Jeffrey The Manza Heading into Day 3
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An exciting day of poker has been played out here in Event 38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold��em and by the time it was all over, it was Jeffrey Manza who led the 21 remaining players and will start the final day as the chip leader. A huge day from Manza saw him accumulate 1,302,000 in chips as he will start the final day in the best shape to make a run at the $607,200 first-place prize.
It began around 12 hours ago when 277 players all took the tables with the hope of making it to the end of the night. Unfortunately seven of those players would have to go home empty handed in order for 270 to finish in the money. The bubble burst within half an hour of the day starting, with four players becoming the ��bubble team��.
Some of the players who couldn��t survive the day, but still managed to lock in a min-cash were Tony Cousineau, Gabriel Nassif, Ari Engel and Alex Phahurat. The likes of Tommy Vedes, Will Failla and Richard Toth made it a little further than these players, but still found the rail throughout the evening.
It was the same story for Eoghan O��Dea (92nd), Mike Leah (80th), Dan Smith (70th) and Jim Collopy (64th) as they left the tournament with a small consolation prize. One player who managed to survive longer than all these players was Isaac Haxton. Starting the day with only 20,800 in chips, Haxton was one of the short stacks, but some great play at the felt saw him become a chip leader in the afternoon. Unfortunately it all came to an end in 39th place, which in fact becomes Haxton��s seventh cash of the 2012 World Series of Poker.
Nicholas Cardyn was still in the mix at this point, but saw his tournament life end in 36th place when his 
couldn��t hold up against Ricky Crandell��s 
. Sam Razavi was another player still at the tables late into the night, but it all came to a halt when his 
couldn��t hold up against the 
of an opponent. Razavi was officially eliminated in 33rd place, taking home $14,094. Lauren Kling was unable to survive much longer than Razavi, eventually eliminated in 31st place for the same score as Razavi.
When only 27 players remained, it was Matthew Pierce who led the pack, but it was Manza who claimed the lead by the time the chips were bagged and tagged just an hour later. A key moment for Manza during the day came when he caught a massive one-outer to eliminate Illan Boujenah. There was no looking back from there and now Manza will be looking to win his first WSOP gold bracelet.
Not far behind Manza is Dung Nguyen as he managed to accumulate 1,273,000 in chips. An interesting story is that this is the second time in just two weeks that Kristijonas Andrulis has started Day 2 with a very small stack and then made it deep in one these huge-field no-limit hold��em tournaments. Andrulis finished 32nd in Event 21 and has already bettered that effort here going into the final 21.
Also returning tomorrow with a fighting chance of taking down his third WSOP gold bracelet is Scott Clements. A great day saw Clements bag up 325,000 in chips and he will surely be one to watch tomorrow. Also not to be overlooked heading into the final day are Blair Hinkle and David Pham as Hinkle looks to capture his second bracelet and Pham his third.
The action is set to begin at 1:00 PM tomorrow and PokerNews will be on the floor all day long as we will crown another WSOP champion. Who will it be? Make sure to return and find out!