On Thursday, Kevin KevMathMathers (pictured) had the honor of issuing the ceremonial “Shuffle up and deal” command at the World Series of Poker Main Event. The tournament had its Day 2C on Thursday and, for Mathers, it was a much-deserved honor.

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He was introduced as follows: “We at the World Series of Poker, on behalf of all our staff, want to acknowledge and thank Kevin Mathers for all he does surrounding our event. He truly is a bright light and great friend to everyone in the game. We applaud his efforts and his selfless giving of time and information to help the cogs of the game continue to roll forward.”

Mathers has been a staple on Twitter of anything and everything related to the WSOP, including questions about event start times, structures, and live streams. He hit 70,000 Tweets lifetime during the WSOP this year and ultimately busted out of the Main Event on Day 2C. He works at Bluff– not for the WSOP – and lives in Atlanta.

After his elimination, Mathers posted a few comments on Twitter, saying in part, “They say the saddest day of the year is when you bust out of the WSOP Main Event, and I’ll admit to feeling that way at the moment. A huge thank you to everyone that bought pieces of my action and to those rooting me on.”

He candidly added, “Five years ago, the level of fame among the poker community was surpassed by my level of reclusiveness. Today, I did the ‘Shuffle up and deal’ for over 2,700 players in the Main Event. Guess that means it’s not the saddest day of my year after all.”

A total of 1,796 players remain in contention in the 2015 WSOP Main Event entering Day 3; 654 survived Day 2AB on Wednesday, while 1,142 survived Day 2C on Thursday. Six former Main Event champions are still in: Ryan Riess (pictured), Phil Hellmuth, Jim Bechtel, Scotty Nguyen, and Joe Hachem. Riess, who won the Main Event in 2013, is in 37th place with a stack of 291,700.

The top four players on the leaderboard entering Friday’s combined Day 3 all are from Day 2AB. Massachusetts’ Amar Anand leads the way with a stack of 603,500, the lone player to cross 600,000 and one of only two players to pass 500,000.

Day 3 takes place on Friday at Noon PT with the field combined for the first time. Here’s how the top 10 in chips looks right now:

1. Amar Anand – 603,500
2. Calvin Lee – 500,700
3. Luther Tran – 479,700
4. Charles Chattha – 423,300
5. David Jackson – 408,800
6. Zach Jiganti – 401,900
7. Alan Mastic – 400,000
8. Sotirios Koutoupas – 393,000
9. Shawn Van Asdale – 388,000
10. Joe Lu – 387,400

Click here for the full leaderboard.

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