Antonio Esfandiari was on fire at the WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classic event in Bellagio and has opened up a clear lead with 54 players left in the field after Day 3. "The Magician" is hoping to take his second WPT title when the tournament finishes on Wednesday, his 32nd birtthday.

While Esfandiari is the only one over the one million chip mark at this point, there are several notables hoping to put an end to his dreams of winning. Doug Lee, Vanessa Rousso, and Freddy Deeb are leading the pack, while Doyle Brunson is in 13th place in the tournament named after him.

The money bubble was burst on Day 3, and Phil Ivey, Jason Mercier, and Johnny Chan are some of the players who picked up a cheque on their way out.

Top 10 and some notables (blinds stand at 2.5k/5k/500):

Antonio Esfandiari 1.082.500
Doug Lee 702.500
Vanessa Rousso 694.000
Freddy Deeb 654.000
Nicholas Phillips 559.000
Jerry Young 550.000
Ray Dehkharghani 522.000
Charles Caris 512.000
Bryn Kenney 458.000
Kianoosh Mohajeri 452.000
...
Jon Little 449.000
Doyle Brunson 446.000
Sorel Mizzi 436.500
Kirk Morrison 430.500
Winfred Yu 329.000 (poker manager at the Starworld Casino in Macau)
Marco Traniello 315.000
Thor Hansen 309.500
Amit Makhija 287.000
Andrew Robl 237.000
John Racener 137.000
David Sklansky 90.500
Jeff Shulman 56.500

WPT has the updates.

(In the picture, Antonio and a friend in a Finnish night club.)