Day 3 of the World Poker Tour’s Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic wrapped up on Tuesday night. There are 55 players who remain in contention, including a handful of PocketFivers. Hunter the_Hunt_D Frey (pictured) sits with the 17th largest chip stack after three days of play at 516,000. At the top of the pack is Evan McNiff, who has been among the chip leaders for most of the tournament. McNiff owns just over one million chips and is being followed closely by November Nine member Chino Rheem, who holds 905,000. The action from the Bellagio resumes today at 12:00 Noon local time. PocketFivesLive.com, which provides the best WPT coverage of online poker players, has been on site throughout the tournament.

Holding the 17th largest chip stack at the Bellagio after Day 3 is Hunter the_Hunt_D Frey. Sitting with 516,000 chips, Frey seeks to add to an already impressive live tournament resume that includes a $231,000 payday for finishing third in a $2,000 buy-in No Limit Hold’em tournament during the 2007 World Series of Poker. Out of 1,531 entrants into that event, only William Durkee and Todd Terry could outlast the PocketFiver. Frey captured a coveted PocketFives.com Triple Crown in August, taking down tournaments on PokerStars, Full Tilt Poker, and Absolute Poker. He racked up 862 PLB Points during his Triple Crown win, one of the largest sums ever for the accolade.

On the scene reporting for PocketFivesLive.com in Sin City is Court Harrington. The tournament veteran described Frey’s run through Day 3: “Hunter was able to accumulate chips early in the day and keep himself in solid position. More of the same for Day 4 and he could find himself going into the play down day with a real shot at a final table.” The Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic will crown a champion on Friday, when the six-handed televised final table will take place. He or she will see their bankroll boosted by $1.5 million.

Luke IWEARGOGGLES Staudenmaier (pictured at left) is 26th in chips at the Bellagio with 404,000 and sits sandwiched between David Oppenheim and Allen Cunningham on the leader board. The 90th player on the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, Staudenmaier grabbed third place in a $300 rebuy event held as part of the Full Tilt Online Poker Series in August for $119,000. Back in March, he won the PokerStars Sunday Warm-Up for $108,000 and, a week later, was back in the spotlight, taking second in the Sunday Million for $126,000. He has two cashes to his name at the WSOP for a total of $12,000.

Mohsin chicagocards1 Charania (pictured at right) will also return for Day 4. He’ll be armed with the 33rd largest chip stack, 342,000. The 37th ranked player on PocketFives.com, Charania’s poker career has included a third place in the Sunday Million in October for $84,000. Within a week’s span last month, he won both the $100 rebuy and $200 rebuy on PokerStars for a combined $75,000. He owns a fourth place finish in a $300 FTOPS tourney for $74,000 and also has a second place effort in the UltimateBet $200K Guaranteed for $28,000. In tournaments that are tracked for the PocketFives.com Rankings, Charania piled up $187,000 in 36 cashes last month for an average of $5,200 per finish.

Harrington described how Charania has been able to last until Day 4: "After a roller coaster of a day, Charania was able to come out in decent shape going into Day 4. He found ways to survive throughout the day and prosper near the end, which is what it takes to go deep in these tournaments." Appropriately, Charania is a native of Chicago, Illinois and often plays live poker in nearby East Chicago, Indiana.

Barry barrgy1 Greenstein (pictured at left) continues to survive at the Bellagio. One of the chip leaders entering Day 3, Greenstein now sits with the 34th largest stack, 336,000, and is right behind Charania. The decorated PocketFiver owns three WSOP bracelets, the most recent of which came by virtue of taking down a Seven Card Razz event during the 2008 tournament series for $157,000. Greenstein owns 39 WSOP and Circuit Event cashes in total for $2.1 million. He won the 2004 WPT World Poker Open for $1.3 million and also took down the Season IV WPT Invitational for $125,000. Last season, he made the final table of the North American Poker Championship, held at Fallsview, for $291,000.

On Day 4, Greenstein and Staudenmaier will be seated at the same table. They’ll be joined by Abe Masseri, Joe McGowan, Andy Bloch, and “Captain” Tom Franklin, among others, in what promises to be a tough grouping. The short stack entering the final day is Nam Le, who holds 110,000 chips.

Here is a rundown of PocketFivers who remain in the hallmark WPT event. The average chip stack at the Bellagio is 407,000:

17th: Hunter the_Hunt_D Frey - 516,000
26th: Luke IWEARGOGGLES Staudenmaier - 404,000
33rd: Mohsin chicagocards1 Charania - 342,000
34th: Barry barryg1 Greenstein - 336,000
53rd: Jonathan FieryJustice Little - 135,000

The top 10 chip stacks overall are:

1st: Evan McNiff - 1,035,000
2nd: Chino Rheem - 905,000
3rd: Jack Wu - 847,000
4th: Steve Sung - 787,000
5th: Nick Schulman - 720,000
6th: Arthur Azen - 700,000
7th: Hoyt Corkins - 681,000
8th: Benjamin Straate - 645,000
9th: Daniel O’Brien - 632,000
10th: Abe Masseri - 591,000

Day 3 saw the money bubble burst, which meant that several members of the online poker community saw their wallets become a little thicker. Finishing in the money in the $15,000 buy-in tournament were a host of PocketFivers that included Justin looshle Pechie (56th place for $23,420), Scott dorinvandy Dorin (60th place for $23,420), Jon PearlJammer Turner (73rd place for $21,620), Annie Duke (76th place for $21,620), Amit amak316 Makhija (79th place for $21,620), Steve MrSmokey1 Billirakis (81st place for $21,620), Andy BKiCe Seth (83rd place for $21,620), and Devin TranquilChaos Porter (94th place for $21,620).

Check out PocketFivesLive.com, your source for the best WPT coverage of the online poker community. We’d like to wish the best of luck to all PocketFivers remaining in the WPT Five Diamond tournament.