The money bubble at the North American Poker Championship was quick and painless, well, painless for everyone except Mike “Timex” McDonald and Steve Sung. McDonald was eliminated in 47th place, setting up hand for hand play, but before the other tables could finish their current hands so hand for hand could start Steve Sung was eliminated from his table in 46th place, leaving everyone else in the money.

McDonald (left) moved all in with AQ but ran into Jason “JP_OSU” Potter’s pocket aces. The aces were enough to win the pot and eliminate Mike.

Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar is still sitting solid with around 800k, though he is not the chip leader anymore. Matt Matros has jumped to over 1 million chips and currently holds the top spot, with Vivek, Gavin Smith, Erik Seidel, and Ryan “Gotskillz” Fisler right behind him.

• October 14, 2008 -- Mizzi and Sebok Hit the Road
• October 14, 2008 -- Down to 27, Day 3 Complete
• October 14, 2008 -- Kings Into Aces Again
• October 15, 2008 -- Potter’s Move Backfires, Out 11th

For the third time in this tournament Ryan “Gotskillz” Fisler has had pocket kings against pocket aces. All three times all (or almost all) the chips went in preflop and each time Fisler has hit a king on the flop. Most recently Fisler was able to eliminate Matt “All In at 420″ Stout (left) after cracking Stout’s pocket aces. A super short stacked Will Failla was also eliminated on the hand. Fisler is closing in on 500k chips after sending the two players home.

Mike “Timex” McDonald was able to double through JC Tran when both players made trips on the river. On a board of AT67T and the pot having about 100k in the middle McDonald had his last 68k and the all in button out in the middle in front of him. Tran thought for a while, finally announcing a call that represented the lions share of his chips. McDonald showed the KT and his king played against Tran’s JT. Tran was eliminated a few hands after losing the pot to McDonald who is now sitting with over 250k chips.

Barry “barryg1″ Greeenstein is down to 110k after losing an all in preflop hand with his AK versus K8 that made a flush. Barry was happy with his original table draw, but his table was broken near the end of the level and he now has a new set of opponents.

Christian “charder” Harder (right) is nowhere to be found in the room and has likely joined the list of day 3 eliminations. Jeff “JSchnett” Schnettler was seen making his exit from the tournament room after his elimination during the second round of day 3 play. In two levels of play 4 full tables have been broken, leaving the field at no more than 63 players remaining going into the third level of the day. The money bubble is approaching quickly, with the top 45 making the money.

A few counts from around the room:
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 700k+
Brian “SN8WMAN” Hawkins - 350k
Joe Sebok - 295k
Mike “Timex” McDonald - 250k
Xuan “X2then” Nguyen - 210k
Jason “JP_OSU” Potter - 210k
Barry “barryg1″ Greenstein - 110k

• October 14, 2008 -- Sung and McDonald Out On Bubble
• October 13, 2008 -- What’s the Plan?
• October 13, 2008 -- Carson Triples
• October 10, 2008 -- Fizzling Hot

The schedule for today is up in the air. It has been said to be 7 levels with a dinner break or down to 99. Five levels no matter what. Six levels and no dinner break. Who knows? Well, obviously the tournament officials are keeping their options open, but it seems like the ultimate goal is to get under 100 players today, and it looks like that should be a reasonable number to get to by the end of the fifth level or not too far into the next one.

At the break after the fourth level there were around 120 players left out of the 276 that started the day. After losing 150+ players in 4 levels, dropping another 20 shouldn’t take much more than another hour and a half of play.

Most of the players don’t seem too concerned, with more worried about making sure that Monday Night Football will be showing up on the TVs in the tournament area than the schedule for the rest of the night, though a few have been questioning the floormen in hopes of making dinner reservations were there to be an extended break.

The fourth level was good to Ryan “gotskillz” Fisler (left) and Mike “Timex” McDonald. Fisler is now up to 210k while McDonald has bounced back after dropping below the initial starting stack and is back up to over 100k. Peter “Mr. Motown” Valente was able to add to his stack a bit after his 5k preflop raise was called. On a flop of 532 a continuation bet of 10k, leaving about 25k behind, was enough to win the pot. Valente now has around 50k chips.

• October 14, 2008 -- Sung and McDonald Out On Bubble
• October 14, 2008 -- Kings Into Aces Again
• October 10, 2008 -- Big Hands, Big Pots
• October 14, 2008 -- Day 2 Done, Day 3 Set

The 30k starting stack, with no chips larger than 1k in play, means a lot of chips are in action from the get go, with every player having around 2 full stacks of chips to start play. As some players have busted and chips have moved around the room, a lot of large stacks have emerged, both in the total number of actual chips in front of the players and the value those chips represent.

Here is a rundown of some of the P5ers and notables around the room on day 3:
Phil “USCPhildo” Collins - 85k
Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar - 82k
Mike “Timex” McDonald - 75k
Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski - 56k
Adrian “flmodesq21″ Gavile - 55k
Peter “nordberg” Feldman - 48k
Daniel “poncholoco” Youngblood - 45k
Mike “SirWatts” Watson - 33k (right)
Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick - 18k
Glen “Choron” Chorny - 18k

• October 12, 2008 -- Recent Winners
• October 14, 2008 -- Sung and McDonald Out On Bubble
• October 14, 2008 -- Kings Into Aces Again
• October 14, 2008 -- Back to Back? Vivek Takes The Lead

The first couple of hours of play on Day 1C at the North American Poker Championship have been, as far as we can tell, pretty uneventful.  The field for today has it’s fair share of players that know how to close the deal on major tournaments, and have done so recently.

John Juanda is fresh of a World Series of Poker Europe Main event win and is in the field.  Vivek “psyduck” Rajkumar took down the Boargata WPT event less than a month ago, Mike “SirWatts” Watson took his first major title at the Bellagio Cup WPT event in July.  Back in April Glen “Choron” Chorny made a name for himself in the live poker world with a victory at the European Poker Tour Grand Finale in Monte Carlo.

The EPT was also where another of the under 21 crowd claimed his first title.  Mike “Timex” McDonald jumped to the front of the live poker scene with his victory at the EPT Dortmund in February.  Add to the mix Daniel Negreanu who won another bracelet at this year’s WSOP and multiple bracelet winner from the 2008 WSOP and current WPT Legends of Poker champion John Phan and you have a field chock full of players who have won major titles in the last 9 months.

All of those recent winners are playing at the top of their games and looking to add to their poker resumes and bank accounts with a victory here at the NAPC.  There is a field full of other players more than willing to take out one of these players and make their own claim to a title of a major event.

Some other notables playing today include Peter “nordberg” Feldman, Chris “cdbr3799″ Dombrowski, Adrian “flmodesq21″ Gavile, and Stephen “Stevie444″ Chidwick.

• October 14, 2008 -- Sung and McDonald Out On Bubble
• October 14, 2008 -- Back to Back? Vivek Takes The Lead
• October 12, 2008 -- Day 1C Complete
• October 12, 2008 -- Lots of Chips