LAS VEGAS — A former Bear Stearns executive, a self-employed logger and a tournament poker player have each captured more than 20 million chips as they seek a spot at the final table of the World Series of Poker main event.

Steven Begleiter, a 47-year-old former head of corporate strategy for the investment bank, was leading a field of 14 players left on Wednesday after about six hours of play.
The day began with 27 players, each hoping to last through the night in the no-limit Texas Hold ’em tournament.
“This is like a dream,” Begleiter told a friend as players took one of several breaks from the felt.
Begleiter, who won his entry fee into the tournament in a hometown poker league tournament, said he plans to share 20 percent of his winnings with about 20 other players in his league.
Close to Begleiter in chips was Darvin Moon, a 45-year-old self-employed logger from Oakland, Md., and Eric Buchman, a 29-year-old with nine prior cashes at the series, including a second-place finish at a no-limit Texas Hold ’em tournament in 2006.
Play was expected to go well into the night as those remaining from a starting field of 6,494 players played their eighth session. The tournament, which boasts poker’s richest prize, started July 3.
Players on Wednesday raises, called and folded with breaks every two hours as each elimination brought the tournament closer to its final nine players.
Among those eliminated on Wednesday was Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, who was one of only two prior World Series of Poker tournament winners left as play began Wednesday, along with seven-time gold bracelet winner Phil Ivey.
Esfandiari bet more than 3 million chips with pocket fives, but was called by an opponent who made a pair of 10s on the flop. He won $352,832.
Ivey started the day fourth in chips with 11.35 million, but dropped to 7.4 million two hours later. He fell further to 6.8 million chips by the second break, but recovered to 7.2 million by dinnertime.
The last woman left in the tournament, Leo Margets of Barcelona, Spain, was the first elimination Wednesday in 27th place when her ace-seven didn’t improve against an opponent’s ace-10. She won $352,832.
Margets was already an underdog when she risked the last of her chips, but found herself even further behind when one of the first three community cards paired her opponent’s 10.
About 3 percent of the tournament’s players were women, tournament officials said, less than in previous years.
Margets, a part-time poker player who works as a marketing manager for an Internet casino site, started Wednesday with the second shortest chip stack among those left in the tournament.
Last year, actress Tiffany Michelle was eliminated 17th from a field of 6,844 to win $334,534.
Barbara Enright, who finished fifth in the main event in 1995 to win $114,180, is the only woman to make the final table of the event. Tiffany Williamson’s $400,000 payday for finishing 15th in 2005 remains the highest payday for a woman in the tournament.
After the final table is determined, each of the nine players left will be paid $1.26 million on Thursday, ninth-place money. Harrah’s Entertainment Inc., the private casino operator that owns the tournament, will put the rest of the prize money into a conservative interest-bearing account until the day before the final table starts Nov. 7.
That will push the prizes for the first through eighth-place finishers even higher. Top prize right now is $8.55 million.