What We Know Heading Into Day Four

We don't know jack about 90% of the field.

We know we have a lot of solid tournament vets with not a lot of chips.

There are the famous guys, and then there are players I know play well like Cody Slaubaugh, Mark Muchnik, Dapo Fadeyi, Bo Sehlstedt, Karlo Lopez, Ben Lamb, Gary Benson, and Daniel Quach. Give them a double-up and they might finish the day in the millions.

We have some contenders who are more experienced than a lot might think. Robert N, Kenny Tran, Rep Porter, Steve Jacobs - these are not superfamous players but they are excellent pros who have dreampt of being in this spot for years.

We have some big stacks with chips and talent that no one has ever heard of. Last year at this time, no one knew the names Gold, Wasicka, and Binger. They went on to go 1-2-3 and we now know they can play about as well as anyone.

We have some cagey vets who have emerged from three days of short stack obscurity to health: Willie Tann, Scotty Nguyen, Randy Holland, Jason Lester, Isaac Haxton, Thor Hansen, Brandon Adams. Adams is the second biggest stack at a table of unknowns. That's scary. Haxton has 791k. Terrifying. Tann moved all in over the top with a 72 offsuit and a short stack yesterday afternoon. Now he's over 400k. And Scotty. I get the feeling Scotty's been waiting three days for his rush, and when Scotty hits a rush, he hits it hard.

We have the obvious loose-aggressive accumulators. Sorel Mizzi, Gus Hansen, chipleader Dario Minieri. These guys might have four million at the end of the day. Or they might be broke.
We have Julian Gardner at a table with Minieri. Double Julian up and he might not look back. I played with him on day two and he was focused. He was up to 200k on day one and down to 40k on day two, but he didn't panic, he kept his nose to the grindstone, and now he's got a shot with less than 400 left.

We also know I have 5% of two players still in the tournament: Amanda Baker with 188k, and Chris "PiMaster" Viox to her direct left with 174k.

Last year, Day 4 was the day Jamie Gold took over the tournament, moving from just another big stack to overwhelming chip leader. It was also a day several of the wild chip leaders melted down.

Day 4 is the day we start to define the 2007 World Championship.