Event #61: $10,000 No-Limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship

On Saturday, Day 1a of the 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event drew 1,066 players. The following day, 2,114 turned up for Day 1b. On Monday, that combined total was passed as 3,418 players packed the Rio for Day 1c action, the largest one-day Main Event field in its 43-year history. The final number of 6,598 entrants created a prize pool of $62,021,200, with $8,527,982 of that reserved for first place.

The man best positioned to capture that prize from the Day 1c field is Randy Haddox, who bagged up 188,275 and finished the night as chip leader. He joins William John (266,700) and John Hoang (180,000), who played Day 1a and 1b respectively, as the starting-flight chip leaders.

Some other players who survived Day 1c in decent shape are Doyle Brunson (81,400), who almost didn't play this year's Main Event; former Main Event champs Joe Cada (117,375), Jamie Gold (24,800), Johnny Chan (82,300), Tom McEvoy (24,125); 2006 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Madsen (33,525); the current 2012 WSOP POY frontrunner Phil Ivey (11,525); and Big One for One Drop winner Antonio Esfandiari (78,925).

Another man who will be returning on Day 2c with a decent stack is Viktor "Isildur1" Blom (110,225), who is playing his first WSOP Main Event. In one of his more notable hands, an early position raiser made it 700, a middle-position player limped, and the player in the cutoff three-bet to 2,600. Blom then four-bet to 5,800 from the big blind, the other two players got out of the way, and the cutoff five-bet to 12,000. Blom shuffled his chips before moving in 18,400 for a six-bet. The Swede's opponent moved all in and Blom let out a sigh and called.

Showdown

Blom was in bad shape, but he got lucky as the board ran out       and he doubled to 90,000 in chips.

Unfortunately, not everyone was as lucky as Blom. Day 1c saw plenty of big names come and go including David "Bakes" Baker, Fatima Moreira De Melo, Olivier Busquet, Max Martinez, Jimmy Fricke, Thor Hansen, Brendon Rubie, Justin "Boosted J" Smith, David Bach, Chino Rheem, Jonathan Little, Nacho Barbero, Andrew Robl, Lex Veldhuis, Matt Waxman, Humberto Brenes, Vincent van der Fluit and Jonathan Duhamel, just to name a few.

Likewise, the 2003 World Series of Poker Main Event champ, Chris Moneymaker, hit the rail on Day 1c in Level 4 when he raised to 1,500 from under the gun and cleared the field all the way to Marty Zabib, who made the call from the small blind. Hank Farrell then three-bet to around 6,800 from the big blind, Moneymaker called off for the same amount, and Zabib came along for the ride.

The two active players proceeded to check it down as the board ran out       and Zabib rolled over    for trips. Farrell simply mucked while Moneymaker showed    before taking his exit from the 2012 WSOP Main Event.

The surviving players from Day 1c will return at Noon PST on Wednesday for Day 2c; meanwhile, on Tuesday, July 10, the survivors from Days 1a and 1b will return at Noon PST to play their respective Day 2s in separate rooms. Of course you can follow all that action and more by visiting our Live Reporting Section.

For a quick video overview of today's highlights, Sarah Grant has you covered.