DAVID DIAZ LEADS FINAL THREE IN PALM BEACH MAIN EVENT
West Palm Beach, Fla. (August 11, 2014) — Following a grueling 14-hour Day 2, the Palm Beach Kennel Club Main Event is down to just three players remaining with bracelet winner David Diaz setting the pace over fellow bracelet winner Tristan Wade and Thomas Midena. Each of these players has outlasted a 303-entry field filled with some of the game’s top talent and locked up $47,963 for their efforts thus far. Cards go back in the air for a third and final day of play Monday at 1 p.m. when they’ll compete for the $106,806 first prize, a Circuit gold ring and an automatic berth in the National Championship.

Day 2 of PBKC series finale kicked off Sunday at 12 p.m. with 51 players remaining. Zo Karim stood above the rest having bagged 372,000 chips and leading the field by a margin. Standing between Karim and his second ring were the likes of gold bracelet winners Diaz, Wade, Chance Kornuth, Ylon Schwartz and Chris Dombrowski as well as Justin Zaki, Christopher Conrad and many other of the game’s talents.

With just the top 33 spots finishing in the money, play moved fast to start Day 2 and the bubble burst before the first break. From there, Zaki, Dombrowski, Conrad, Michael Schneider and Nancy Birnbaum hit the rail as the field narrowed to the nine-handed final table.

By 6:30 p.m. local, Kelly Minkin busted 10th and the nine-handed final table was formed. Here’s how the players stacked up:

Seat 1: Tristan Wade - 725,000
Seat 2: Zo Karim - 2,00,000
Seat 3: Tom Midena - 414,000
Seat 4: Will Souther - 462,000
Seat 5: David Diaz - 1,150,000
Seat 6: Ben Zetina - 110,000
Seat 7: Chance Kornuth - 405,000
Seat 8: Philip Consolo - 155,000
Seat 9: Kristopher Bradshaw - 659,000

Diaz, Wade and Kornuth headlined the table as the bracelet winners, but it was Karim who held the chip lead. Kornuth sat toward the middle of the pack much of the day, but couldn’t get anything going and his hopes of a gold ring ended in seventh place. Karim, meanwhile, held command of the table during many of the late stages of play and it wasn’t until his    couldn’t catch up to Wade’s    that he hit the rail fifth.

From there, Wade earned a berth among the final three and hopes to dethrone Diaz atop the counts — which should prove to be a difficult task. Diaz holds 2,825,000 of the 6,060,000 chips in play and has a stranglehold on the field. This marks Diaz’s 18th WSOP-related cash and a first-place finish would move him over the $700,000 mark in career earnings at the WSOP. Like Wade, Diaz eyes a second piece of WSOP gold.

Cards go in the air for Day 3 at 1 p.m. with blinds of 20,000/40,000 with a 5,000 ante. Each remaining player is assured $47,963, but all eye the $106,806 first prize.

Chip counts:
  • David Diaz - 2,825,000 (70 BBs)
  • Tristan Wade - 1,845,000 (46 BBs)
  • Thomas Midena - 1,390,000 (34 BBs)
Updated results from the tournament are available on WSOP.com.