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. Mike Paulle Listed below are the player�s chip counts followed by their Day 4 seat assignment. VARKONYI, ROBERT $551,500 51,6 D, TONY (DUONG, TAM) $464,500 62,4 SHIPLEY, JOHN $446,000 42,9 THOAILY, MINH $281,500 45,4 HOLUM, ERIC A $275,000 42,1 GARDNER, JULIAN $274,000 62,2 PERRY, RAFAEL $272,000 45,5 GRAY, PETER S. $236,500 42,6 LANE, JASON M. $218,000 56,7 BARTON, DONALD (DON) L. $170,000 56,8 NASSERI, AMIR $168,000 56,5 FETER, MICHAEL $157,500 42,4 MULLIN, OWEN $154,000 42,8 NEELY, JAMES $154,000 62,8 STOCKINGER, SIGI $152,500 51,1 RUBIN, DAVID S. $143,500 45,3 CRUNKLETON, HENRY D. $139,500 56,1 DEKNIJFF, MARTIN $129,500 42,2 JANUARY, RAY D. $1124,000 62,6 KO, BERNARD $118,000 62,7 NGUYEN, MINH $112,500 56,6 SAI, RAMEEN $102,500 51,7 ZALEWSKI, HERTZEL $100,500 45,7 BOATMAN, ROSS $100,000 62,1 FOX, JACK $96,500 45,2 BOOTH, DOUGLAS R. $89,500 56,2 PASEKA, KURT $88,500 62,3 HAVESON, BRIAN D. $85,500 42,3 ROSENBLUM, RUSSELL $83,500 62,9 PHU, LUAN $81,500 51,2 AMOS, SCOTT $79,000 45,9 WHITT, SAMUEL C. $77,000 42,7 HOLLAND, RANDY $68,000 62,5 ALSTON, GREG $64,500 45,6 GIORDANO, PETER $63,000 42,5 MELTON, STEVE $62,000 51,4 IVEY, PHILLIP $59,000 56,3 WILKINSON, LAMAR V. $51,500 56,9 WILSDON, STEPHEN $50,000 45,1 HALL, HARLEY $37,500 51,9 MCDONALD, TRISTAN $37,500 51,3 HEIMILLER, DANIEL M. $32,500 51,5 SCHNEIDER, TOM $27,500 56,4 NAKANO, YOSHIO $21,000 45,8 SKLANSKY, DAVID B. $9,500 51,8

2002 World Series of Poker