The World Series of Poker's 2012 Main Event is entering its most exciting stages after the conclusion of Day 3 last night.

The field of runners is now down to just 720 from a starting lineup of more than 6,500. The biggest stack in the room belongs to New Jersey poker pro Dave D'Alesandro, who has collected 1.1 million chips to take over the lead.

Day 3 also saw a number of notable names grind their way into the top-100. These include Leo Wolpert, Vanessa Selbst, John Phan, Marcel Luske, Shaun Deeb, David Tuchman, Antonio Esfandiari, Gavin Smith, JP Kelly, Maria Ho, Johnny Chan, Eric Baldwin and John Juanda.

The day also witnessed some notable eliminations, including this of last year's Player of The Year, Ben Lamb, and the defending champion, Pius Heinz.

Heinz was according to updates from the WSOP short stacked the entire tournament, and only managed to claw his way through to Day 3 with about one-third of the average stack.

Late on Day 3, he finally moved in with sixes, but was called by Gioang Nguyen's pocket aces.

Other eliminations to take notice of include Peter Eastgate, Sammy Farha, John Racener, Barry Greenstein, Jeff Schulman and Vicky Coren.

With 720 players still alive in the tournament, the money bubble is also slowly getting closer.

A total of 666 players will receive a minimum payout of around $19,000, as the event continues its hunt for the 2012 champion.

For more updates and chip counts from the Main Event, see the WSOP website.