Through Day 3 of the Main Event(No Limit Holdem $10,000 Buy-in),  Greg “Fossilman”  Raymer shocked a lot of players,  fans,  and media alike as he sat on top of the chip lead with over $1 million.  In the last few years,  the champion from the previous year has not fared well.  In 2003,  Robert Varkonyi busted out on the first day.  Last year,  Chris Moneymaker made a bad bluff and was eliminated early.  This year,  Greg Raymer not only survived the brutal first day (which was around 400 players shorter than the entire 2004 field),  but he also emerged as the chip leader.  He continued his quest to become the first repeat champion since Johnny Chan in 1987-1988.

This year 5,619 players bought in for $10,000 each on the largest-ever event in WSOP history.  The prize pool was over $56 million and first place would be paid $7.5 million.  Every player who reaches the final table will walk away a millionaire.

Due to the tremendous amount of players interested in playing in the Main Event,  the World Series of Poker Day One was broken down into three separate days;  Day 1A,  Day 1B,  and Day 1C.  Each Day One featured around 1,800 players and action went past 2:30 AM every night.  Unlike the previous tournaments,  the first few hours were eerily quiet.  The players were obviously nervous and tense.  Almost 40% of the players qualified online and one out of five players here won seats on Poker Stars,  so the field was flooded with amateurs and semi-professional players.

The top five chip leaders going into Day Two were:  Haakon Waerstad ($169,200),  Sam Farha ($156,600),  Nguyen Duc ($150,250),  Lee Watkinson ($145,800),  and Graeme Harrison ($142,700).  The most interesting hand involved actor Oliver Hudson  (son of Goldie Hawn and brother of Kate Hudson) when he was knocked out on the first hand of Day 2.  Seated at the TV table with Sammy Farha,  both players moved all in after the flop of A-A-10.  Sammy held A-10 and poor Oliver showed 10-10.

The pros adjusted a lot better than last year,  but a slew of them were out early.  Here are some notable players who did not make it to Day Two:

T.J. Cloutier,  Minh Nguyen,  Andy Bloch,  Mel Judah,  Mark Seif,  Doyle Brunson, Hoyt Corkins,  James Woods,  Ram Vaswani,  Tom McEvoy,  Chau Giang, Shannon Sharpe,  Thor Hansen,  Robert Williamson III,  Daniel Negreanu, Todd Brunson,  Tobey Maguire,  Oliver Hudson,  Phil Hellmuth,  Annie Duke, Robert Varkonyi,  Erick Lindgren,  Men the Master(Nguyen),  Evelyn Ng,  Greg Mueller,  Perry Friedman,  Max Pescatori,  David Williams,  Mimi Rogers,  Allen Cunningham,  Phil Gordon, Cyndy Violette,  Hasan Habib,  Josh Arieh,  Erik Seidel,  Chris Bigler,  Scotty Nguyen,  Scott Fischman,  Jesus Ferguson,  Ted Forrest,  Johnny Chan,  Mike Sexton,  Humberto Brenes,  Devilfish(David Ulliott), Barry Greenstein, The Unabomber(Phil Laak),  Carlos Mortenson,  Wil Wheaton,  Jennifer Tilly,  and Jen Harman.

By the end of Day Two,  the field thinned down even more.  Here’s who else busted out:

Gus Hansen,  Chris Moneymaker,  Marcel Luske,  Shannon Elizabeth,  Dan Harrington,  David Sklansky,  John Gale,  Chip Reese,  Rocco Mediate,  Toto Leonidas,  Rafe Furst,  Dan Heimiller,  Liz Lieu,  Amir Vahedi,  Carmel Petresco, Huck Seed,  and Paul Wolfe.

Although Greg Raymer was one of the Top 10 chip leaders,  he didn’t make a move until late on Day 3.  When it was over,  only 185 players remained and last year’s champ was at the top of the chip count list.  He wasn’t an unknown like last year and this time everyone was gunning for him.  In a coincidental match up,  Mike Matusow was seated at Raymer’s table.  In last year’s WSOP the two players were involved in a weird incident in which Matusow verbally berated Raymer during their entire time together at the same table.  Eventually Raymer busted Matusow and he went onto his first WSOP.  Late on Day 3,  they were matched up once again,  except this time there were no notable incidents.

Phil Ivey was in the Top 10 in chips.  Also surviving Day 3 were Howard Lederer,  John Juanda,  Russ Hamilton,  Mike Matusow,  Lee Watkinson,  Jason Lester,  and Paul Darden.  Notable bust outs on Day 3 included 2005 WSOP Seniors bracelet winner Paul McKinney,  Matthew Hilger,  Sammy Farha,  Kirill Geraismov,  Clonie Gowen,  Young Phan,  Layne Flack,  Minneapolis Jim Meehan,  Barbara Enright and Bob Ciaffone.