Peter “number1pen” Neff’s (pictured at right) tournament life ended shortly before the 90-minute dinner break which began at 7:15pm PST. In the hand that knocked him to the rail, the player on the button made it 135K to go preflop. Peter, in the small blind, shoved all-in for his remaining 850K short stack. The big blind called and button folded. Peter showed A9, which couldn’t get any help from the board to improve his hand. His opponent’s AJ held and Peter was eliminated in 36th place and receives $193,000 for his efforts.

Meanwhile, Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki ran into another player, whom he had covered, in a huge 2M all-in preflop pot. Though Chris was ahead with 99 to his opponent’s 55 on a flop of T64, the 5 spiked on the turn to counterfeit Chris’ hand. He doubled his opponent up and fell to around 3.8M.

Later, Chris engaged in another huge pot when he raised preflop, and was called by Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery. The dealer laid out 7K6 on the flop and both players checked. When the 7 on the turn came, Scott check-called Chris’ 200K bet and both players saw the 3 on the river. Scott checked, Chris bet 300K, and Scott raised him to 1M chips. After thinking for more than three minutes, Chris called and flipped over TT to win the hand. Scott tapped the table and said, “You’re good,” before shipping more than 1.5M Chris’ way. Chris was back up to more than 5M chips at the dinner break and looking good.

Here are the most recent unofficial chip counts prior to the dinner break:

Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 5.2M
Scott “r_a_y” Montgomery - 4M
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 2.7M
Andrew “foucault” Brokos - 1.85M
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 960K

• July 14, 2008 -- P5ers In the Hunt for “November Nine”
• July 15, 2008 -- P5ers Collide, Klodnicki Sent Home in 12th
• July 14, 2008 -- Montgomery Making Moves, Crowe Flies Away
• July 14, 2008 -- A Little Less Estrogen in the Room…

Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki and Peter “number1pen” Neff can’t seem to get enough of each other.  If you’ve been following our coverage throughout the Main Event, you may recall that both Klodnicki (pictured left) and Neff were seated at Day 2A’s Table of Doom together.  They have been reunited as a result of the latest table redraw and spent the last level of play seated in the 9 and 7 seats respectively. 

Both have also chipped up during this last level.  First, Neff raised to 65K on the button with the blinds at 12K/24K ante 3K and the player in the small blind called.  The flop came down 973 and the small blind checked.  Peter contemplated his options before moving all-in.  The other player thought momentarily and called with AQ.  Neff turned over 89 for top pair with a flush draw and, when the turn and river came 97, he eliminated the player, known as Cedric the Realtor, and increased his stack to over one million chips.

Despite having somewhat of a turbulent day where his stack went up and down, Neff scooped a solid hand right before the bell on the last hand of the night.

Action was folded around to the big blind who raised to 66k. Neff re-raised out of the big blind to 208k and his opponent called. Neff shoved all-in on the 652 flop and his opponent folded.
Neff later told Pocketfives that he had the QQ.

Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki doubled up when James McManus raised to 65K in middle position and Chris reraised to 185K.  When it folded back around to McManus he bet enough to put Klodnicki all-in.  Chris, who had a million chips behind, thought for some time before he called with JJ.  McManus held QT.  Klodnicki managed to dodge a queen as the board ran out A645A and double up to 2.5 million chips.

Garrett “GBecks” Beckman joined the table with Neff and Klodnicki toward the end of the night but did most of his damage at his first table coming back from the dinner break. Beckman called a preflop raise of 72K by Alexander Kostritsyn on the button and the two saw a flop heads up. It came T64 and Kostritsyn checked to Beckman, who bet 90K. Alexander then moved all in for nearly 300K more and Garrett went into the tank for five minutes. He eventually made the call with 77 and had to dodge six out against Kostritsyn’s AK. The turn and river brought the 2 and J, shipping a pot of more than 800K to Beckman and increasing his stack to 2 million.

With 79 players remaining and the average stack at 1.73 million, here’s a list of some P5′ers left:

David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 2.49 million (right)
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 2.4 million
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 1.9 million
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 1.86 million
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 1.275m
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 950k
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 767k
Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 578k
 

• July 12, 2008 -- Double Trouble
• July 12, 2008 -- Kibler-Melby Doubles
• July 13, 2008 -- KLOD Nicks More Chips
• July 9, 2008 -- Lost & Found

Although he survived the last few days never having more than slightly less than an average stack, Jeff “jpapola” Papola (pictured right) couldn’t fade being outchipped forever.

After watching him since Day 3 with less than an average stack, it seemed like a distinct possibilty that he would continue to advance beyond Day 5 of the Main Event despite catching the run of cards requisite for doing so.
Papola’s run finally ended on a hand that he was destined to go out on given his stack.

With blinds at 12k-24k-3k, an opponent from early position raised to 75k and Papola reraised from late position for 154k more. Papola’s opponent just called despite Papola only having 180k behind. His opponent checked to him on a KQ3 flop and Papola moved all-in and got called with his opponent revealing a set with QQ. Papola turned over JJ and got a ray of hope when an ace peeled but didn’t improve by the river.
Although his run through the Main Event was over, Papola felt grateful to last as long as he did.

“I’m happy to go as far as I did, I just beat aces with queens right before the break so I was fortunate to even be in,” said Papola, who just made the next money jump. Papola busted out in 90th place for 64k, receiving an extra 8k.

Peter “number1pen” Neff just lost a decent sized pot in an all-in preflop hand where his opponent was all-in for 185k with the QJ but trailed Neff’s A9. Neff’s opponent flopped a flush draw, turned a queen and rivered a flush, shipping a 400k pot away from Neff.

Here’s a list of players left:

David “Raptor517″ Benefield - 2.5 million
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 2 million
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 1.6 million
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 1.3 million
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 1.06 million
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 800k
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 700k
Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 700k

• July 13, 2008 -- Reunited
• July 12, 2008 -- Double Trouble
• July 13, 2008 -- KLOD Nicks More Chips
• July 11, 2008 -- Crowe Pecking Away

Garrett “GBecks” Beckman doubled his stack in the last level before dinner break. And while he is still below the average stack of 1.4 million, the mere thought of Beckman with enough chips to maneuver should have his tablemates concerned. Just ask Adam “Roothlus” Levy, who is still at his table.

With blinds at 10K/20K/3K ante, Beckman raised to 50K on late position and a player reraised to 180K from the small blind. Beckman shipped his last 423K in and the player called:

Beckman: AK
Small Blind: AQ

The board KT2K3 board was kind to Beckman, who increased his stack to over a million.

Not quite as fortunate in Level 22 were Cort “the cortster” Kibler-Melby, Aditya “Intervention” Agarwal and Peter “number1pen” Neff. Kibler-Melby pushed the remainder of his chip stack in from the button and was called by the small blind, who held the AQ. Cort’s K9 was going to need some help. The flop came 333 and Cort was still behind. The Q came on the turn leaving Cort drawing to only a king but when the 8 fell on the river he was eliminated. One positive note about his elimination is it came right after a nearly $10K pay jump so Cort will take home $51,466 for his 99th place finish.

Agarwal was short-chipped at the ESPN table in the Milwaukee’s Best Arena that featured Mike Matusow and Owen “ocrowe” Crowe. Agarwal had moved all-in twice without getting covered, hovering around a ten big blind stack. Agarwal had been pacing back and forth, conversing with his friends Chris “cbdr3799″ Dombrowski and Jim “MrBigQueso” Collopy about shoving hand standards.

Agarwal got action on his third shove for 234k with blinds at 10k-20k-3k but was in woefull shape when his AJ was up against AQ. Agarwal stormed into the lead when the flop came J83 and held up the board bricked out for his opponent. A few orbits later, he re-reaised Crowe’s 53k open, going all-in for his last 450k. An opponent behind Agarwal called and Crowe folded. Once again, Agarwal was up against a better ace with his AT trailing his opponents AQ. It appeared Agarwal caught another miracle when the flop came TK8 but the J on the turn ultimately eliminated him as he wasn’t able to catch another queen for a chop. Agarwal’s 96th place finish was good for 51k.

Neff (pictured right) found himself in the middle of a button vs. blinds setup, as the button raised and Neff reraised enough to put the player all in. The button called with KK and Neff’s AT would need to come from behind. The K on the flop sealed the win for his opponent and Neff lost a pot worth 925K.

We’ve also found Jonathan Plens again! And who could miss him? Jonathan is seated next to Phil Helmuth with 1.6 million chips. Here’s a look at some other chip counts heading into the dinner break:

David Benefield - 2.5M
Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens - 1.6M
Chris “SLOPPYKLOD” Klodnicki - 1.2M
Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 1.1M
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 700K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 255K
Jeff “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 405K

• July 13, 2008 -- Reunited
• July 12, 2008 -- Kibler-Melby Doubles
• July 12, 2008 -- Tuf Break
• July 13, 2008 -- Papola Bows Out

Day Three has come to a close here at the Rio, with 474 players remaining in the race for the bracelet. All remaining players are guaranteed $25,090 with each lusting after the $9.1M prize. Because hand-for-hand play continued for quite awhile this evening, the tournament ended in an interesting fashion: staff held a draw to determine the number of hands remaining. Mike Matusow was given the opportunity to draw the number, and eight hands it was before play concluded after 2am in the Amazon Room. Day Four will begin at 1PM PST tomorrow.

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe came through a table stacked with online pros on Day 3 of Main Event and emerged as one of the top stacks at day’s end.
Crowe wielded one of the top stacks at his table throughout the night and picked it up late, elevating his stack to 950k, well over the 288k average.

Jonathan “therookieqq9″ Plens overcame a tough table that featured Aditya “intervention” Agarwal (270k) and Brian “Like7″ Lamanna (61k). He improved his 38k starting stack to become one of the chip leaders at his table with 560k.

Adam “Roothlus” Levy (pictured at right) maintained the 450k stack he acquired earlier in the day and will hit Day 4 with 480k. It’s been an incredible run for Levy, who got down below 20k on Day 2. Levy clipped a two-outer when he was all-in preflop against Brad Booth when he hit a set on the river to best Booth’s flopped pair with overcards.

Peter “number1pen” Neff ran on a heater the last level of the night; at one point, Neff picked up pocket fives and flopped a set to eliminate his opponent, who held K-T. His P5s held strong and he went on to end the evening with 600K in chips.

Here are some chip counts at the end of the day, despite the tournament staff’s insistence that the media not mingle amongst the tables any longer for fear of getting run over by ESPN camera crews.

Congratulations to all for their deep run and good luck tomorrow!

Owen “ocrowe” Crowe - 960K
Chris “Panamatony” Barrile - 873K
Peter “number1pen” Neff - 600K
Derek “arodss3″ Buanono - 558k
Andy “tufat23″ Teng - 520K
Keith “damurdera3″ Ferrera - 510K
Adam “Roothlus” Levy - 480K
Tracey “XtrACEy” Nguyen - 480K
Cort “thecortster” Kibler-Melby - 400K
Aaron “NDGrinder59″ Steury - 400K
Leo “Superfluous Man” Wolpert - 360K
Edward “zaner1″ Zing - 330K
Jeff “jpapola” Papola - 305K
Jon “pokertrip” Friedberg - 300K
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier - 275K
Jeremy “thechemist83″ Gaubert - 254K
Garrett “GBecks” Beckman - 175K
Bruce “Cornellxc11″ Hyde - 102K
Clayton “clayton27″ Newman - 90K
Cliff “JohnnyBax” Josephy - 89.5K
Tim “tmay420″ West - 75K

Recent eliminations include the following:
581st - Justin “truesyalose” Truesdell
556th - Zelong “freeman” Dong
545th - Michael “DblupM0j” Johnson
519th - Doug “Resilient” Smith

• July 10, 2008 -- Levy’s Ruthless Pursuit of Chips
• July 10, 2008 -- Crowe’s Chips Riding a Roller Coaster
• July 10, 2008 -- Strasser vs. Nguyen
• June 22, 2008 -- Slaubaugh Takes 2nd