from IFOCE.com: Rich LeFevre won the jalapeno eating contest at the Texas State Fair, beating Sonya Thomas, Pat Bertoletti and Erik “the Red” Denmark. No other places were given. The Locust’s total was given as 247 peppers, more than Pat Bertoletti ate in a contest (177) almost twice as long in New Mexico.

updatedResults from SonyaTheBlackWidow.com & dfw.com:
1. Rich “The Locust” LeFevre: 247 Peppers
2. Sonya Thomas 239 (1st try at jalapenos)
3. Pat “Deep Dish” Bertoletti: 226
4. Erik “The Red” Denmark 108
? Allen Earl Jones 90

Rich LeFevre has won a Texas State Fair contest in the past 4 years. He won the corny dog contest 2003-5.

update #2 dfw.com has an article about the contest

update #3 dallasnews.com has an article and blog entry about the contest. The blog says that Sonya did not immediately accept the result and waited for a recount to be completed.

update #4 AP has an article which has received wide distribution

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Here is Brian Seiken’s answer to who inspired the following eaters: Charles Hardy, Cookie Jarvis, Don “Moses” Lerman and Brian Seiken:

Hardy’s union boss insisted he compete in a Nathans hot dog civil service contest for publicity in 1998 and he refused until his wife told him to go out and have some fun.
Jarvis father in law bet that jarvis couldnt win a matzah ball contest because he wasnt jewish. Jarvis entered a Bens matzah ball qualifier in 2001 . rest is history
Lermans nephew Ryan who used to accompany him to the contests for support saw a sign for the same Ben’s contest a year earlier and thought his uncle could take the title which he did.
My sister saw a sign for a Nathans hot dog contest in 1997 in oceanside ny. I thought it would be fun. Never knew it would get me to this level 9 yrs later

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krystalsquareoff.com has a list of the expected entrants in tomorrow’s qualifier in Nashville. Most of the ranked competitors, including Hall Hunt, Justin Mih, Bubba Yarbrough and Larry McNeil, have competed in previous qualifiers. “The Hangman” Bruce Pobanz, will be celebrating his 50th birthday at the contest. Michael Parlaman, a finalist in Moe’s Burritos for Life, is expected.

updated Hall “Hoover” Hunt has a preview in his blog.

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online-gambling-insider.com reports that GoldenPalace.com will continue to accept online bets from the United States for at least 30 days while they determine a course of action. GoldenPalace.net canceled all of its sponsorships for October IFOCE contests this week.

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Natsuko “Gal” Sone has moved past Takeru Kobayashi in number of Japanese blog entries retrieved by technorati thanks to over 200 entries about “Gal” Sone’s appearance in last Sunday’s “Gluttonous King” contest. Technorati currently returns 1964 Japanese blog posts about “Gal” Sone and 1800 about Takeru Kobayashi

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Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane received a message from IFOCE headquarters:

I am extremely sad to announce that the breakfast burrito eating championship in Albuquerque on October 11, and the pickle eating championship in Raleigh on October 16 have been canceled. It is likely that the chicken strip contest in Columbia on October 13 will also be canceled, but that is not yet confirmed.

I would assume the AZ contest on the 28th is in serious jeopardy as well. If the SC and AZ contests are canceled, hopefully the jalapeno contest on Sunday will be a fitting end to the series.

updated from the Sicilan IFOCE.com has an official statement about the cancellations saying that the AZ contest will take place without any prizes. The jalapeno contest Sunday will be sponsored by Major League eating instead of golden palace.

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The Age of Australia has a tribute to Sonya Thomas.

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krystalsquareoff.com announces that Dale Boone will end his suspension from IFOCE contests at the Perry Krystal qualifier on Sunday.

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(from megamunch) Ryan Nerz wrote an article for the Yale Alumni Magazine about Tim Janus’ and his attempts to break the Doodle burger record broken by Tim Janus earlier this year.

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Western Mail of Wales has an article about last month’s lobster roll eating contest in Boston.

Kobayashi has a blog entry about his trip to Boston which includes a trip to Rona Conti’s house and a picture of Crazy Legs from 1997.

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hotsauceblog has the press release for Sunday’s GoldenPalace.net Jalapeno Eating Contest at the Texas State Fair. Sonya Thomas, Pat Bertoletti, Rich LeFevre and Erik “the Red” Denmark are expected to attend. Sonya & Pat had a recent Southern Plains showdown at the fried okra eating contest at the Oklahoma State Fair last month. Pat Bertoletti won a jalapeno eating contest in New Mexico in August.

updateddfw.com also reports that Sonya & Pat are expected

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Don “Moses” Lerman called for a battle between the older & younger generations of competitive eaters to occur at Big Ed’s when the next major northeastern IFOCE contest was scheduled. Many eaters expressed interest in attending. The 3rd Meatball Contest at the Tropicana Casino in Atlantic City, NJ is scheduled for December 2. (Registration for that event is already closed) If the generation showdown is to occur, that contest would probably be the best occasion for it.

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Con Chapman of thespoof.com has a preview of public television’s first televised sports programming with a quote from Eric “Badlands” Thomas.

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megamunch has a new blog entry about the role of raw inherent eating ability versus training, technique and experience in becoming a top eater. The new poll asks what percentage of the population could become a top ranked eater with essentially unlimited training and resources.

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Kobayashi has a tribute to Eric “Badlands” Booker on his blog, just having recently received news of his retirement. The entry praises Booker’s CD. If you would like to have your voice on Booker’s next CD, there are two days left to enter the drawing for three guest appearances on Hungry & Focused III

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Bo Bice has a blog entry about his participation in the Corny Dog Contest at the Texas State Fair in his myspace blog. He has a longer blog entry in his fanclub blog.

Bo Bice’s connection to competitive eating predates the Corny Dog Contest. The Whaler wrote a blog entry about Bo Bice in January.

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Eye On Gambling has a forum thread about the fate of Golden Palace’s US operations. The official position is apparently that the company will announce a decision when the port security bill is signed by the president.

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On competitiveeating.net, IFOCE has a response to Brian Seiken’s call for a competitive eating division for eaters over 40:

“While I think the concept of a masters league as proposed is not viable, it is in no way an admission by retired eaters that they cannot compete with a new breed of competitive eater,” said IFOCE Chair George Shea. “The retired eaters are giants upon whose shoulders the younger eaters stand.”

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(from supersizedmeals.com) Talayna’s Restaurant in Saint Louis has a 30 inch pizza challenge that no one has completed. Challengers are required to drink two pitchers of soda as well. The prize for completing the challenge has been listed at both $500 and $1000.

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A fan of male Japanese competitive eaters might feel the same way after Sunday’s “Gluttonous King” that a Seattle Seahawks fan did after the Super Bowl. In the 3rd round (barbecue shish kebabs) of “Gluttonous King,” Natsuko “Gal” Sone finished in last place, which should have resulted in elimination and a 5th place finish, but she was advanced to the 4th round anyway. She probably would have avoided a last place finish if she did not take the time to remove the meat from the skewer and eat it with chopsticks. I would appreciate if a Japanese speaker could tell me if the announcers provided a reason why “Gal” Sone was not eliminated. As far as I can tell, the official explanation appears to be that they ran out of food, but the servers seemed to have no difficulty supplying the eaters with food up until the end of the contest.

In the fourth round (salmon) two eaters were to be eliminated since no one was dropped after the previous round. At the end of that contest “Gal” Sone was neck and neck with “the Artist” and appeared to be at approximately the same level of discomfort, but the doctor removed “the Artist” from the contest, advancing Ms. Sone to the final round.

A commenter to the “Much & Fast” blog claims to be the second place finisher in the Osaka qualifier. He did not make the finals because TV Tokyo took the top four finishers from the Tokyo qualifier, enabling Tomoko Miyake to advance.

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Steakbellie ,Wing Kong and The Whaler have blog entries about their trip to Memphis for the Krystal qualifier.

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All videos for part 2 of “Gluttonous King” are now available on youtube.

TV Tokyo got youtube to remove the videos for earlier Gluttonous King / Queen shows, so the videos will probably not be available for a long period of time if you are interested in watching them.

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(From BB Bits & Pieces) Heeb Magazine has an article on gastrointestinal afflictions more common in Jews than in the general population. The first part of the article is about Jews in competitive eating with quotes from Brian Seiken, Don Lerman and Kevin Lipsitz. There are some minor inaccuracies in the article. (Isn’t Shredder Goldstein a top 20 ranked Jewish IFOCE member?)

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In his most recent blog entry, Kobayashi comments on the Krystals finals this month and the eaters he will face there: Jiyoi, Sonia, Pad, Teimu, Tip/Chip and Hob.

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MarketWatch reports that PartyGaming (PartyPoker) and 888 Holdings have announced that they will stop their internet gambling operations in the United States as soon as the port security bill banning transfer of funds to online casinos is approved by the president. UK shares of companies involved in online gambling lost as much as 75% of their value Monday and the total paper wealth loss is estimated at $7.5 billion. Online casino GoldenPalace.com/.net is a major sponsor of IFOCE events.

While Congress succeeded in attaching a completely unrelated measure to the port security bill, it failed to attach a provision to that legislation that would have barred serious felons from working in sensitive dock security jobs.

updated pokerplayernewspaper has an analysis of the legislation which mentions Golden Palace’s sponsorships

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