My friend Mike Paulle has given me permission to post his daily reports for each event of the World Series of Poker this year to the ChipBoard! Below is his report on Event #35 Day 3. Andy - Las Vegas

EVENT #35 THE CHAMPIONSHIP NO-LIMIT HOLD’EM $10,000 BUY-IN $10,000 in chips

DAY THREE

Never have so many been known by so few.

We will have a first-time World Champion on Friday. None of the remaining 45 have won the ‘Big One.’ In fact, to my knowledge none of these players have ever made a Championship Event Final Table. And only Phil Ivey has more than two gold bracelets.

The ‘Year of the Rookie’ continues at this year’s WSOP as many of the usual suspects dropped off a cliff by the end of the third day. The last 45 players were all in the money when Markus Golser sailed his case chips into the pot with pocket Jacks. Markus had about $30,000. This amount was less than chicken feed to John Shipley with over $400k, but Shipley would have called a lot more because John woke up with pocket Queens. Golser probably should have read the new book on tournament poker by David Sklansky. Markus might have found out how to survive on fumes like Sklansky did with David’s measley $9,500. Golser might even have gotten a tournament strategy tip, like letting Sklansky try to get through another round of blinds before he tried going all-in in front of huge stacks..

Our second day leader, Julian Gardner, faded to 6th on Day 3, but Julian is still extremely viable as this promises to be one of the most wide-open Finals ever. Mention must be made of the performance of Greg Alston. He started Day 3 in last place with only $3,200 and ended up with $64,500.

The new chip leader at the end of the day was Rob Varkonyi. It was Varkonyi with a gutsy call that made most of Phil Hellmuth’s stack reappear in his own. Phil had reraised Rob, going all-in from the big blind with A K. Varkonyi called the extra $100k (most of his chips at the time) with the Q 10 of Clubs. The flop came A Q 10. Phil had just enough left to lose to Ross Boatman’s pocket 4’s with his A 2.

Our other mega-celebrity of Day Three was Chip Reese. Reese was 2nd in chips at the start of the day, but could never get going. Reese was out in 55th when his A 8 of Clubs was outkicked by Ross Boatman’s bigger Ace. Day Four is expected to be gruling as we get down to nine players. With over $6.3 million chips of the table, gambling may not be too fashionable until late Thursday night when the blinds start to bite. Listed below are the player’s chip counts followed by their Day 4 seat assignment.

As we go into the fourth day these are the standings

Robert Varkonyi $551,500 table 51 seat 6

Tony D $464,500 table 62 seat 4

John Shipley $446,000 table 42 seat 9

Minh Thoaily $281,500 table 45 seat 4

Eric Holum $275,000 table 42 seat 1

Julian Gardner $274,000 table 62 seat 2

Rafael Perry $272,000 table 45 seat 5

Scott Gray $236,500 table 42 seat 6

Jason Lane $218,000 table 56 seat 7

Don Barton $170,000 table 56 seat 8

Amir Nasseri $168,000 table 56 seat 5

Michael Feter $157,500 table 42 seat 4

Owen Mullin $154,000 table 42 seat 8

James Neely $154,000 table 62 seat 8

Sigi Stockinger $152,500 table 51 seat 1

David Rubin $143,500 table 45 seat 3

Henry Crunkleton$139,500 table 56 seat 1

Martin Deknijff $129,500 table 42 seat 2

Ray January $124,000 table 62 seat 6

Bernard Ko $118,000 table 62 seat 7

Minh Nguyen $112,500 table 56 seat 6

Rameen Sai $102,500 table 51 seat 7

Hertzel Zalewski$100,500 table 45 seat 7

Ross Boatman $100,000 table 62 seat 1

Jack Fox $ 96,500 table 45 seat 2

Douglas Booth $ 89,500 table 56 seat 2

Kurt Paseka $ 88,500 table 62 seat 3

Brian Haveson $ 85,500 table 42 seat 3

Russ Rosenblum $ 83,500 table 62 seat 9

Luan Phu $ 81,500 table 51 seat 2

Scott Amos $ 79,000 table 45 seat 9

Samuel Whitt $ 77,000 table 42 seat 7

Randy Holland $ 68,000 table 62 seat 5

Greg Alston $ 64,500 table 45 seat 6

Peter Giordano $ 63,000 table 42 seat 5

Steve Melton $ 62,000 table 51 seat 4

Phil Ivey $ 59,000 table 56 seat 3

Lamar Wilkinson $ 51,500 table 56 seat 9

Stephen Wilsdon $ 50,000 table 45 seat 1

Harley Hall $ 37,500 table 51 seat 9

Tristan McDonald$ 37,500 table 51 seat 3

Dan Heimiller $ 32,500 table 51 seat 5

Tom Schneider $ 27,500 table 56 seat 4

Yoshio Nakano $ 21,000 table 45 seat 8

David Sklansky $ 9,500 table 51 seat 8

Play resumes today at 12 noon and will be played down to the final 9 players for Fridays final table.