Jason Mercier raised under the gun to 20,000, and it folded around to Ian Simpson on the button. He moved all in for 130,000, and when it got back to Mercier, he folded after 20 seconds or so of thought.
On the very next hand, Phillippe Vert raised it up to 21,000 in early position, and Simpson shoved again. It folded back to Vert, and just like with Mercier, he thought for about 20 seconds before kicking his hand in.
After getting those two pots, Simpson is now up to 210,000.
Joel Seewald had quite the run in this event and it started before the cards were even in the air. Seewald was a winner of free seat to this event from WSOP.com. On his way to his 21st place finish, Seewald knocked out former Main Event Champion, Jonathan Duhamel. All Seewald, a Las Vegas resident, had to do to win his seat was sign up for a free account with the site.
Seewald was short-stacked most of the day yesterday and came into the day with just eight big blinds. He played the short stack well and got it in good against Phillip Vert. The action started when Vert raised to 20,000 from under the gun and was called by Jason Mercier on the button. Seewald moved all in from the small blind and was followed by an all in from Vert. This prompted Mercier to fold and the hands were tabled.
Seewald:
Vert:
Seewald went to the flop ahead and looking for the double up. The flop was good to him as was the river. The river, however, would end Seewald's magical run and send him home $17, 910 richer.
We only caught the river action, but we saw that Zohair Karim and Larry Quang were in a big pot that had about 110,000 in the middle on a completed board of . Karim was first to act, and he assembled a big bet of 160,000, and slid it in, an overbet of the pot. This sent Quang into the tank, and after about two and a half minutes of thinking, he tossed in the call.
Karim flipped over for jacks full of fives, and it was good enough to take down the monster pot, upping his stack to 890,000, while Quang is down to 250,000.
Eight minutes into play and the first elimination of the day occurred when Marco Johnson moved all in from the button for his final 124,000 and was called by Evan Schwartz in the big blind.
Johnson:
Schwartz:
The board ran out and Johnson was eliminated in 22nd place.
Welcome to Day 3 of Event #44: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em. Today is the day a champion will be crowned, earning $592,684 and a gold bracelet for his efforts. Before that happens though, there is still plenty of play left for the 22 remaining players.
Niall Farrell (792,000) will be the chip leader to start the day and is followed closely by Michael Rocco (780,000). Both of them maintained their big stacks and used them to their advantage for most of Day 2. While Farrell and Rocco might have the big stacks, all eyes are on Jason Mercier (566,000) who is sitting on an above average stack and looking for his first final table of the summer.
Play will resume at 1 p.m. local time in the Amazon Room. As always, keep it here on PokerNews for continuing live coverage from the tournament floor including hand-for-hand coverage of the final table.
While you are waiting for the action to begin, get caught up on all the news with Lynn Gilmartin, who has your June 26th update. We will meet you back here in a bit.
![[user250068]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
flop was good to him as was the 
river. The 
river, however, would end Seewald's magical run and send him home $17, 910 richer.
. Karim was first to act, and he assembled a big bet of 160,000, and slid it in, an overbet of the pot. This sent Quang into the tank, and after about two and a half minutes of thinking, he tossed in the call.
for jacks full of fives, and it was good enough to take down the monster pot, upping his stack to 890,000, while Quang is down to 250,000.
and Johnson was eliminated in 22nd place.
