Bodog Beat

Swedish poker pro Mikael Norinder finished up Day 3 of the EPT Prague as the chip leader. (Bodog Beat Image)

Thirty-two players out of the record-setting field of 555 came back to the Hilton Prague for Day 3 of the EPT Prague this morning to grind it out for a coveted spot among the final nine, and it would only take them just over 5 hours to get there.

Swedish poker pro Mikael Norinder started the day in second place behind Slovak Poker Federation president Dag Palovic, but quickly overtook him to build a significant chip lead. At one point the Swede lost 400,000 in one enormous hand to Norwegian Kristian Klondal, who flopped a straight flush to the obvious dismay of Norinder who thought he had the hand won with a full house.

However, Norinder recovered impressively and went on to bust out EPT regular Christer Johansson, who hit the rail when his pocket queens were cracked by Norinder's flopped top pair of aces. Neither the turn nor the river produced the final lady in the deck and Johansson went back to the bikini team.

Also eliminated in play this afternoon were big-stacks Luis Sevilla, Marc Karam, Jose Navarro, and former Swedish international soccer player Thomas Brolin.

Here’s the official chip count heading into the final table:

1. 1,035,000 - Micke Norinder, Sweden
2. 980,000 - Arnaud Mattern, France
3. 759,000 - Dragomir Palovic, Slovakia
4. 740,000 - Kristian Klondal, Norway
5. 660,000 - Gino Alacqua, Italy
6. 567,000 - Juha Lattamus, Finland
7. 352,000 - Markus Golser, Austria
8. 245,000 - Johannes Strassmann, Germany
9. 216,000 - Nedzib Suman, Sweden

Stay tuned to the Beat for more updates and don't forget to check out the poker tournament schedule at Bodog to see when the next qualifier is for a Bodog "Player's Choice"package.