Just 92 players remain in the 2009 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Europe Main Event in London. In the end, 36 will make the money and the tournament’s champion will find their bank account boosted by £801,603. Among those positioned for a deep run is Jason treysfull21 Mercier (pictured at right), a WSOP bracelet winner and card-carrying member of Team PokerStars Pro. Mericer holds the 10th largest chip stack at the Casino at the Empire entering Day 3 on Tuesday. Ian Munns, a London native, paces the field and holds a stack of 528,300. All of the action from the WSOP Europe Main Event can be found on PocketFivesLive.com.

Mercier scooped a sizable pot to open play on Tuesday at the expense of WSOP November Nine member James Akenhead. In it, Akenhead raised pre-flop and Mercier called to see the first three cards come Q-Q-5 rainbow. The action went check-check to the turn, which was the three of clubs. Mercier check-called a bet of 5,800 from Akenhead to see a nine fall on the river. Akenhead bet out 11,500 and Mercier called, flipping up pocket sixes to take down the pot; Akenhead had just A-5. Mercier sat with 202,300 chips entering today’s play and is in search of his second WSOP bracelet.
Also in the running is Nadeem deemer6 Riaz (pictured at left), who held the 32nd largest stack when play concluded on Monday at 126,000. Riaz hails from Sweden and found himself seated at the ESPN feature table on Monday alongside Doyle Brunson and Phil Hellmuth, who own a combined 21 bracelets. Also present were Antonio Esfandiari and PocketFives.com member Jonathan FatalError Aguiar.

PocketFivesLive.com Tournament Reporter Court Harrington, who has been roving the halls of the Casino at the Empire following online poker players, described Riaz’s path to the WSOP Europe Main Event: “Riaz got in through a qualifier on Betfair, but is playing like anything but a novice. Even though this is his first major live tournament, he is still playing with a lot of confidence and composure and finds himself going into Day 3 in the top third of the chip counts." Riaz won the $22,500 Guaranteed on Full Tilt Poker in April for $5,600.

This is the third running of the WSOP Europe in London and both of its former Main Event champions, Annette Annette_15 Obrestad (pictured at right) and John Juanda, remain in contention. Obrestad owns the 49th largest stack at 90,500, while Juanda is in 79th place with 38,900. Obrestad led the European Caesars Cup team to victory by a comfortable 4-1 margin over their American counterparts prior to the Main Event kicking off. Obrestad was at the feature table on Sunday for Day 1B and was bounced around like a pinball on Monday.

Harrington explained what gives Obrestad an edge at a major tournament like the WSOP Europe Main Event: "The ability to change gears and adapt to the table you are at is important in poker and the more I watch Annette play, the more I see that she is one of the best in that department. Annette was one of the most amazing players in poker two years ago when she won the inaugural WSOP Europe Main Event, but her game has only continued to expand and grow over time."

PocketFivers remaining in the 2009 WSOP Europe Main Event include:

10. Jason treysfull21 Mercier - 202,300
11. Christian charder Harder - 198,700
12. Yevgeniy atimos Timoshenko - 192,100
29. Andrew luckychewy Lichtenberger - 131,300
32. Nadeem deemer6 Riaz - 126,000
33. Jonathan FatalError Aguiar - 125,000
49. Annette Annette_15 Obrestad - 90,500
58. Mohsin chicagocards1 Charania - 73,000
62. Christian CKRUEL Kruel - 65,100
67. Andre aakkari Akkari – 58,300
70. Eric P3achy_keen Liu - 51,100
71. Steven TheZadester Levy - 50,400
73. Justin Boosted J Smith - 48,200

The Top 10 stacks overall are:

1. Ian Munns - 528,300
2. Praz Bassi - 299,000
3. Oyvind Riisem - 255,300
4. Arron Eric Filippi - 216,500
5. David Docherty - 216,200
6. Doyle Brunson - 210,900
7. Shandoi Demjan - 209,000
8. Markus Ristola - 205,000
9. Ram Vaswarni - 202,500
10. Jason Mercier - 202,300

At the time of writing, which is around Noon ET on Tuesday, blinds were at 1,200/2,400 with a 300 chip ante. Check out PocketFivesLive.com for the top WSOP Europe coverage of online poker players. The tournament crowns a winner on Thursday.