Much like the Foxtrot today was a day that went slowly, then quickly, then slowly again before a turbo burst at the end meant that in a little over five levels the field was reduced from 33 players to the final eight.
Despite all the big pots, suckouts and chip swings the top two going into today remained in those positions throughout the day, the only thing that's changed between the end of Day 2 and Day 3 is that their positions have been reversed.
When the players take their chips out of the bags tomorrow it'll be Pawel Keller who has the most strenuous task, he bagged up 1,524,000 to lead the way. The Pole is just 6.875 big blinds ahead of Ireland's Thomas Finneran who has 1,415,000. At the end of Day 2 Finneran's lead over Keller was a shade under 12 big blinds, between them the two of them have over 50% of the chips in play.
Whilst they both made serene progress today, that progress was achieved in different manners. For Keller it seemed he was stamping out players left right and centre. A pot where he found kings against Kieran Furey's queens helped him become the first player to cross the million-chip barrier. Apt then that finding kings and eliminating Dylan Roberts in ninth would end the day and once again make him chip leader after he had lost that privilege to Finneran.
Meanwhile Finneran seemed to just be picking up small pots here and there, then with two tables left he went on a rush. He took care of Jamie Harrington (15th), Karl Thompson (12th) and Cahal Heapes (11th) to claim the chip lead, but for the final hand of today he'd still have it. He does though have position on the Pole tomorrow which could be crucial in determining a winner.
The two chip leaders weren't the only two to have a hot hand on Day 3 here in Cork. Enter Deb's the Destroyer - better known as Deborah Worley-Roberts. She had spun eight big blinds all the way up to 229,000 to be ninth in chips when play started today. By the end of the first two levels she had almost 500,000. This was in part down to eliminating Neil Raine, but mostly down to a superb call she made against the Chris Derrick.
Facing a bet for her tournament life on the river of a paired and flushing board that read [Qd][9c][tc][th][4c] and, having been fired into on every street, Worley-Roberts made the call with [Ah][Qh]. She had Derrick's pocket twos crushed and soon ended his chances of making back to back final tables. The American ended the day on 795,000 and sits third overnight. Can she become the first female winner of a UKIPT main event?
Two players hoping to make their first UKIPT final table today were Team PokerStars Pro Liv Boeree and PokerStars Team Online's Dale Philip. The latter was the shorter of the two and the first of the duo to bust. He kept the chips in the family though as Boeree eliminated him with [Qc][7c] against his six big blind shove with [Ad][9h], queen on the river.
For Boeree it was a day where she got to put her pre-flop skills into practice and work on her shoving ranges, given that she rarely had over 25 big blinds. She looked to be heading out when she pushed for just under 14 big blinds with [Js][7d] from the small blind into big blind Andrew Grimason's [Ah][Kc]. However, a [Jh][Jd][7s] flop connected rather nicely with her hand.
However she couldn't repeat the trick, when 80 minutes later with the big blind sitting out she jammed for 17 big blinds with [Kd][7s] from the small blind over the top of Fridjon Thordarson's cut-off open. The Icelander called with pocket tens and the pair held to eliminate Boeree in 19th place.
The EPT6 San Remo champion wasn't the only winner on a PokerStars tour to fall today, Richard Sinclair winner of UKIPT2 Newcastle and UKIPT2's Champion of Champion event was positively coolered out of this tournament in 29th place by Kevin Callebaut with top full house against quads. We also lost both the UKIPT 3 leader board leader (Neil Raine 24th) and the UKIPT3 Best Online Qualifier leader Dara O'Kearney.
As well as the three aforementioned players tomorrow's final table will feature Stephen McGrath, he'll be hoping to go one better than he did at UKIPT3 Dublin when he finished runner up to Richard Evans. The Everton fan is fourth overnight with 610,000. That's one place ahead of Alexander Rhys-Davies (457,000). As well as a first female winner of a UKIPT main event we could have the first Icelandic winner as Fridjon Thordarson comes back with 336,000 tomorrow, Pascal Töngi (289,000) could score another German victory on Season 3 of the UKIPT.
And a short stacked Nick Newport (195,000) is an experienced campaigner with a major tournament victory to his name so should not be discounted. After all we all know what happened in Edinburgh.
UKIPT Cork Final Table:
1. Fridjon Thordarson, Iceland, PokerStars Qualifier, 336,000
2. Pascal Töngi, Germany, PokerStars Qualifier, 289,000
3. Pawel Keller, Poland, PokerStars Qualifier, 1,524,000
4. Thomas Finneran, Ireland, 1,415,000
5.Alexander Rhys-Davies, Ireland, PokerStars Qualifier, 457,000
6. Nicholas Newport, Ireland, PokerStars Player, 195,000
7. Deborah Worley-Roberts, USA, PokerStars Qualifier, 795,000
8. Stephen McGrath, United Kingdom, 610,000
The final table starts at noon with just under 44 minutes of Level 22 remaining, to catch up on all today's action, the day's that went before it and who's cashed so far click on the links below.
Levels 17-20
Levels 21-22
Day 2
Day 1B
Day 1A
Prizepool and payouts
Last night was the player's party, we'll leave you with three mages from there. Don't ask.
All photos are copyright of Mickey May and should be credited as such