By Simon Young

Welcome to day three of the PartyPoker Million VI on board MSC Poesia, currently docked in Izmir in Turkey. Play resumes at 4pm local time today, with just 33 of our 171 starters remaining. All hope to get their hands on the $358,280 first prize when the final table plays out on Thursday.

Germany’s Johaness Strassmann is currently well ahead of the chasing pack. Here are the chip stacks for all our survivors:

Johaness Strassmann, Germany, 218,000

Andreas Jorbeck, Sweden, 99,900

Thomas Bihl, Germany, 95,500

Marcel Finnema, Holland, 87,100

Alexey Yuzikov, Russia, 82,400

Peter Steinlesberger, Germany, 71,300

Alan Forsyth, UK, 70,200

Samir Shakhtoor, Sweden , 70,200

Fredrik Keitel, Germany, 62,500

Heinrich Mayr, Austria, 59,500

Raymond Estall, UK, 58,900

Alexander Jung, Germany, 58,400

Victor Sazonkin, Russia, 57,200

Christoph Nesert, Germany, 55,300

Florian Langmann, Germany, 53,200

Dominik Stopka, Germany, 47,400

Mika Passonen, Finland, 45,400

Paul Testud, France, 43,400

Matthew Dobbins, Ireland, 41,300

Cory Albertson, USA, 41,100

Simon Munz, Germany, 37,300

Joseph Myles, UK, 33,300

Christian Schafer, Germany, 29,500

George Dunst, Australia, 29,100

Nicholas Bower, UK, 27,800

Mikael Erixon, Sweden, 27,100

Christoph Haller, Austria, 24,800

Julian Lenz, Germany, 22,800

Epifanio Licon, Mexico, 21,300

Ralph Rudd, USA, 15,300

Kenneth Gregersen, Denmark, 9,800

Keith McGrath, Ireland, 7,700

Philip Hulse, UK, 5,800

By Simon Young

I don’t know what the players had for dinner, but when the 60 of them returned there was a burst of bloodthirsty aggression that scared the hell out of me. So bad was it, that by the time play ended for the night, just three hours later, the PartyPoker Million VI field had nearly halved to 33.

Things can turn in an instant, of course, but for now one man who can very happy with his night’s work is young German Johaness Strassmann, who has climbed to the chip lead with 218,000. He’s a man on form, after final tabling this season’s EPT Dortmund, and finishing ninth in the Prague event.

Johaness Strassmann’s stack grew at a rate of knots

We’re yet to receive the full counts, but it seems the German has more than twice as many chips as his nearest rivals: PartyPoker Late Night Poker 2008 winner Andreas Jorbeck, on 99,900, and German Thomas Bihl, one of the chip leaders at the start of the day and still right up there with 95,500.

Alexey Yuzikov, 82,400, Samir Shakhtoor, 70,200 and Alexander Jung - the man who earlier in the day flopped quad aces - has 58,000 as the chasing bunch make sure they don’t get left behind.

Some of the play was pretty brutal. Take the experience of Philip Hulse from the UK, who is more used to smaller live tournaments in his local casino in Stoke. He had battled all the way through day two, doubled up once with aces, and looked set to do so again with about 20 minutes left to play.

He got all his chips in against Austria’s Christoph Haller when the flop showed 6-9-J. The aces for Hulse were still a mile ahead of Haller’s A-J… until another jack fell on the turn giving Haller trips. It left Hulse shaking his head with just 5,000 left as blinds reached 600-1,200 with a 200 running ante.

As a former maths teacher, Hulse will appreciate that the probability of Haller hitting trip jacks to crack the aces was pretty low.

But at least the Englishman is still in with a chance of making the first money-paying position, 24th place.

Not so fortunate is Russian Igor Osipov, German Sebastian Ruthenberg and overnight chip leader Ludvig Lidviksson, from Iceland, who was crippled earlier in the day when his set of fours hit a set of kings. Ouch.

Play will commence at 4pm local time tomorrow, with players returning to their same seats. There will be a seat redraw when the bubble bursts and 24 remain.

Tournament director Matt Savage also confirmed that if we make it down to the final table of eight tomorrow, then there will be a day off on Wednesday before the planned final on Thursday.

We’ll get the remaining chip counts for you as soon as we can.

Meanwhile, the good ship MSC Poesia is steaming towards Izmir in Turkey. We then head to Istanbul on Wednesday for a stop that will leave plenty of time for sight-seeing.

Stay tuned.

By Simon Young

Swede Andreas Jorbeck, who won the recent PartyPoker.com Late Night Poker 2008 event for $125,000, raced into the chip lead here on the last hand before the dinner break. He found himself getting the chips in on a flop that had two kings - he had 7-7,  his opponent 10-10 and a 7 on the turn filled up his boat on, er, the boat.

That monster puts Jorbeck on over 100,000 and almost certainly the chip lead for this PartyPoker Million VI event. But several are chasing hard: Germany’s Alexander Jung and France’s Paul Testud both have approaching 80,000, while Swede Samir Shakhtoor also looks strong.

Jung won most of his chips with a classic case of poker overkill. His opponent held Q-Q and went all in - called by Jung with A-A. Not one, but TWO aces on the flop gave the German quads. “I think you are ahead,” his opponent said with a wry smile, as the turn and river were dealt.

At dinner, after four levels of play today, we are down to 60 players from the 171 who started yesterday. When they return with full stomachs we’ll be on level 10, where blinds will be 400-800 with a running 100 ante.

With 24 places getting paid, we are approaching the serious business.

By Simon Young

The crystal-clear seas outside may be calm, but in Le Moulin Rouge room, at the back of the seventh deck of the huge MSC Poesia, there are stormy waters for some as numbers remaining in the PartyPoker Million VI falls to 93 from the 123 day two starters.

One of those who is struggling in the swell is the most surprising - overnight chip leader Ludvig Lidviksson is down, and nearly out. The man from Iceland, who started the day with about 45,000, looked down to find 4-4 in the hole, and got all his money in when the flop came 3-4-K. You know it’s not going to be your day, however, when the man to your left flips over K-K.

Lidviksson needs a miracle to rebuild, but he’s at a tough table, with Swede Samir Shakhtoor, a European Poker Tour final tablist in Copenhagen, looking threatening with a stack now approaching 50,000. Shakhtoor accounted for the first exit of the day, when his A-J saw off Manfred Manahan from Canada, who had pushed his 5,000 stack with A-4 suited.

Samir Shakhtoor sitting comfortably with growing chips

The overnight table redraw had seen table 17 put together with three of the overnight chip leaders: Canada’s Jonathan Dsouza, who got off to a flyer yesterday, George Dunst of Australia, and Germany’s Tobias Reinkemeier.

While the latter two have continued to build, DSouza’s starting stack of 28,000 dwindled away until, down to his last 7,000, he pushed with K-10 and came up against the aces. The flop of 9-J-6 offered hope of a gutshot straight, but following 10 and 5 changed nothing.

George Dunst, middle, and Tobias Reinkemeier, right

Moments later, the man with the aces busted Alan Smurfit. With blinds at 200-400 and a 50 running ante, Smurfit raised to 1,000, was re-raised to 3,000 and pushed for a total of 7,500. He turned over A-K, ‘Mr Aces’ had Q-Q this time and the 3-5-3-2-J board sent him to the rail.

Another big mover - though in a downward direction -  is WSOP Europe Horse bracelet winner Thomas Bihl, from Germany (the Germans make up 20% of our starting field). He’s down to 10,000 from his 35,000 starting point.

Yesterday I wrote that Austrian Christoph Haller found A-A just as I walked past, and that spurned his chip-building. Well, I walked past him again this afternoon and he only went and found the aces again. Sadly for him, everyone folded to his raise this time around. Perhaps they now realise Haller always has aces when I’m on the rail. Haller now has over 20,000.

Christian Kruel, left, and Mike McDonald in battle

Meanwhile, Brazilian Christian Kruel has bitten the dust, but not until after a fine skirmish with Canadian Mike McDonald, known as Timex online. First off the pair were in the blinds and saw a flop of 4-3-4. Kruel bet, McDonald re-raised and the Brazilian folded, leaving only 2,000 or so behind.

One hand later, they were at it again. This time Kruel went all in with A-10, called by McDonald with A-J, but the 10-K-K-2-3 board saved the man from Rio. It would not spur Kruel on, though, and a few rounds of the table later he was out of the door, at which time McDonald was moved to the same table as Dunst and Reinkemeier, which could provide fireworks later.

The international flavour of this event - they’ve come from all over the world - sees several Russians at the table. One, Igor Osipov, wearing a natty white hat and yellow flowery shirt, is bulldozing his table, reaching the first break of the afternoon with more than 40,000. He won one 13,000 pot by leading out on the flop and turn with an open-ended straight draw which he reached on the river. His 7-8 nicely disguised on the 6-K-5-2-4 board.

Hat’s the way to stack chips: Igor Osipov

We’re due to play a total of seven levels today during the long trip of the cruise from Katakolon in Greece to Izmir in Turkey.

Check back later for more thrills and spills from the tables.

Katakolon from the top deck of MSC Poesia