Day 3 Concludes
Eliminations came quickly early on, with 17 players hitting the rail during the first 75-minute level. Among those going out early were Arnaud Mattern, "Miami" John Cernuto, Raoul Refos, and Liya Gerasomiva. By the second level of play the pace slowed somewhat, as just five players went out, including Juhasz Barnabas of Hungary, Francesco Cirianni of Italy, and Priit Turner of Estonia.
It was the middle of Level 15 -- the third of the day -- when Ruslan Prydryk (Ukraine) was bounced in 42nd place, thus beginning a 30-minute or so period of hand-for-hand play that culminated in the elimination of Serguei Pomerantsev (Russia) at the hands of Jonas Kronwitter (Germany).
The next eight players to be eliminated all earned €7,610, and when Russian Albert Sungatullin was knocked out in 33rd we were done for the day. When the dust cleared, Maxim Lykov (Russia), Vadim Markushevski (Belarus), and Vitaly Tolokonnikov (Russia) were all battling for the chip lead, each with more than 600,000 chips. (Click "Chip Counts" for end-of-day counts for all 32 players.)
The remaining 32 come back tomorrow at noon Ukrainian time (GMT+2). Thanks for following our coverage today, and be sure to come back tomorrow to see who makes it to the final eight-handed table.