2011 WSOP: FINAL PUSH TOWARDS NOVEMBER NINE STARTS THURSDAY

PHOTO/SOURCE: POKERNEWS.com

Off day today at the Rio, the first off day in over six weeks! Let's take a close look at who's got the goods heading into Thursday's Day 3 play ...


Everyone comes together for day three - a little over 1,800 participants will battle it out for a spot in the November Nine.

If Larry David is running good (apparantely the balding star is dating the red-hot Eva Mendes!!) well, Ben Lamb is running really, really, really ... really good!

Lamb has been on a month-long heater that started here at the WSOP - a bracelet, four already impressive results at the WSOP, a PTPR Player of the Month selection for June - that all pales in comparison to his current form - after having the most chips at the end of Day 1B, Lamb is the current overall chip leader heading into Day 3 play on Thursday.

Kevin Saul held the chip lead for parts of the day on Day 2B - he's now only a few chips behind Lamb ... Day 2A chip leader Aleksandr Mozhnyakov is third in chips.

Poker superstar Patrik Antonius is in the hunt, sitting 12th in chips - many eyes will be on him on Thursday.


Here are the official Top 15 chip counts:
1 Ben Lamb 551,600
2 Kevin Saul 542,200
3 Aleksandr Mozhnyakov 478,600
4 Ryan D'Angelo 462,300
5 Tuan Vo 434,500
6 Guillaume Darcourt 410,500
7 Nicolas Fierro 405,000
8 Narendra Banwari 404,800
9 Stephane Albertini 400,100
10 Dong Yang Yan 383,400
11 Wilfried Haerig 366,000
12 Patrik Antonius 361,000
13 Joshua Gibson 355,100
14 Massimiliano Martinez 355,000
15 Joshua Weizer 349,600

We know one thing for sure, we will have a new World Champion crowned in November - 2010 Main Event champ Jonathan Duhamel was eliminated on Day 2B - same goes for former World Champs Jamie Gold and "pass the sugar" Joe Hachem.


PTPR PREMIER EVENT
2011 World Series of Poker
World Series of Poker NLH Main Event
July 17-November, 2011

Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino | Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Buy-in: $10,000 | Prizepool: $64,531.000 | Entries: 6,865

PTS AT STAKE:
Bracelet Winner 170
Runner-Up 110
3rd place 95
4th place 85
5th place 80
6th place 75
7th place 70
8th place 65
9th place 55
10th place 45
11th place 40
12-14th place 38
15-17th place 35
18-20th place 32
21-23rd place 28
24-27th place 25