigger field size this year, it might take slightly longer to reach this time around.

The 1,084 cashing in this tournament go home with a minimum of $15,000. The player bubbling this event still gets a $10,000 Main Event seat so he or she can compete again next year and give it another try.

Level	Duration	Small Blind	Big Blind	Ante
11	120 minutes	1,000	2,000	300
	20-minute break
12	120 minutes	1,200	2,400	400
	20-minute break
13	120 minutes	1,500	3,000	500
	90-minute break
14	120 minutes	2,000	4,000	500
	20-minute break
15	120 minutes	2,500	5,000	500

The Main Feature Table will be Amazon 98, featuring Rainer Kempe and Joe Hachem. Outer Feature Table 1 is Amazon 47
(Chino Rheem, Kenny Hallaert, Konstantin Puchkov) and Outer Feature Table 2 is Brasilia 705 (Allen Cunningham, Katie Swift, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Donnacha O'Dea). You can watch the livestream from 11:30 a.m. till 6:15 p.m. on PokerGO.

Day 2 Action

Wednesday’s action brought 3,300 players from Day 2c and 1,549 survived, which will be combined with the 1,023 from Day 2ab. Plenty of big names were eliminated on 2c including Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu, but many remain including former Main Event champions Scotty Nguyen and Johnny Chan.

When play picks up on the official third day of action, 2,572 total players will be battling it out to reach Day 4. Leading the Day 2c field was British player Artan Dedusha in his first Main Event with 680,000 chips. Dedusha has just over $100,000 in career tournament winnings, mostly in England. Also bagging big stacks were Marcin Chmielewski (564,000), Michael Krasienko (561,300), Sonny Franco (546,700), and POY contender and two-time bracelet winner Ryan Hughes (510,100).

Also bagging chips from this flight include: 888poker Ambassador Dominik Nitsche, Jake Cody, Felipe Ramos, Cate Hall, 2016 November Niner Fernando Pons, Nick Petrangelo (480,300), Joe Serock (423,000), Natasha Mercier (470,000), Justin Liberto (394,500), Cathy Dever (379,500), Ian Johns (327,200), Day 1C chip leader Jerome Brion (326,400), JJ Liu (254,000), Minh Ly (252,200), Brian Rast (212,700), Gavin Smith (208,800), David Pham (182,300), Joseph Cheong (180,300), Jason Koon (175,800), Allen Cunningham (131,000), Kristen Bicknell (116,500), and Jason Mercier (101,000),

Leading the field from Day 2ab were Lawrence Bayley with 618,000 chips and Mickey Craft with 608,100. Other notables remaining from 2AB are Marvin Rettenmaier (359,100), Charlie Carrel (343,000), 2016 November Niner Kenny Hallaert (331,800), Cherish Andrews (330,700), Melanie Weisner (319,400), Mike Matusow (228,200), Chris Vitch (221,200), Scott Seiver (195,600), 2005 Main Event champion Joe Hachem (134,700), and 2004 Main Event champion Greg Raymer (106,400). Reigning champion Qui Nguyen, however, was eliminated.