World Series 2005 - Day 3

*WSOP and World Series of Poker (referred to from now on as the Main Event and/or World Series)

Report by Mad Harper and Brad Willis

Dare we speak of it?

There are certain things that superstition requires we just let speak for themselves at the World Series. This happens to be one of them.

With 185 seats remaining, the man you see above stands above all others and has amassed more than $1 million in poker chips. So much more could be written, but it's better left in our minds for now. It's the kind of thing you just can't think about yet.

Fortunately, there are other things to think about. Brad Kondracki, for instance. Beyond feeling his t-shirt is too large the telegenic young man constructed a stack of chips that numbers greater than 900,000. Tonight, we slipped him a new shirt. Let's hope he wears it well on Tuesday.

Toward the end of the night, European blogger Howard Swains caught sight of Shane Bartholomew. Swains reported back:

There's about half an hour until the end of day three. I glance up and notice the camera crews descend pincer fashion on Shane Bartholomew's table. Big pot. Shane, Monty3 on PokerStars, who won a Main Event satellite, is standing up, looking at the dealer count out his entire $200,000 stack. The river card has already been dealt. The board shows three hearts. There's about $300,000 in the pot and the echo of a bet, raise and an all-in in the air.

Poker is about deception, but there's nothing of the sort on the face of Bartholomew. The guy could not look more confident. If he doesn't have the nuts this is one hell of a bluff. Poker face? Who needs one if you look like this guy.

Two seats to his left, deception is also in short supply. There's anguish painted on the face of a young American and the whiff of fear about someone who knows they're about to do something they'll regret.

"I call," he says, the words delivered reluctantly - as though forced out by a punch to the guts.

And sure enough the sucker blow follows. The young American collapses to the floor as Shane rolls over the ace high flush. The nuts.

"That's what I'm talking about!" shouts Shane. "That's what I'm talking about!"

"What are you talking about?" chant the railbirds.

"That's what I'm talking about!"

Shane shakes his opponent's hand. He's now shown the king-high flush. Out-pipped and out-punched.

"That's what I'm talking about!"

The new media rules in the Amazon Ballroom have turned our slow waltzes around the dancefloor into some kind of frenetic against-the-clock breakdance. To made the dance even trickier to perform, players are being shuffled around the tables at the Main Event so - of the five minutes each reporter is given out in the field - roughly four minutes, 50 seconds of this is spent racing up and down the aisles in a bid to find our people and get a quick chat.

We found Tony "TPirahna" Pirone from Boston who won a World Series satellite tournament sitting at the television table in seat 6, three down from Howard Lederer and next to The Hendon Mob's Joe Beevers. Some might've found this an intimidating place to be sitting, but Pirones' $250,000 stack was also intimidating. He survived the experience and goes into Day 4, as well.

Here are some photos and quotes from around the floor during our sprints...

Edgar "Ragde" Skjervold on $160,000 winner of a Main Event satellite - "I've been up and down"

Jesus "JESUSITO YLO" Abreu in bullish mood on $50,000 another winner of a World Series satellite - "I'm going to double up right now!"

Satellite Winner Scott "xmrstyle" Bohlman - "You should have caught me an hour ago when I had $240,000, I'm down to $180.000 now at the Main Event. "

Willy Rugs on $55,000 - "I'm leaning on people, it's going well and I'm feeling good"

Dennis Orr on $50,000 - "It's not so good but I can come back."

Sal Calandra, looking happy on just under $100,000-- "I started the day with $45,000 and I'm on just over $90,000 now. I lost one good hand which took me down to about $20,000. But straight after that I had a really good run and won six hands in a row. But after the break, I was moved to a new table and I haven't had squat since then. Sal is a winner of a PokerStars Main Event satellite tournament "

And here are a few other folks who are still in, but with whom we didn't have a chance to chat...

Play resumes on Tuesday for the Main Event at noon with 185 players.

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