WPT North American Poker Championship, Day 3 Recap

Vivek Rajkumar is coming off a big win at the Borgata Poker Open only twenty six days and now finds himself with the chip lead and a chance to make WPT poker history by becoming the first player to win back to back WPT titles.

This will not be an easy task with 27 players remaining and four of those players are accomplished professionals including Erik Seidel, Matt Matros, Kathy Liebert and Canadian Gavin Smith who is searching for his first major victory on Canadian soil.

Day three started with 99 players and eight of those players were Canadians and only 45 players finished in the money. Unfortunately for one of our Canadian players Mike “Timex” McDonald busted on the verge of the money bubble in 47th place.

Poker in Canada in alive and strong with 3 Canadian Poker Professionals remaining in the tournament including Marc Karam, Pat Pezzin and leading the way Gavin Smith.

Congratulations to the following Canadian players who are eliminated but made the money this week:

Steve Paul-Ambrose 32nd - $26,627
Sorel Mizzi 33rd - $26,627

We will be keeping a close eye on the remaining Canadian players int he field as day four starts up today and will continue until we are down to six remaining players that will come back tomorrow for the televised final table.

Here is the official seating and chip count for the final 27 players:

TABLE 1
Seat 1 - Xuan-Tien Nguyen - 350,000
Seat 2 - Sam Greenwood - 611,000
Seat 3 - Marc Karam - 424,000
Seat 4 - Brian Hawkins - 676,000
Seat 5 - Matt Matros - 943,000
Seat 6 - Khaled Aljoma - 552,000
Seat 7 - Dashmir Zyli - 223,000
Seat 8 - Jason Potter - 497,000
Seat 9 - Pat Pezzin - 252,000

TABLE 2
Seat 1 - Donald Carlton - 476,000
Seat 2 - Nick Alafogiannis - 784,000
Seat 3 - Mark Zajdner - 324,000
Seat 4 - Dominic Staniscia - 428,000
Seat 5 - Glen Witmer - 491,000
Seat 6 - James Trenholm - 745,000
Seat 7 - Greg Ostrander - 235,000
Seat 8 - Bosko Basaric - 399,000
Seat 9 - Vivek “Flog” Rajkumar - 1,080,000

TABLE 3
Seat 1 - Gavin Smith - 979,000
Seat 2 - Ryan Fisler - 392,000
Seat 3 - Joe Zappia - 187,000
Seat 4 - Spiro Mikrogianakis - 225,000
Seat 5 - Miami John Cernuto - 92,000
Seat 6 - Erik Seidel - 851,000
Seat 7 - Martin Raus - 405,000
Seat 8 - Kathy Liebert - 879,000
Seat 9 - Todd Sisley - 143,000