The HORSE may be the biggest event of the week by far but the show was almost stolen today by a Frenchman in the short-handed hold’em - a Team PokerStars Frenchman that is, a certain ‘ElkY’ Grospellier.

The PCA winner, who was all-in more than once on day one of this event yesterday, stormed into the lead late Friday evening and looked destined to gallop headlong into the last six. That was until the early hours of Saturday morning. After a series of hands plunged him into the murkiness of the short stack world, notably when Tom Lutz doubled up through him, ElkY tangled with the aces of Richard Lyndaker, holding ace-jack himself. That was that – ElkY busted in 16th place for his first cash of the year - $31,781.

For a recap of the day check out the latest from the PokerStars video blog team...

Watch WSOP 08: HORSE Day 3 on PokerStars.tv

For ElkY it marked his first real bid to win a World Series bracelet of the year and came after a Las Vegas spring devoid of anything like a cash. Not that this was an issue for him...

“I try to go for the win every time I play - so I don’t cash very often but when I do I go far. So that’s my goal.”
Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t... today it almost worked brilliantly. Little consolation though for a man who likes to win.

Back in the Amazon Room - as each day passed in the HORSE event there’s been a growing sense that at any moment the tournament could burst open like a piñata, sending the finest, most talented poker players in the world out of the event in a big colourful whirl. I’m not sure we’ve reached that point yet but day four to be played tomorrow will surely take this majestic dance of a tournament into that territory.

Amidst the carnage of this day several of our Team PokerStars Pro HORSE-ing heroes remain in contention – they being Daniel Negreanu (1.1 million and 2nd in chips), Barry Greenstein (1 million) and Chad Brown (220,000) – and Supernova Elite Joseph ‘BigJoe2003’ Michael (695,000). They now join the other 21 players for some 12 hours of rest and relaxation before the next stage of fevered action tomorrow afternoon, where the clamour for the money will begin in earnest.

Sadly it was the end for some Team PokerStars Pros. A valiant effort by Katja Thater was thwarted in a three-way pot involving Doyle Brunson and PokerStars team mate Bill Chen. For Bill it was the hand that sent him to the rail, whilst for Katja it left her crippled with just a few thousand remaining, heralding the end of her HORSE hopes a few minutes later. Dario Minieri was also busted, despite end of day heroics on day 2. He was joined by Isabelle Mercier on the rail.

Elsewhere there were brief appearances in the $2,000 No Limit Hold’em event - a quick fire salute to the art of moving fast and keeping ahead of the blinds - which saw a colossal loss rate of 50 per cent in its first four levels.

Team PokerStars was represented by the familiar faces of Luca Pagano, Tom McEvoy, Alex Kravchenko and Hevad Khan among others, but it was down to Vicky Coren and sponsored player Kiril Garasimov to hold on into the latter stages. The result as they bagged up chips? Coren couldn’t but Kiril could, surviving the bubble to advance into day 2.

With the HORSE in the barn for the night, the short-handed event closing up shop, and the Amazon Room pulse beats to the new tune of cash games, that’s just about it for the day. You can find all the Team PokerStars Pro action here starting at 12pm local time; 3pm ET. In the meantime here’s a recap on the events of the day:

Break!

Bubble abuse

Sweating vultures

Leave the HORSE puns by the door

Mixed fortunes

Big Joe going big

Being Katja Thater

Books, bracelet, Barry and Bill

Team huddle

Catching up in the $2,000 Hold’em

Photography ©2008, Joe Giron/IMPDI