If there was an underlying theme to this tournament's third day it would be the unfinished business of the EPT in San Remo several months ago. Back then several players showed the world an ability most learned to respect and fear. The likes of Randall Flowers, Jonas Klausen and PokerStars player Jason Mercier rocked the Italian stage on partisan surroundings and two EPT events later have done the same in Spain. Whilst Flowers and Klausen fell short of the final in Italy, finishing in 10th and 12th respectively, Mercier remained in the field tonight, and is within sight of becoming the first player ever to win two EPT titles.

Looking for an historic double, PokerStars player Jason Mercier

All that will come tomorrow, but for now there is a day of poker to look back on, one that started in quick fashion when the short stack on the day Andrey Chesnakov busted soon after play resumed. A steady trickle of eliminations would follow, including the likes of the last remaining Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown, out in 34th place.

Team PokerStars Pro Chad Brown

Brown had started in good shape, found jacks twice but lost with them both times, the second time badly enough to send him to the rail and a pay-out of €17,300.

The remaining PokerStars qualifiers proved once again that not only is PokerStars the best way to win a seat to an EPT event but that it is also a profitable one. Henri Koivisto, a PokerStars qualifier from Finland, collected €19,800 for his 26th place finish, whilst Malte Strothmann from Germany made €24,700 for 21st, disappointed to be out but pragmatic in light of a superb second EPT appearance.

More was to come in the shape of PokerStars qualifiers Steven Wuesten from Holland (18th place for 24,700), Stephen Chidwick from Kent, UK, (15th place for €29,700) and Randall Flowers (13th place for €37,200).

Chidwick's story was among the most interesting. As reported on the PokerStars blog earlier this week Chidwick is a renowned PokerStars qualifier having won 102 packages for the World Series this year alone and countless others for EPT and LAPT events. Sadly for the man of Kent, he fell short of replicating that success at a final table, but his 15th place finish is one worth saluting.

Sebastian Ruthenberg also continued his quest to light up the poker scene, bringing his world class form to Spain. It follows the German's success at the World Series this summer that culminated in a bracelet in the seven card stud hi/lo event. Still playing dynamite poker, Ruthenberg starts tomorrow second in chips with 1,204,000 and is looking to top his third place finish in Dortmund in season three.

Chip leader Martin Nielsen of Denmark

But for all the talk of records being broken the man standing in the way of that is Denmark's Martin Nielsen, the overnight chip leader with 1,229,000, who started as one of the short stacks when the last nine sat around one table. Ironically that was the same for Sebastian Ruthenberg who finished just as strong. If Mercier is to achieve the impossible he'll need to beat them both, five others with the same intentions, and a whole load of precedent.

PokerStars sponsored player Sebastian Ruthenberg

Brandon Schaeffer came close to the record in season one, winning his first in Deauville and coming second in the next in Monte Carlo. Mark Teltscher did something similar; winning the EPT London in season two before finishing runner-up here in Barcelona twelve months ago. Now Jason has chance to better both of them.

It proved to be a long day, with the gap between nine players and eight lasting three and a half hours with the chip counts often being evenly matched. But we now have a great final table to look forward to. Here's how it will look.

1. Martin Nielsen, Denmark, 1,229,000
2. Davidi Kitai, Belgium, 600,000
3. Dren Ukala, Germany, 734,000
4. Jason Mercier, PokerStars player, United States, 526,000
5. Samuel Chartier, PokerStars qualifier, Canada, 879,000
6. Daniele Mazzia, Italy, 359,000
7. Fintan Gavin, PokerStars qualifier, Ireland, 701,000
8. Sebastian Ruthenberg, PokerStars sponsored player, 1,204,000

It's been a long day, with a lot of action, and you can catch up at your leisure by clicking on the links below.

Players return for day three
Chad Brown eliminated
Tightening the restrictions
Exclamations of joy
More bust outs
A face in the crowd
Slimming the field again
Down to 23
Out, out, out, out and out
Pause in the action
The state of play at the dinner break
Klausen and Ukella battle for lead
An Italian down
Man of Kent, spent
Shooting star shoots another down
Randall Flowers eliminated
Level 23 updates
Level 24 updates

In the meantime, you can look back at all of today's action in any variety of European languages, including Spanish, Swedish, German and Italian.

Televisual excitement is always available at PokerStars.tv.

Players get an extra hour of rest tonight with the final resuming tomorrow at the later time of 4pm local time. With the long night tonight that may be a good thing. See you then.

3.35pm: Mikael Lundell, Sweden, eliminated in 9th place, earning €74,000
When play has lasted this long, and all the remaining players are looking for a sacrificial lamb to see themselves into the final, attention naturally turns to the short stack. Tonight that was Mikael Lundell. Faced with the prospect of a short stack Lundell pushed in with A-4 and was called by Davidi Kitai with Q-7.

It was not to be Lundell's night with the first card out a queen, Q-J-2. Lundell needed an ace but the ten on the turn was no use. Neither was the river card eight. At a little after 3.30am local time day three was over with Lundell exiting in 9th place for €74,400.

3.30am: The latest nine-handed chip count:

Martin Nielsen 1,130,000
Davidi Kitai, 544,000
Dren Ukela, 793,000
Mikael Lundell 322,000
Jason Mercier 498,000
Samuel Chartier 943,000
Daniele Mazzia 383,000
Fintan Gavin 397,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg 1,026,000

3.25am: Big hand doubles up Sebastian Ruthenberg. He gets all the chips in pre-flop with pocket nines against Jason Mercier's A-Q. They're off to the races and for the second time, the nines hit a set on the flop. Mercier also hits an ace, but it's largely academic. Ruthenberg vaults high on the chip ladder, Mercier takes a hit, although it's Martin Nielsen who seems most aggrieved by the coup: the Dane claims to have folded jacks, which would have given him a higher set and knocked two players out.

3.20am: The EPT commentators have pointed out, quite rightly, that tomorrow's final table (when it is finally set) will feature a number of short stacks relative to the blinds. This is a wonderfully deep-stacked structure, but the pre-final table play has now gone on so long, that several players will have fewer than 20 big blinds when it starts. There's a chance that the blinds may be rolled back by the tournament director, but we don't know yet.

2.55am: An all-in and a call. It's the Canadian Samuel Chartier who has all his money in the middle behind pocket kings. Mikael Lundell calls with queens and the PokerStars qualifier Chartier is a big favourite to double up. The flop is relatively safe. So is the turn. And...so is the river. Chartier is up to more than a million, Lundell is down to 367,000. On we go.

2.50am: As you can no doubt see, the chip counts have flattened dramatically on this pseudo final table, meaning we're all prepared for a very late night. Finton Gavin is the big hope for those of us looking for a passport back to the hotel: he's the shortest stack, with about 10 big blinds. But hold on, what's this...?

2.15am: The most recent chip counts for the final nine are as follows:

Dren Ukella, Germany, 889000
Jason Mercier, PS Player, USA, 819000
Daniele Mazzia, Italy, 765000
Mikael Lundell, Sweden, 755000
Davidi Kitai, Belgium, 739000
Sebastian Ruthenberg, PS Player, Germany, 718000
Martin Nielsen, Denmark, 653000
Samuel Chartier, Qualifier, Canada, 604000
Fintan Gavin, Qualifier, Ireland, 385000

2am: The players are taking a 15 minute break before starting the new level and playing down to a final eight.

1.40am: Double up for Davidi Kitai, which gets him high-fiving his packed rail and takes him out of the danger zone. He found pocket nines against Jason Mercier's A-K and all the money was in pre-flop. There was a king in the window, and it looked like Mercier was on the way to eliminating the Belgian. But the flop also brought a nine, giving Kitai the set and he has survived. Now Finton Gavin is the only really short stack and will have to get busy soon.

1.30am: Davidi Kitai, who also had the chip lead at some point in this tournament, is now also one of the short stacks under threat. Martin Nielsen, to his right, has adopted the policy of making up the big blind and then tempting Kitai to peel off a flop. It doesn't happen too often: Kitai has developed a tendency to move in pre-flop and take down the blinds and antes. We're still nine.

1.10am: We might have expected a rush to a fnal table once we compressed the field to a final table of nine. But it's been very, very cagey in in the past two rounds with little occuring of any note. The Irishman Finton Gavin ia the short stack, with less than 250,000. The big stacks are Jason Mercier and Dren Ukella, who each have more than 1million.

12.50am: Since we went down to nine players towards the end of the last level, and compressed the field to just one table, we have seen a total of one flop. Any pre-flop raise takes it, and a re-raise is always good. During the lull in action, take a look at some of the work of the EPT video blog team, who have been out on the tournament floor for all four days so far. Another reminder: you can see a list of all the prizewinners so far by clicking HERE.

Kara Scott gives her day three update:

Watch EPT barcelona 2008 Day 3 Update on PokerStars.tv

What do players think about? A delve into the most sordid areas:

Watch EPT Barcelona 2008 Inside Their Minds on PokerStars.tv

Seat 1 - Martin Nielsen, Denmark, 398,000
Seat 2 - Davidi Kitai, Belgium, 365,000
Seat 3 - Dren Ukella, Germany, 1,088,000
Seat 4 - Mikael Lundell, Sweden, 914,000
Seat 5 - Jason Mercier, PS Player, USA, 1,100,000
Seat 6 - Samuel Chartier, Qualifier, Canada, 911,000
Seat 7 - Daniele Mazzia, Italy, 621,000
Seat 8 - Gavin Fintan, Qualifier, Ireland, 359,000
Seat 9 - Sebastian Ruthenberg, PS Player, Germany, 483,000

12.10am: Salvatore Pengue, Italy, eliminated in 10th place, earning €49,600
Salvatore Pengue's rocket-shaped stack of chips had to go in sooner or later, weighing as it did just 260,000. Samuel Chartier was not long in calling, asking for a count first before announcing his intentions and turning over As-Jc. Pengue had hope with pocket tens but the race was on.

The flop was an inoffensive 7d-3h-Ks, but the turn sealed it for Chartier. The jack sent Pengue out in tenth place with his pockets full of €74,400. We're down to nine players who are convening around one table. A full chip count will follow.

11.45pm: Jonas Klausen, Denmark, eliminated in 11th place, earning €49,600
Shortly after running jacks into aces, leaving him with a short stack, Jonas Klausen saw an ace in early position and shoved all in. Dren Ukella had him well covered and also this time had jacks. No ace came on flop, turn or river and the Dane is out.

11.35pm: Benianmino Speroni, Italy, eliminated in 12th place, earning €49,600
Big drama on the secondary table results in the elimination of the Italian player Benianmino Speroni. He moves all in from the button and is called by Mikael Lundell in the small blind. Sebastian Ruthenberg then moves all in over the top of Lundell, an under-raise but another 170,000-odd, on top of Speroni's 240,000 original raise. Priced in, Lundell makes the call. As it turns out, both Lundell and Ruthenberg have the same hand -- an unsuited ace-king -- and Speroni'a Q-10 isn't in too bad shape. But a king flops, and an ace rivers. Speroni is out.

Randall Flowers's reputation in EPT events took another step forward today but has ended in a 13th place finish. Flowers, who has been fitting in with the locals today by wearing a Barcelona football shirt (pretty famous in these parts), narrowly feel short of his 10th place finish in San Remo earlier this year, but recorded a no less impressive performance.

Flowers pushed in with 6s-7s, putting his remaining 138,000 in the middle to face the call from Davidi Kitai holding A-8.

Randall Flowers

The flop was of the dramatic kind. 9-8-4. An eight to pair Kitai's but an open-ended straight draw for Flowers. But that was the end of Flower's hope. An ace on the turn, a deuce on the river. Flowers sent home with €37,200.

Jonas Molander, out

Sebastian Ruthenberg

The money was all in pre-flop and Ruthenberg had red eights, Molander black nines. An eight turned to give Ruthenberg the victory, outdrawing Molander, and sending the Swede to the rail. Ruthenberg was a short-ish stack just after dinner, with a few more than 160,000. But he's doubled up twice now and is a force again.

Supernova Elite Stephen Chidwick, one of the most feared players coming into today, is out. He pushed in with Kc-Td in late position but was called by Samuel Chartier who held an enviable pair of black aces. The flop brought him some hope in the form of a ten but no more.

Stephen Chidwick

In fact the river card sealed it, an ace to send the PokerStars qualifying legend (remember he won 102 seats alone to the World Series) back to Kent in 15th place with €29,700.

Actually, make that two. The main focus this evening has usually been Salvatore Pengue, who has been getting under the skin of some of his opponents by taking a long time for every decision, before usually folding. He did so on two consecutive hands, firstly when Stevie Chidwick moved all in from the small blind, and then when Jonas Molander made a standard pre-flop raise from early position.

But the player to take the walk was actually his countryman Claudio Cecci, who pushed his short stack in pre-flop and left Jonas Molander to make a fairly standard value call. Molander only had K-2, and he was behind Cecci's A-10. But a deuce flopped and the rest bricked, ending his participation. No worries, there are still three other Italians in the mix.

Germany has also had an excellent EPT Barcelona, and it continued against the odds for Sebastian Ruthenburg, who just found himself all in with A-10 against the queens of Gavin Finton. But this time the German Shooting Star hit the ace to cripple the Irish PokerStars qualifier. Ruthenburg continues.

Earlier in the day, our video blog team caught up with a couple of PokerStars online sensations, Adam Junglen and Stevie Chidwick. Junglen finished sixth here last year and qualified again, but went out late on his first day. He's hung around to rail his friend Mark Randall, who is at the feature table. Chidwick, meanwhile, is still in this one as they're down to 15 players. His stack isn't quite as commanding as it once was, but his game is still in good shape.

Watch EPT Barcelona 2008 Day 3 Adam Junglen on Randallin on PokerStars.tv

Watch EPT Barcelona 2008 Day 3 Stephen Chidwick on PokerStars.tv

A few minutes back from the break and it's Jonas Klausen raising. It's folded to German player Dren Ukella sitting with a big stack of red chips. He signals his intention to move all-in, the stack is bigger than it looks making this a raise of 445,000, making for a pot totalling 1,104,000. It will make the new chip leader.

Jonas Klausen

Klausen, always an amiable looking guy at the baize, smiles a lot, talks a lot and eventual decides to call, showing Ad-Ks. For Dren a pair of sevens. The board of 3s-8c-4h-3c-9d is kind to the German who saunters into the lead. It could be critical though for Klausen.

Players are now on a dinner break after four levels of play. We started today with 37, we're now down to just 16 players, each with an eye on the final table and that first prize of €1,361,000. At the front of the pack is Dren Ukella on 741,000, the rest are as follows...

Feature table
Mark Randall, USA, PokerStars qualifier, 173,000
Davidi Kitai, Belgium, 404,000
Martin Nielsen, Denmark, 585,000
Jason Mercier, USA, 521,000
Dren Ukella, Germany, 741,000
Daniele Mazzia, Italy, 551,000
Jonas Klausen, Denmark, 678,000
Mikael Lundell, Sweden, 702,000

Outer table
Stephen Chidwick, UK, PokerStars qualifier, 245,000
Salvatore Pengue, Italy, 274,000
Samuel Chartier, Canada, PokerStars qualifier, 379,000
Benjamino Speroni, Italy, 306,000
Jonas Molander, Sweden, 182,000
Claudio Cecci, Italy, 89,000
Gavin Fintan, Ireland, PokerStars qualifier 230,000
Sebastian Ruthenberg, Germany, PokerStars player, 192,000

***

It's not all about the poker for these guys. The allure of extra-curricular activity is never far away, like side-bets for instance, as the video blog team found out...

Watch EPT Barcelona 2008 Side Bets on PokerStars.tv

There's been a pause in play as the redraw kicks in and players are guided to new seats, those switching to the feature table being fused with microphones, those come off it being de-wired at the same time. This follows the recent eliminations that took us down to just two tables.

Ronny Johansen from Norway busted in 19th place, followed a short while later by PokerStars qualifier Steven Weusten in 18th and Voitto Rintala in 17th place.

Voitto Rintala

Everything seems to be back in position, the players are back in from the cold and play has resumed. Check the chip count page for the latest scores.

Ramzi Jelassi - 20th place finisher

Strothmann was a PokerStars qualifier, taking €19,800 for his first EPT cash, the same as the much better known Jelassi, who also earned his biggest payout to date. That was much to the surprise of many in the press room, who have followed Jelassi for a couple of years on the EPT. But he's never gone deeper than 20th, and this time couldn't get further in after his pocket queens were stuffed by ace-ten: ten on the flop, with a flush draw, but the ace spiking on the end.

Mikael Lundell had been an early chip leader this week and despite a downturn in his fortunes yesterday, he's now headed back in the right direction, eliminating another player.

With blinds at 5,000/10,000 with a 1,000 ante, Cornelis Alblas had raised to 32,000 pre-flop and Lundell re-raised, the second time he'd done that in a row. It was roughly 100,000. Lundell first said "raise" before inhaling, looking at his opponent and deciding on a figure. Alblas counted out his chips, saw what he'd have left, and said "call, good luck man".

The flop: 8h-9c-As.

Lundell immediately moved all-in. Alblas said "me too" and that was it. Lundell showed Ac-Kc, a hand which pained the Dutchman opposite who took a few moments before turning over Ad-Qc. A king on the river and it was all over. Alblas out in 24th.

Oh, and as I type, we've lost another. Details to follow.