Phil He11muth among the slew of eliminations on Day 3
In case you are joining us late, here's a list of players that busted out during the first three and a half hours of play....
John Ridge, Tony G, Huseyln Yilmaz, Vicky Coren, Farzad Bonyadi, Matthew Carter, Daniel Zink, Paul Ephremsen, Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke, Jani Sointula, Neil Pearson, Sergey Feklisov, Matthew Gilbert, Joe Beevers, Krzysztof Gluszko, Jeffrey Lisandro, Stephen Rynne, RW Stain, Erik Joergensen, Sam Norman, Ryan Fronda, Mark McCluskey, Sergey Rybachenko, Martin Vallo, Rehne Pedersen, Simon Wing, Phil Helmuth, Jr., and Roland Isrealashvili
Vathne: snapping at the chip leaders' heels
That's what one table mate of Aleksander Vathne and Annette Obrestad commented after a pot nearly reaching 100k went from the latter to the former. The raising took off on the turn, when the board looked like: . It looked like Annette must have check-raised her opponent (my attention momentarily distracted by the Kuremszki all in at the adjoining table) for there was a little lake of red 5k chips in the middle as the river came down . This hand actually reached showdown:
Smithers, remove this beagle from my office
As I deduced the approximate value of Dave Colclough's stack, El Blondie said, "My guess is 187k, what are you going for?" I showed him the 190k on my notepad.
"Great minds think alike," I bragged. "It looks like we're on the same intellectual level."
Dave didn't seem too happy about this revelation and even questioned it's authenticity, but then I pointed to his newfound chips and said, "And that's why you're doing so well now. Since I've been watching, you've shot up, so you're obviously bouncing off me."
Again, Dave was unconvinced and I fear I won't receive that percentage I am after if he were to cash.
Phillip Hilm, giving the ol' staredown earlier in the day
Philip Hilm landed on the short stack after a hand that saw Matt Larsh moving all in pre-flop with and Hilm calling with . Small cards all on the flop, with Larsh rivering a set of kings for good measure left Hilm with only about 30,000.
Hilm chipped up a bit over the next orbit or so, to 45,000, and when Abishek Khaitan made a button raise to 6,500, Hilm decided to move in from the small blind. Khaitan called in a shot, tabling , dominating Hilm's . The flop brought both men pairs, but Hilm was drawing dead once the hit the turn, making Khaitan's set and he headed to the rail.
Praying Mantis
Now that the final table outside the vicinity of the cardroom has dispersed, I have been forced to once again pitch up tent again downstairs.
As I scour the cardroom, I notice a few Brits still plugging away: Gary Jones, Jeff Buffenbarger, Dave Colclough, Ian Frazer and Karl Mahrenholz among some of the names still flying the British flag.
In fact the latter of those five, Karl 'Mantis' Mahrenholz is doing particularly well, just creeping into the current top 10 with 184,000 in chips.
A former city banker from London, Karl burst onto the scene a year or two back and quickly quit his job to pursue the pro scene. Evidently, this decision was a wise one, the caterpillar eyebrower finding some nice scores including a runner up finish in the inaugural GUKPT in Bolton and a few chunky cashes in Vegas this year.
Now traveling the circuit as a sponsored play with his fellow Hit Squad members, Karl might be a dark horse for this tournament. He's cool, calm and collective, yet timely aggressive and knows how to play a big stack.
. It looked like Annette must have check-raised her opponent (my attention momentarily distracted by the Kuremszki all in at the adjoining table) for there was a little lake of red 5k chips in the middle as the river came down 
. This hand actually reached showdown:
, Pete Murphy pushes in for 94k.
giving Jorgenson a straight flush wheel.
and Hilm calling with 
. Small cards all on the flop, with Larsh rivering a set of kings for good measure left Hilm with only about 30,000. 
hit the turn, making Khaitan's set and he headed to the rail.
