wsop 2012 main event

Two poker professionals and a college student have topped nearly 6,600 competitors at the World Series of Poker and are one session away from poker's richest prize, $8.53 million

Jake Balsiger eliminated Russell Thomas in fourth place early Tuesday, 24-year-old poker pros Greg Merson of Laurel, Md., and Jesse Sylvia of Las Vegas join him in the final three.

"I can't wait to get back up here and play. I wish we could play it out right now," said Sylvia, who started the session of more than 7 hours with the chip lead but was overtaken by Merson.

"We have a long battle tomorrow," he said.

Thomas won $2.85 million for fourth place, then said after being eliminated that he planned to quit his job as an insurance actuary for Aetna to turn pro.

"Made my company a little mad because I quit my job in a newspaper article, and now I'm doing it in a press conference," he said.

Merson vaulted to a dominant chip lead thanks to an opponent's startling error, then finished the session with 88.4 million in chips, compared with 62.8 million for Sylvia and 46.9 million for Balsiger.

Merson eliminated Hungarian poker professional Andras Koroknai in sixth place, when Koroknai 6 bet shoved K-Q into A-K.

Koroknai won $1.64 million for sixth place, while Merson won 84 million in chips, nearly double that of his closest competitor.

Merson said he expected iKoroknai to make a mistake, and told Sylvia during one of the breaks that he expected Koroknai to bluff away all his chips.

"When short-handed play starts, I think that's my game because a lot of players either play too tight, or they over-adjust," he said.

Poker professional Robert Salaburu was ousted in eighth. Minutes later, Michael Esposito went out in seventh, his ace-jack failing to pull ahead of Merson's ace-king.

Jeremy Ausmus, 33, of Las Vegas, placed fifth.

"I never had cards the whole day," Esposito said. "At the end of the day, I'm going home a rich person."

Steve Gee, a 57-year-old poker professional from Sacramento, Calif., was eliminated in ninth place less than two hours into play after testing Thomas moving all-in for the last of his 11.4 million in chips.

Thomas called and showed a pair of queens, better than Gee's pocket eights.

"If I knew he had pocket queens, I would have checked," Gee said after being eliminated. "I'm disappointed. I told myself I wasn't going to play scared."

On the first hand of play, Gee bluffed Thomas on a pot worth several million chips, though Thomas held just nine high and wouldn't have been able to consider playing the hand to the end.

Esposito, 44, a commodities broker from Seaford, N.Y., was uncertain about the status of his waterfront home as Superstorm Sandy hit the East Coast.

His son, James Esposito, said neighbors told him the streets are flooded, but the family was focused on the card game in the Nevada desert.

"Odds are likely that it's flooded," he said. "I know I saw a picture of the house three doors down — the streets are totally flooded."

The chip leader heading into the final table was Sylvia, who began the final stretch with 43.9 million in chips, just over 22 percent of the chips in play.

The finalists played Monday night until only three players remained, leaving the top three to settle the title Tuesday night.