2010 PCA: Day 3, level 18 live updates

Live updates from Day 3, level 18 of the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure Main Event brought to you by Stephen Bartley, Howard Swains, Brad Willis, and Simon Young.

Blinds: 4,000-8,000-1,000

6.35pm: Level over
That's the end of that level. Ready for the next.

6.30pm: Introducing Dean Sanders
The polite version of Dean Sanders' request to PokerStars Blog was this: "Good day. At what point this evening are you intending to write some coverage of my tournament progression on your news outlet?" The real version began with: "Oi!" and was scarcely printable from that point on.

But Sanders' exploits do deserve covering. There have been few players riding such an extreme roller coaster through this tournament as him. He had a solid-ish day one, sitting opposite Nelly for the early stages, but only bagging 25,800 at the end.

And day two started disastrously when he ran monsters into bigger monsters and had around 7,000 at one point. Despite sharing a table with Phil Ivey, Sanders' resurgence was mighty impressive and he finished last night with close to 350,000.

Today started poorly again and he dipped to about 140,000. But at the point he called out across the tournament area for some coverage, he was back up to 850,000-odd. With Praz Bansi still prospering, Sanders is another Londoner with much to crow about.

6.20pm: By special invitation
There's an exclusion zone around Phil Ivey, one you discover at your peril when a dealer asks you to shift yourself. Ivey doesn't want people behind him when he's in a hand and the rule is vigorously enforced. Except if your name is Nelly and you have sold a few records here and there.

The Hip Hop Star, here to play the amFAR charity event starting soon, bounced past the spectator barrier to say hello and introduce him to his friend Kelly, also playing the charity event and also responsible for shifting a few CDs. Nobody seemed to mind this Nelly and Kelly rule violation, least not Ivey.

6:16pm; Duthie sniffing at a million
"He tried to steal my blinds," John Duthie explained when we asked what happened. He was pointing at a man on the button. In the middle of it, a guy in the middle (who we never saw) re-raised out of the small blind. That's when Duthie just called in the big blind with big slick. The flop came king-high and the small blind pushed all-in with his pocket nines. Duthie called and got his stack over 900,000.

"He didn't have to do that," Duthie mused while getting a massage. "He could've waited."

6:05pm: New chip leader
In just the past few minutes, Matthew Haugen has overtaken the chip lead in a very big way. Though it's hard to count his rows and rows of chips, we're putting him on about 1.8 million at the 4,000/8,000/1,000 level. Haugen is a PokerStars qualifier from the U.S. who we have found easy to recognize by the Florida Gators hoodie he has been wearing for the past couple of days.

Around about the time that Haugen was making his charge, Justin Bonomo was shipping about 200,000 of his stack to Josh Bergman-Turnbull. The flop was [7d][ac][2h][10h][3s] and Bergman-Turnbull bet 131,000 on the end. Bonomo tank-called and was shown [7h][7c]. Bonomo still has about 950,000 though, so no need for alarm bells to ring just yet.

6pm: AWOL
Missing presumed eliminated: Jens Kyllonen, Joao Barbosa, Richard Gryko.

5.55pm: Dynamo Duthie
Holger Kanisch opened with a standard bet from under the gun and was called by John Duthie in the big blind for a flop of [3c][kd][td]. They each checked that and the [jc] turn for a [5s] on the river. Duthie threw out 32,000 to take the pot. Up to more than 550,000.

5:49pm: Ivan Demidov eliminated
The runner-up from the 2008 WSOP, Ivan Demidov, is out. He just ran pocket sevens into pocket aces and is out.

5:44pm: The Ambrose-Khan problem
There are two men left in this field that are notable together, if only for their near-identical records here at the PCA.

Item #1: Steve Paul-Ambrose won this event in 2006. He came back in 2007 and took 20th place. Now, he is the only former PCA champion remaining in the field. Including the money he is already guaranteed in 2010, Ambrose has earned $1,424,646 at the PCA.

Item #2: Hafiz Khan has never won the PCA, but he came runner-up to ElkY in 2008. Then, he came back last year and placed 21st. Including the money he has already won in the main event here, Khan has earned $1,164,976.

Both men remain in the field with 122 players remaining. For Khan to catch Paul-Ambrose in finishing position, he will only have to place two spots better. To catch Paul-Ambrose in earnings over the three year period, Khan will have to place seventh place or better in 2010.

5.35pm: Koral sends Liebert crashing
Kathy Liebert had been dishing out the lessons to the online generation earlier today. She had no choice, with FatalError, Kongsgaard, haffa, SirWatts, among others for company. But her tournament is now over, after she open shoved two off the button for her last 168,000 and was looked up by Thomas Koral on the button. He moved all in over the top, just to make sure he would isolate, and they turned over the cards:

Liebert: [as][jh]
Koral: [ad][ks]

The flop was [9c][qs][9s][7c][6s] and Liebert was out. Koral has more than 400,000.

5.25pm: Demidov demi-down
Luc Greenwood has doubled up through Ivan Demidov in a battle of the blinds. Greenwood had about 110,000 and he shoved after Demidov raised from the small blind. Demidov had [jd][9c] and Greenwood had [as][4h]. An ace and a four flopped and there was no miracle runner-runner. Greenwood is back over 200,000.

5.15pm: Bonomo on the charge
Justin Bonomo has been destroying the field this afternoon and as we enter level 18, he is our probable chip leader with more than 1,100,000. This is the man, right here: