After a day off Sunday, the survivors of the preliminary six flights of the $10 000 buy-in Main Event of the 2010 World Series of Poker came together Monday afternoon, the combined Day 2a and 2b field for the first time joining together to compete in Day 3.

2,559 players, all that remains of an initial overall main event entry field of 7,319, started the day, with David Assouline in the chip lead and the money bubble still way off in the distance at 747. Once that point is reached every survivor stands to pick up at least $19,263.

The winner this year will collect a first prize of $8,944,138, and the nine who survive as far as the final table will all be assured of million dollar plus paychecks.

Among the better known faces starting Monday afternoon were Jesper Hougaard, Jim Collopy, Cole South, Jon Van Fleet, Juha Helppi, Evelyn Ng, Barny Boatman, Johnny Chan, Vanessa Selbst, Marco Johnson, Dragan Galic, Patrik Antonius, Archie Karas, and Yevgeniy Timoshenko.

By late evening Monday play had reached level 13 when tournament officials halted the action, with the field more than halved and only 1,240 players left to go through to Day 4. James Carroll has the lead on 803,000, with closest rival Imari Love on 741,000. Back at number 9 in the top ten lurks veteran and former champ Johnny Chan aka The Orient Express, who had an excellent day in which he frequently held the chip lead.

Big names aplenty fell during Day 3, among them Scott Seiver, Phil Laak, Jennifer Harman, Chris Moneymaker, David Williams, Erik Seidel, Kara Scott, Bill Chen, Daniel Negreanu, Vanessa Rousso, last years main event champ Joe Cada, Billy Kopp, Eugene Katchalov, John Hennigan, and Archie Karas.

The Mizrachi brothers, Robert, Eric, Danny, and Michael, made Day 3 a family affair by all lasting through the carnage, and willk be watched with interest going into the fourth day.