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Welcome back to Day 3 of this competition, 88 players return with the blinds being 1500/3000 with a 300 ante. I'm unsure how many levels are being played, but we will tell you as soon as we know. Chip counts will also follow when we get them. If you want anyone followed, please, as usual post their names on the Interactive thread.

Day Three Chip Standings:

Andy Black (Ireland) -- 513300
Josh Arieh (USA) -- 343100
Antony Lellouche (France) -- 332100
Johnny Lodden (Norway) -- 310900
Simon Johansson (Sweden) -- 302100
Christopher Ulsrud (Norway) -- 286800
Philip   Hilm (Denmark)   -- 273200
Oscar Blanco Carrasco (Spain) -- 245900
Steve Jelinek (UK) -- 226400
Biri Balazs (Hungary) -- 219200
Chad Brown (USA) -- 212900
Vladimir Troyanovsky (Russia) -- 202100
Marc Karam (Canada) -- 196700
Elie Marciano (France)   -- 187100
Christian Neirinck (Belgium) -- 181800
Thomas Bihl (Germany) -- 179800
Jonathan Little   (USA) -- 176300
Carlos   Mortensen (Spain) -- 174700
Alexander Kim (USA) -- 173600
Pete Giordano (USA) -- 167800
Dean Sanders (UK) -- 166000
David Sonelin (Sweden) -- 165000
Kristian Kjondal (Norway) -- 164000
Nicolas   Ragot (France) -- 163700
Jan Veit (Germany) -- 159800
Soren Bakfort (Denmark)   -- 157500
Thomas Wahlroos (Finland) -- 154900
Kristof   De Smedt (Belgium) -- 154800
Dario Alioto (Italy) -- 149600
Sergey Altbregin (Russia) -- 144600
Ram Vaswani (UK) -- 141900
Ricki Nielsen (Denmark)   -- 138400
Chris Bjorin (Sweden)   -- 136600
Lars Eidissen (Norway) -- 136200
Halldor Mar Sverrisson   (Iceland) -- 135800
Samir Rahal (France) -- 134300
Richard   Waters (UK) -- 131200
Peter Christiaan Dalhuijsen (Holland) -- 120600
Lars Bonding (Denmark) -- 119500
Nicholas Goodall (UK) -- 119400
Roi Elmaliah (Israel) -- 118800
Cristinel Dumitru (Romania) -- 117900
Gavin Griffin (USA) -- 111200
Johannes Strassmann (Germany) -- 105700
Fabio Bianchi (Italy) -- 103600
Shane Reihill (Ireland)   -- 103100
William   Hill (UK) -- 100400
Jesse Steinberg (USA) -- 97400
Richard   Herbert   (Ireland) -- 95000
Rayan Nathan (Australia) -- 85700
Joe Beevers (UK) -- 82800
Eric Van der Berg (Holland) -- 80800
David Sykes (Canada) -- 80400
Jacob Larsson (Sweden)   -- 77000
Fadi Kamar (Lebanon) -- 76800
David Mobbs (UK) -- 76300
Michael   Martin (USA) -- 74600
Ernst Hermans (Holland)   -- 63800
Staale   Egenes (Norway) -- 62200
Josh Prager (USA) -- 60400
David Barraclough (UK) -- 58000
Atanas Gueorguiev (Bulgaria) -- 57500
Ben Callinan (UK) -- 55500
Soren Kongsgaard (Denmark) -- 55500
David Ulliott (UK) -- 54400
Zack Stewart (Israel) -- 54300
David Peters (USA) -- 51900
Sasa Biorac (Germany) -- 51100
Hans Eskilsson (Sweden)   -- 51000
Jason Mellross   (Australia) -- 50700
Hans Vars (Norway) -- 47600
Patric   Martensson (Sweden) -- 47300
Ali Masterman (UK) -- 44300
Herman   Zango (Costa Rica) -- 43900
Hans Erlandsson (Sweden) -- 42800
Ouri Aron Cohen (France) -- 42300
Anthony   Chatelain (Sweden) -- 36800
Age Spets (Norway) -- 33700
Ross Boatman (UK) -- 32900
Fowzi Baroukh (UK) -- 32400
Xuyen Pham (UK) -- 31900
Daryl Jace (USA) -- 30600
Gunnar   Ostebrod (Norway) -- 29200
Maurice   Kenter   (USA) -- 19400
Mickey Wernick   (UK) -- 13700

Payout Reminder:

1   1,825,010
2   1,061,820
3   610,550
4   471,180
5   391,550
6   305,270
7   238,910
8   159,270
9   99,550
10   99,550
11   66,360
12   66,360
13   49,770
14   49,770
15   39,820
16   39,820
17   33,180
18   33,180
19   33,180
20   33,180
21   33,180
22   33,180
23   33,180
24   33,180
25   26,550
26   26,550
27   26,550
28   26,550
29   26,550
30   26,550
31   26,550
32   26,550
33   23,230
34   23,230
35   23,230
36   23,230
37   23,230
38   23,230
39   23,230
40   23,230
41   19,910
42   19,910
43   19,910
44   19,910
45   19,910
46   19,910
47   19,910
48   19,910
49   16,590
50   16,590
51   16,590
52   16,590
53   16,590
54   16,590
55   16,590
56   16,590
57   13,270
58   13,270
59   13,270
60   13,270
61   13,270
62   13,270
63   13,270
64   13,270

American, Daryl Jace, is the first exit of the day.

--------------

For a moment there, I thought we'd lost one on Dean Sander's table, but they actually play 7-handed. Dean, meanwhile, has just lost 40k to his neighbour Herman Zango, calling Zango's over the top all-in with J-Q in a battle of the blinds. Zango, who didn't have much more in chips, had A-8, which ultimately stood up.

Down one American already - Maurice Kenter is OUT - rather spectacularly running into Aces... not that there's anything that unusual about that occurrence, it's more the open shove from under the gun with Td Tc for 50k which made the spectators' eyes open wide.  Greg Amoils saw the beginning of the hand, and was fairly surprised to find the big blind Antony Lellouche calling so quickly, until he flipped the Ad Ac.
The board came:  7c 2h 2s 6d Aspades (this is the part I saw firsthand) and that was a definitive knockout, and a good start for the Frenchman.

Age Spets doubled up first hand, getting his 30k or so in as a comfy favourite with Aspades Ts against Lars Bonding's Kh Th preflop.
Board:  5d 3c Jd 6s Td and a happy Spets is back in it.
___________________________________

Richard 'Strummer' Herbert takes a pot of chipped up Chad Brown on the river, fearlessly taking on the table big stack and, it appears, tidy player.

Zack Stewart is OUT, eliminated by Nicolas Ragot. Nines v Kings, no help.

----------

Dave 'Devilfish' Ulliott is OUT.

He shoved it in with Kh Jh on an Ah-8h-x Flop, but ran into A-8 and failed to improve.

Mickey Wernick is OUT.

There was a min raise on his table, and Mickey decided to go for it with A-8. Came up against Aces and failed to escape.

Micky Wernick doubles up, in predictable Micky style, he pushed his very short stack in and got protection from Josh Arieh next to him, Josh's Kh Qc was no good for Micky's Ad Ahrt though, especially after the Tc 5h 9s 2d 7c board.

This table featuring Patric Martesson, Steve Jelinek and Joe Beevers has just been broken making this picture annoyingly redundant. Beevers did win this checked down pot against Jelinek with 5c 7c though, hitting a Seven on the river.

Johnny Lodden stacking the chips, having knocked out Hans Erlandsson, a pokerstars qualifier. Erlandsson raised from the small blind and pushed on the 6s 3c Ts with Jc 9h, Lodden made the quick call with Kc Th. 9c on the turn but 8d river sent him home.

Nicolas Ragot (on the right) with Richard  here, just knocked out Lars Bonding with A-A vs K-K.

Ali Masterman is OUT.

He'd pushed with A-K the hand before and taken the blinds, and the next hand he did the same with K-Q (for around 33k), but this time he ran into Queens and failed to improve.

"I was shortstacked the whole tournament and just never really got going. I called a pre-flop raise with Sixes earlier on today when I should have either jammed or folded. He had K-J and it came a Jack on the Flop, so I think I missed an opening there. Ah well, pretty gutted, wanted to at least get my money back"

Selected counts, with 73 players remaining:

Ben Callinan       46,800
David Barraclough  71,000
Joe Beevers        95,000
Jonathan Little    162,000
Thomas Bihl        186,000
Richard Waters    160,000
Staale Egenes      36,000
Age Spets           43,500
Nicolas Ragot       255,000
Richard Herbert    102,000

I also caught up with Brit Dave 'doops' Barriclough, who seemed vastly chirpy, and understandably so as he'd just doubled up to 80k, raising to 8.5 pre-flop, finding one caller in the big blind, before calling an all-in push on a T-9-2 Flop. David called with Aces to find himself well ahead against K-J, but with a Jack on the Turn, the Dave Penley lookalike was up against 9 (I think) outs, all of which failed to hit.

"An 9 hit the River so for a moment I thought I'd lost to a straight," said a relieved doops.

Table 4:

Ernst Hermanns -- 75k
Ouri Cohen -- 30k
Christer Bjorin -- 235k
Simon Johanssen -- 320k
Sasa Biorac -- 80k
Soren Kongsgaard -- 175k
Marc Karam -- 110k
Fabio Bianchi -- 20k

In case we haven't reported it, Dutchman Peter Christiaan Dalhuijsen was eliminated on the TV table earlier on by Ram Vaswani.

Meanwhile on the final table of the €500 1 rebuy side event, I spotted Steve Vladar and Annette_15 are involved there.

Blinds are now 2k/4k with a 400 ante meaning it's 9.2k a turn.

More counts - Starting with that Lodden/Black table you're all so keen on:

Ricki Nielsen        65k
Pete Giordano    170k
Andy Black         580k (?) (Not allowed to get close enough to thoroughly inspect the monster stack)
Nicholas Goodall   52.7k
Hans Erlandsson  141k
Johnny Lodden   355k
Gavin Griffin        291k

Jesse Steinberg   87k
Ryan Nathan       56k
Dario Alioto        55k
Fadi Kamar         48k
Chad Brown      240k
Richard Herbert   110k
Lars Eidissen       144k
Hans Eskilsson      76k

Josh Arieh           320k (bad angle; I jotted 'lots; top five' on my notepad)
Antony Lellouche   235k
Eric Van der Berg   150k
Thomas Wahlroos  169.5k

Vladimir Troyanorsky  160k
Biri Balazs             290k
Steve Jelinek        150k
Dean Sanders        168k
Herman Zango        63k
Oscar Blanco          162k
Sergey Altbregin     175k

Christopher Ulsrud  117k
Philip Hilm              468k
David Peters           ?
Jonathan Little      162k
Thomas Bihl          242k
David Barraclough    65k
Cristinel Dumitru     105k

Will go try to fill the gaps on the third tablw - tables 10 and 11 have been dispersed throughout the room as the early players fell...

71 are left.

Ricki 'Hello Mary Lou' Neilsen is OUT, no details I'm afraid.

Philip Hilm and Christopher Ulsrud have been in some skirmishes recently, it appears, and Ulsrud has come out of it a bit dented.  Just now a crowd was forming (what a surprise) as Ulsrud bet 40k on the river, with the board:  2d 8c 6c 9c Ac.  Hilm thought about it for not as long as you might think before calling with Aspades Ts; Ulrud was caught red-handed (oh I amuse myself sometimes) showing the 6h 7h.

Hilm has become something of a contender for second-to-Andy-Black today...perhaps a very dark horse final tablist?

Two big all-ins occurred at once, and both required announcing from Big TK Thomas Kremser. With Michael Martin (below) all-in with Ac Ks against the Qd Jd of Josh Arieh, the tension was left to build as the action unfolded on the other table, but with the dealer looking over her shoulder awaiting the green light, Big TK returned to offer a cool nod and off she went.

Flop = 8s Qc 3s

A slight gasp from the audience, no real response from the players and the Turn was dealt...

Turn = 2h

One card left, Big TK gives the dealer a gentle tap on the shoulder and away we go...

River = 2s

No help for Martin and the American is OUT, pensive in defeat, yet taking it bubbly exit very well.

Whilst I mentioned the pre-bubble exit of Michael Martin, I also spoke of another all-in, and one which involved Richard Herbert. Although he didn't win it, it was not a costly one and simply doubled up a short-stacker.

Queens v Kings, 7-6-8-7-6 board.

Strummer remains on 100k.

POP!

Christer Bjorin is OUT and becomes the unfortunate bubble boy.

It was very hard to see with everyone swarming around the table, including Age Spets who had moved all-in on his table with Jacks and taken the blinds just moments before.

With a Flop of 5c 8c 7h, all the chips go flying in with Christer holding a potentially fulfilling Ac Jc against Soren Kongsgaard's (we think it was him, he was high fiving) 4c 4s.

Turn = Ks

River = Kh

and Christer is OUT.

Xuyen Pham/Vladar is OUT.

All-in against Gunnar Osterbrod of Norway with Fives v Sevens on a Queen high board.

Dean Sanders (pictured) just took a tidy chunk off neighbour Steve Jelinek - Steve raised from the cutoff to 12k, Dean on the button re-raised to 31k (preflop).
The flop came:  Qc 4d 7d  Steve checked and Dean quickly bet 50k.  Call.
Turn:  Aspades  Steve checked again and Dean put in 100k, pretty much covering the Day One chip leader (now dropping behind the front runners).  He thought for a while, and passed, while Dean took the pot, showing Ahrt Qh.

Railer Nik Persaud is very excited that his percentage is heading for the dizzy heights of the prize pool; he put Jelinek on a pair (Tens or thereabouts) but was uncritical of both the preflop and flop call... he did, however, manage to get over a third of his stack in check-calling "what could easily have been a continuation bet following the standard button re-raise," but is still on over 100k.

Rayan Nathan is OUT, and the assassin, Ben Callinan, who is now up to 70k after struggling for quite a while.

All-in pre-flop, Ben pushed it in with Qd 6d and found himself up against Aspades Qh.

But perhaps this is Ben's week, because look at this rewarding, although still terrifyingly horrifying Flop...

2s 3s 6s

"It's okay, you got it, don't worry," rails Des.

And he was right!

Turn = 8c

River = Kd

Quick Brit check (excluding Ram and who is on the feature table and perhaps Nicholas Goodall who we need to track down)...

(1) Dean Sanders -- 330k
(2) Richard Waters -- 170k
(3) Steve Jelinek -- 125k
(4) Dave Mobbs -- 105k
(5) Joe Beevers -- 100k
(6) Richard Herbert -- 95
(7) Ben Callinan -- 70k

Other chip counts:

Josh Arieh -- 450k
Andy Black -- 600k
Joe Beevers -- 145k
Phillip Hilm -- 570k
Chad Brown -- 285k
Simon Johansson -- 300k

Meanwhile, while I'm faffing around, Ben Callinan's remarkable comeback is complete as he has just trebled through!!

All-in with sevens, Ben found himself up against 2 callers and a T-4-6 Flop and although one guy had Eights, Ben's turned set completed the Houdini act.

Joe Beevers wins a huge pot on the TV table (for those without the benefit of high speed internet) -

Threeway all in between him (Qd Qh) Thomas Bihl (Ac Jd) and Philip Hilm (9h 9c) (not sure about Philip's hand, actually, can anyone watching enlighten us?)

Anyway, the end result was no hit for the other two, the board coming 8-7-2-T-T (tense on the turn, though) and knocking out Thomas Bihl while giving Joe a nice stack to riffle in front of the cameras.

-------------

David Barriclough is no where to be seen, he must be OUT.

-------------

Steve Jelinek, who dropped down as low as 85k, is now back up to 170k after re-raising all-in with 8-7 and being called by K-Q.

"I can't believe he called," commented a bemused Steve.

K-7-7 Flop.

220,000, or thereabouts.  48 players remaining, or thereabouts.  Blinds definitely 3k/6k ante 600.

They are playing down to 4 tables tonight, (32 players). And obviously down to 8 players tomorrow night.

Battle of the shortstacks - blind on blind. Lars Eidissen pushed for not a lot from the small blind, and Hans Eskilsson had only 22k left after the 6.6 already in, and went for it with his 7d 2h.  Probably not what he wanted to see at his all-in moment... his opponent had the 9c Td, but the board brought and Ace, two Queens, a King...and a Deuce, so Eskilsson is still in, but both of them fairly close to the bottom of the pack. 

David Sonelin is OUT -

A button raise saw him pushing from the small blind, a lot of chips (physically) but it couldn't have been more than 50k in total.  Called with Kc Qh, David showed Aspades 8s, but could only watch helplessly as the Qd came straight away on the flop, with no glimmer of draw hope.  After three days of playing deep, lots of streets play, it's always depressing to find your cards on their backs and your tournament life in the hands of fate alone, favourite or not.

Down to 46 with average stack of 230k.

One of those men fell at the hand of Antony Lellouche of France, who has now climbed up to a massive 575k with Nines v T-3 suited.

----------

Also gone is Hans Eskilsson, who was eliminated by Ben Callinan. Ben now on around 160k.

----------

Gavin Griffin has taken another player out, Ad Th vs. Kd Qc on a Kc Ac 3c Kh Tc board.

With all this madness, it's hard to get chip counts. You start doing them (it's very hard to get close enough) only for an all-in to be called on another table.

However, amidst all the aforementioned bedlam, I did manage to grab the following counts.

Richard Waters -- 140k
Ram Vaswani -- 325k
Carlo Mortensen -- 360k
Jesse Steinberg -- 125k
Josh Arieh -- 205k
Chad Brown -- 230k
Thomas Wahlroos -- 205k
Antony Lellouche -- 575k
Eric Van De Berg -- 225k
Gunnar Ostebrod -- 80k
Ernst Hermanns -- 70k
Simon Johanssen -- 185k
Steve Jelinek -- 175k
Marc Karam -- 210k
Soren Kongsgaard -- 345k
Nick Goodall -- 115k
Roi Elmaliah -- 120k

As the level before the dinner break draws to a close, Ram gets involved with cutoff raiser Oscar Blanco, calling a total of 16k preflop.
Flop:  3d Qc 6c  Ram checked, Oscar checked.
Turn:  Ac  Ram checked, Oscar bet 15k.  Ram pushed in a 20k stack; the dealer promptly gave change, but there was a brief altercation over whether anyone had heard Ram say, "Raise."  He didn't fight his corner too hard - the floor was called, it was judged as a call, and they saw the river:  7s.
Ram instantly bet 50k.  Oscar dwelled for a good three minutes - we were all convinced he was passing - but no, he called, and was shown 7d 3s.  Instant muck.

Those fabulous cash payouts so far...(in €'s)

46  Sverrisson Halldor Mar 19,910
47 Balazs Biri 19,910
48 Eskilsson Hans Ari 19,910
49 Sonelin David 16,590
50 Ragot Nicolas 16,590
51 Bihl Thomas 16,590
52 Cohen Ouri 16,590
53 Varsi Hans Ari 16,590
54 Martensson Patric 16,590
55 Spets Age 16,590
56 Biorac Sasa 16,590
57 Mateyboy 13,270
58 Sykes David 13,270
59 Rayan Nathan 13,270
60 Lodden Johnny 13,270
61 Pham Xuyen 13,270
62 Little Jonathan 13,270
63 Chatelain Anthony 13,270
64 Marciano Elie 13,270

Gunnar Ostebrod is OUT.

Pushed his shortstack (Around 70k or so I believe) with 9-3o, but was looked up by Pete Giordano's Pocket Sixes. 2-4-A-2-7 board.

Ram Vaswani -- 280k
Ben Callinan -- 160k
Dave Mobbs -- 85k
Dean Saners -- 320k
Sergey Altbregin -- 85k
Roi Elmaliah -- 210k
Nick Goodall -- 95k
Thomas Wahlroos -- 250k
Richard Waters -- 160k
Richard Herbert 00 130k
Marc Karam -- 275k
Soren Kongsgaard -- 320k
Ernst Hermanns -- 65k
Carlos Mortensen -- 330k
Cahd Brown -- 315k
Simon Johanssen -- 295k
Josh Arieh -- 395k
Steve Jelinek -- 175k
Oscar Blanco -- 130k
Shane Reihill -- 220k
Gavin Griffin -- 490k
Christian Neirinck -- 365k
Alex Kim -- couldn't see

David Peters has doubled through with Q-Q vs. A-8. K-T-6-T-4 board. Philip Hilm making quite a reckless play perhaps against someone who has played relatively tight.

Three quick exits now to bring us to 37.

First Ernst Hermans A-4 departs to Marc Karam K-8, King on the flop.

Gavin Griffiths takes out Nick Goodall, holding Fives on a 5-7-8-3-J board against A-Q.

Finally Richard Herbert is OUT, pushed with A-2, ran into A-K. Ace on the flop, King on the turn. Sorry for lack of flop details, but the press rail isn't the best viewing spot.

Oscar Blanco moved in preflop (not sure for how much, but let's say that it was short enough to do this on a move, but large enough that he had a good chance of getting everyone out of the way without a strong calling hand).  He got a swift call from Eric Van der Berg, who showed Aspades Ad - just ahead of Oscar's Kd 7d.
The flop must have brought such hope to one party, and such tension to the other:  Kc 6d 5d
Turn:  9s
River:  2s

And we're down another.  Looks like the 32-player finish line is within sight in the next two levels.

Table ex-Blanco:

Johannes Strassman   180k
Jacob Larsson            175k
Ram Vaswani             370k
Dave Mobbs              120k
Eric Van der Berg       285k
Kristof de Smedt        354k
Alex Kim                   320k+

Dean Sanders has gone elimination crazy, first knocking out the Russian Vladmir Troyanovsky with Jh Jd against 9h 9s on a 4d 7s Ts 5d 5h - All-in on the flop.

He then knocked out Chad Brown in 33rd place, all in on a flop of 6s 9d 2c, Chad's 7h 7c looking feeble against Dean's Kh Kc and he went out after a 4c and Qs river in 33rd place.

Gavin Griffiths had also previously busted a player, (possibly Thomas Walhroos but we can't confirm it) holding 3c 3s on a 3d Qc Kc 5s 4s against the other player's Q-4, all-in on the turn.

Freeroll Qualifier Richard Waters is down to the last four tables!  Apparently playing his first ever live tournament, purple-shirted Richard just got involved with Carlos Mortensen, calling his 24k bet preflop and seeing a 2c Kd 9c flop.  Check to Mortensen - swift 30k bet, and a think-pass.  Shortish now, with around 130k, but still there and getting a better night's rest tonight.  Early finish! 

And like that... We're done! Play ends for the day, tomorrow we'll go from 32 players to the final 8. Once again starting at 2pm (1pm GMT)

Andy said on the way through the pressroom as he headed off that he ended the day still probable chip leader, with 720k, but without the ludicrous lead on the rest of the field he may have gotten used to.  His high chip point was somewhere around 860k(!) and he admits that the last session saw his first slide backwards in chips the whole tournament.  Good he's getting a proper rest, then - and so should we.




But we're not.  We're going to check out the dusk til dawn party and maybe share a beer.

Placed 45 to 32. (So Gavin Griffiths did knock out Wahlroos)

33  Brown Chad 23,230
34 Wahlroos Thomas 23,230
35 Beevers Joe 23,230
36 Altbregin Sergey 23,230
37 Hermans Ernst 23,230
38 Herbert Richard 23,230
39 Goodall Nick 23,230
40 Blanco Carrasco Oscar 23,230
41 Ostebrod Gunnar 19,910
42 Gueorguiev Atanas 19,910
43 Steinberg Jesse 19,910
44 Kamar Fadi 19,910
45 Troyanovsky Vladimir 19,910