We're still lying in the wake of the bubble period and there are a lot of stacks under pressure. This matched with a renewed energy means we are going to get a lot of eliminations from the off. Andre Dos Santos and Vasiliy Demushkin are two such examples.
Demushkin was busting with to pocket sixes behind us as we were watching Dos Santos' elimination showdown versus David Kahan.
Kahan opened from early position and called when Dos Santos shoved from the big blind.
From middle position, Martin Jacobson raised to 10,000. Action then folded to Javier Etayo on the button and he reraised to 25,000. The two blinds folded before play fell back on Jacobson. He took some time to think things through then shoved all in for 186,500. Etayo gave it up and Jacobson won the pot.
Not everyone in a poker tournament is a well known face, that's for certain. Each player has a story, though, and we found this one particularly interesting on Cesar Garcia Domínguez.
Domínguez enters Day 3 sixth overall on the leaderboard with 526,500 in chips. According to Spanish blogger Ivan Marti, Domínguez is from Las Palmas, Canary Islands and plays under the name "CesarSPA" on PokerStars. Back in 2009, he placed second in the Sunday Million for €208,845, claiming the largest prize due to a deal made at the final table. He also has a WCOOP title from later that year in Event #7.
When asked about how he got started in poker, Domínguez had this to say:
"I was introduced to poker by watching a television broadcast of the EPT. From there, I was interested in the game. I started playing home games in my dorm with colleagues until I played my first live tournament in 2008, which was a university tourney where I finished second. I then played the same tournament the following year and won it. It was after that, that I began to attend more live tournaments, mostly in the Casino Gran Madrid."
Domínguez got his start online by simply making a small $20 deposit. He's since turned it into a lot more and will be gunning for his largest live cash ever by making a deep run here in Berlin. We'll be sure to keep an eye on Domínguez, so follow along and we'll see if he can maneuver his way to the final three tables today.
Heading into today's Day 3 here at the 2012 PokerStars.comEuropean Poker Tour Berlin Main Event former EPT champion Anton Wigg leads the way with 695,000 in chips. He tops the remaining 102 players that are all in the money and guaranteed €7,500. Right behind him is another former EPT champion in Vladimir Geshkenbein.
The play for today is to grind it out until the final three tables have been reached. There's still plenty of notables still in contention including Team PokerStars Pros Vanessa Selbst, Jan Heitmann and Ana Marquez. The 2009 EPT Berlin champion Kevin MacPhee wrapped up with 390,500 in chips last night.
Play is set to kick off at noon local time. PokerNews is on hand and ready to fire the updates into your computer screen, so be sure to stay tuned for all of the action.