95 players began the day on Day 3 of the WPT Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, and when the dust settled at the end of the day only 45 players remained, despite 17 more registrants adding their name to the entry-list during Day 3. Leading the way at the end of the day was longtime poker pro Curt Kohlberg who bagged-up 918,300 chips, over 150,000 more than his closest competitor Nick Schulman.

Late registration for the $25k Championship that ends Season X of the World Poker Tour finally came to a close part way through Day 3 (yes late registration was open until Day 3 of the tournament) on Monday, and the final tally saw 152 players registered for the tournament, a severe drop from the 220 players who registered for last year’s WPT Championship.

ESPN.com’s Andrew Feldman wrote an interesting article on the attendance decline, citing a number of factors that likely contributed to the fall [you can read Feldman’s article here] including the absurdly long structure of the tournament, which requires a full 8-day commitment to play from Day 1 to the Final Table.

Of the 45 remaining players, 14 are former WPT Champions including the aforementioned Schulman, Antonio Esfandiari, Jonathan Little, David Chiu, Mike Mizrachi, Matt Waxman, and Hoyt Corkins.

Players in search of their first WPT victory that are still alive in the event include David “doc” Sands, Sam Trickett, Noah Schwartz, Zach Clark, Steve O’Dwyer, Barry Shulman, Joe Serock, John Esposito, Josh Arieh, Marvin Rettenmaier, Farzad Bonyadi, and David Steicke.

Here is a look at the Top 10 chip-counts heading into Day 4 of the tournament:

1. Curt Kohlberg — 918,300

2. Nick Schulman — 768,000

3. Guillaume Darcourt — 641,000

4. Antonio Esfandiari — 632,100

5. Rinat Bogdanov — 624,100

6. David Steicke — 589,700

7. Tony Ruberto — 581,400

8. Viacheslav Igin — 567,000

9. Farzad Bonyadi — 519,900

10. Nicolas Fraioli — 501,600

Monday also saws the finalization of the payouts for the tournament, with a total of 18 players making the money, and nearly $1.2 million set aside for the winner of the coveted WPT Championship. Here is a look at the final table payouts for the 2012 WPT Championship:

* 1st place: $1,196,858

* 2nd place: $805,310

* 3rd place: $424,618

* 4th place: $256,235

* 5th place: $192,176

* 6th place: $155,571

Day 4 of the WPT Championship will kick-off at Noon local time (3 PM EDT) with the players heading into Level 15, with blinds of 3,000/6,000 with a 500 chip ante. With the average chip-stack currently at approximately 56 big blinds players still have a lot of room to maneuver –chip-leader Kohlberg has nearly 200 big blinds in his stack; when was the last time you heard of that on Day 4 of a tournament!

Tags: Andrew Feldman, Antonio Esfandiari, Barry Shulman, David Chiu, ESPN, Farzad Bonyadi, Fraioli, Hoyt Corkins, John Esposito, Jonathan Little, Josh Arieh, Kohlberg, Mike Mizrachi, Nick Schulman, Poker Pro, Rettenmaier, Serock, World Poker Tour, world poker tour championship, WPT Championship

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