The March Toward $4 Million Continues at World Poker Tour World Championship

Poker pro Phil Ivey is among the pros who survived Day3 of the WPT World Championship. (AP Images)

Day 2 of the WPT World Championship started Monday with 479 players hoping to survive five more blind levels and inch ever closer to capturing the $3.97 million first place payout. Unfortunately, for all but 218 players that dream would die as they hit the rail.

The attrition started as soon as the first blind level of the day did as players dropped at an average rate of one per minute. Poker pros that succumbed to this early frenzy included Victor Ramdin, Gavin Smith, Team Bodog member David Williams, Todd Brunson, and JJ Liu.

While more than 250 poker players would end up being eliminated over the course of the day, some of the biggest names in poker showed why they are just that. Topping the leaderboard at the finish of play with 535,000 in chips is previous WPT champion Roland de Wolfe who is coming off a second-place finish at the Irish Poker Open earlier this month.

Just behind him is ten-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth, stacked at 528,100. While WSOP events seem to come easily to the "Poker Brat", a win on the WPT has eluded him thus far and no doubt he'll be looking to add to his title collection at the most prestigious event on tour.

Rounding out the top three is Internet phenom Sorel Mizzi who is better known in the online poker world as "imper1um". The 21-year-old Canadian is looking to extend his brick and mortar tournament success after his third-place finish at the Irish Poker Open.

Other noted pros that survived Day 3 include 2006 WSOP M.E. runner-up and NBC National Heads-Up Poker champion Paul Wasicka, Patrik Antonius, Carlos Mortensen and Phil Ivey. The online poker community is also making a strong showing with James "KrazyKanuck" Worth, Dustin "NeverWin" Woolf and Justin "zeejustin" Bonomo all with more than the average stack of 147,000.

Dubbed by PokerNews.com as "The Poker Fairy", Day 1 chipleader Anna Wrobleski continued her improbable run finishing just outsider of the top ten but stacked with the other pros within striking distance of getting back to that top spot.

Stay tuned to the Bodog Beat for more updates on the WPT World Championship at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Head over to Bodog.com and get into an online poker satellite for as little as a dollar to take a shot at winning a $12,000 WPT/WSOP prize package.