The Magical Run Continues

Blahblahblahblah. Blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah. Blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah. Blahblahblahblahblahblahblahblah.

That's what the past three and a half years of drivel I've posted seems like to me right now compared to this. Our beloved little man Iggy is still alive heading into Day Four of the WSOP Main Event!!!! As of Friday's action, there are 474 people left out of a field of 6844 entrants. Per Pokernews, Iggy ended Thursday's action with 160k in chips. By very rough estimate, Iggy looks to be about 92 spots from the bottom, or 376th out of 474 remaining.

Play ended on Thursday night apparently just before 1:30am Vegas time. Wow. That means they played 13 1/2 straight hours of what is -- believe me -- high-pressure, high-tension no-limit holdem. I've gone for that length of time a few times before, but never with anywhere near the stakes or the pressure that every single player in that room understands right now. I remember just playing twelve hours down through that horrible bubble period -- an extended one of which Iggy also had to endure at this year's Main Event last night -- in my WSOP cash a year ago, and my back and my head were killing me after just six hours in that stuffy room, in those uncomfortable chairs, and with all that tension going on. To play for three straight days like this, mega-session after mega-session, with the pressure only increasing with every increase in the blinds and antes, I am just beside myself with excitement for the little guy.

If my calculations are correct, 20k starting chips times 6844 starting stacks, divided by 474 remainng stacks means the average chipstack is around 288k. So Iggy is sitting with about 55% of the average stack, which ain't bad considering that he's already made it to the money positions in the WSOP ME this year.

The first player to be eliminated on Friday, which will be 474th place, will get $27,020 for his or her efforts. That is awesome, considering that Iggy could bust right out of the gate on Friday and still win nearly 30k for what was just a few hundred dollar investment as I recall before Iggy won his ME seat in the large multi-seat ME guarantee on pokerstars I think it was. Quite a return on investment.

The next jump in the money payouts is to $28,950, but that won't happen until the player who finishes in 414th place. So it's gonna be $27,020 for the next several eliminations, and believe me when I say, having played deep in many large mtt's in my life (admittedly nothing like the WSOP ME), the elims are likely to come fast and furious in the early action on Friday as the short stacks will really be feeling the pressure at this point to get moving due to the large blinds and antes. I believe Iggy is sitting on an M of around 14 if I recall correctly, so he's not in desperation mode yet per se, but there are a good 100 players or so left who have Ms of less than 15, so believe me when I say the action will be hot and heavy right from the getgo among the short stacks today.

Wondering when the big money starts rolling for these 2008 WSOP ME finishers? Well, what's "big money" to you? 50k? 99th place will receive $51,466. Or is big money 100k? That is 63rd place, which pays $115,800. The 27th player left to be eliminated will be the first to cross the quarter-million mark ($257,334), 12th place is where the half-mil boundary is crossed ($591,869), and unlike last year, not the entire final table will win a million from the prizepool. 9th place this year will pay a paltry $900,670, with the rest of the final table each winning more than a million dollars for their efforts, topping out of course with the first prize of more than $9 million, the second-largest payout for any poker tournament, ever.

Here is the final table and the payouts:

1 $ 9,119,517 -
2 $ 5,790,024 -
3 $ 4,503,352 -
4 $ 3,763,515 -
5 $ 3,088,012 -
6 $ 2,412,510 -
7 $ 1,769,174 -
8 $ 1,286,672 -
9 $ 900,670

So dear old Iggy outlasted 1307 runners on Day 3 of this year's Main Event. Someone named Jeremy Joseph is the current chip leader, entering Day 4 on Friday with 1,470,000 in chips. Several big-name pros were eliminated on Day 3 to go along with the masses who had already been among the 5500 or so knockouts in the first couple days of play, with names like Gus Hansen, Phil Hellmuth and Johnny Chan still lurking among the 474 players remaining, and of course our little dwarf.

The action on Day 4 will start Friday at 1pm local time, an hour later than the usual noon starting time since the action ran so late into the evening yesterday as the bubble bursting took longer than anticipated. I don't know about you, but I'm having trouble thinking about almost anything else while I know Iggy is alive and kicking in this thing, so I will be following Iggy's specific chipcount on Pokernews' chipcounts pages all this afternoon and evening. Hopefully he can get some big hands early and double up to give him the wiggle room he's going to need to survive another 12 hours of this shit today. Lord knows I will be pulling for the little tyke.