Bodog Beat

Poker pro Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson is one of the players still standing after Day 3 of the WPT LA Poker Classic. (Bodog Beat Image)

You know sometimes when you're reading books, you read the first chapter, then skip to the last chapter and pretty much guess what all the stuff in the middle was? Well, that's kind of how we feel about poker tournaments at the moment. It's fun to see who shows up, but tell us how it ends and we'll let you know what happened in the middle. Players busted out, bad beats were delivered, trantrums were thrown – especially if Phil Hellmuth is in the field – and general poker craziness abounded.

So, we're jumping into our stellar poker tournament coverage of the WPT LA Poker Classic just as the money bubble burst and there are 63 players remaining. The usual suspects were around for the beginning of the tournament – Phil Ivey, JC Tran, Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Jeff Madsen, Gavin Smith and Antonio Esfandiari, who was the chip leader going into Day 3 play – but as usual, most of them fell victim to the vagaries of poker.

Those left standing now – the 63 remaining players – are all guaranteed at least $23,052 and are hoping to cash in on a much larger part of the prize pool, possibly even the $1,686,760 first-place prize. Among the folks with dollar signs in their eyes are current chip leader Kofi Farkye, Chris Karagulleyan, Chris "Jesus" Ferguson, Nick Schulman, Nenad Medic, Hoyt Corkins, Men "The Master" Nguyen, Greg Mueller and one of our personal favorite poker babes Maria Ho.

Play gets underway right about now and will continue until they reach either 18 or 27, if it's really slow. Stay tuned to the Beat for more updates now that things are getting interesting. Don't forget to qualify online for the WPT through Bodog Poker's Flight Club promotion. You could give us a reason to write about a tournament.