Day three of the WPT Legends of Poker Tournament at the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles featured 79 remaining players battling it out to reach three final tables. Eliminations came fast and furious in the early portions of the day, as players bowed out consistently and the field narrowed towards the money bubble.

Many top tier players fell during this portion of the tournament including November Nine finalist Kelly Kim, Kathy Liebert, Toto Leonidas, Daniel Negreanu, Antonio Esfandiari, Erik Seidel, David Chiu, and Mark Seif. Cardplayer Player of the Year candidate Erik Lindgren also went down, on the same hand as pro Tuan Le.

As was expected, play slowed significantly close to the money bubble, as players tried to avoid that devastating feeling of finishing just out of the money.  One player that suffered this fate was Ali Eslami, the chip leader at various times during the tournament. The disappointing finish saw Eslami fall a long way on day 3 to finish completely out of the money.

Once the top 36 “in the money” places were solidified, the pace picked up, with players once again heading to the exits at a rapid pace. The end of play came just before midnight, with the 27 remaining players to return Wednesday at 2 PM for a chance to make it into the six person final table that will be televised as part of the World Poker Tour series. Below are the last players eliminated to finish in the money.

36th Place: Van Nguyen
35th Place: Andrew Shack
34th Place: Kevin Zhu
33rd Place: James Sileo
32nd Place: Josh VanDuyn
31st Place: Max Pescatori
30th Place: Justin Scott
29th Place: Mark Wilds
28th Place: Matt Graham