Las Vegas Nathan’s qualifier results from a Laura Flynn comment:

1. 46 HDB Pat Bertoletti
2. 33 HDB Rich LeFevre
3. 23 HDB Mongo Marquez
4-5 14? Kevin Ross
4-5 14? Jason Erb

Pat Bertoletti becomes the third person to break 40 hot dogs and buns. Rich LeFevre’s 33 is also a personal best.

update Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane also has results on his blog which report Bertoletti ate 46 HDB.

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A press release about next month’s Nathan’s qualifier in Las Vegas can be found in a myspace blog. The entrants listed in that document:

The Las Vegas qualifier, which last year witnessed the historic breaking of the 50-dog barrier by #2-ranked Joey Chestnut, appears poised to make history again. Third-ranked Pat Bertoletti has claimed that he will break the world record of 53 ¾ hot dogs and buns in Las Vegas. Bertoletti, a Chicago native, recently upset Chestnut at the St. Patrick’s Day Showdown on Spike TV, and seems to have momentum going into hot dog season. Bertoletti’s main obstacle, besides history, will be Rich “The Locust” LeFevre, the #8-ranked gurgitator in the world. A local mother and daughter team, Debi and Robyn Affentranger, will also be on hand to compete.

The contest, to be held Thursday, May 3 at 3 p.m., is an official qualifying round of the Nathan’s Famous worldwide hot dog eating circuit.

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Ron Koch has sent me the following email:

Just saw an eater at Ollies a\hamburger joint at UNLV.they called him bonsy.He is so thin thus the name .Well anyway he polished off 14.5 quarter pound hamburgers with buns in 10 minutes without even sweating.

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Brian Seiken reports that Ron Koch will face a field of pro football players at the New York, New York hotel in Las Vegas on May 21. This will be Koch’s first contest since the Reno ribs contest in August.

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A clip from a recent “Las Vegas” episode has been uploaded to http://eatfeats.com/videos/LasVegasHotDogContest.wmv (2 minutes 5MB) The video shows Sam (Vanessa Marcil) winning a hot dog eating contest for casino employees by eating the contents of a tray filled with of 50-80 bunless hot dogs (We only see her eat about two or three)

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The “Las Vegas” episode with the hot dog eating contest will be rerun on TNT at midnight eastern tonight (9 pm Pacific)

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(Thanks Laura Flynn) Brian Seiken’s new episode was not the only Las Vegas themed competitive eating program last weekend. There was a hot dog eating contest on NBC’s “Las Vegas” Friday in which Sam (Vanessa Marcil) competed. This was not Sam’s first eating contest; she competed against “Cookie” Jarvis in 2004. The episode will be rerun on cable on TNT on March 8.

There was also an immunity challenge eating contest on Survivor Thursday. Pig snouts were one if the items consumed.

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Brian Seiken has posted the latest episode of his television show, which features interviews with Las Vegas residents Ron “The Undertaker” Koch and El Toro. There is also a visit from Rabbi Abramawitz and a clip of sportsradio host Jim Rome (who has criticized Sonya Thomas, Joey Chestnut and Kate Stelnick) being attacked by former Rams quarterback Jim Everett.

In other updates, Brian Seiken has Crazy Legs Conti’s appreciation of Boston Celtic Dennis Johnson, a tribute to Super Paul Barlow Jr and a report that a new medication has resolved his acid reflux issues and should help him return to his previous level.

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Domenico Alesi has uploaded a gallery of pictures from the Nugget Rib contest in Reno last month.

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The Reno Gazette Journal has a report on last night’s rib eating competition listing the top four finishers:

1st: Joey Chestnut, $2,500, 4.5 lbs. of ribs
2nd: Pat Bertoletti, $1,500, 4 lbs.
3rd: Rich LeFevre, $750, 3.8 lbs.
4th: Jed Donahue, $250, 3.3 lbs.

Updated 3:57 pm IFOCE.com has full results. It is interesting they are noting Joey’s 6 month non-Kobayashi winning streak when no attention at all was paid to Sonya’s 7 month (Wing Bowl to Buffalo Wing Festival) streak last year.

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The Reno Gazette Journal has a preview of the West Nugget Rib Cook-off and Eating Contest. The eating contest will run from 5 to 7 pm pacific (8 to 10 pm eastern).

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The Hungover Gourmet has a blog entry about meeting Sonya Thomas at the eBay conference in Las Vegas.

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The following video captures were taken from the video of the goldenpalace.net grilled cheese contest on the contest page at goldenpalaceevents.com after the contest timer expired (around 2:20 – 2:26 in the video)

It is obvious from the video captures that Sonya has a significant amount (probably 1/4 to 1/2 a sandwich) outside her mouth after the contest is finished. I assume that the man with sunglasses and a notepad is a contest official and he apparently took no action after he saw the amount of food outside Sonya’s mouth.

If the chipmunking rule is going to be interpreted liberally, then Sonya has every right to take advantage of that interpretation, but IFOCE should clarify the details of that rule so other eaters can take advantage of it as well.

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Erik Denmark has a video of Eater X’s grilled cheese exhibition & Andrew Lane has a gallery by El Toro on their blogs.

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from dogsarefunyes.blogspot.com

ArenaBowl XX FanFest, Las Vegas, NV

1) Joey Chestnut 47 grilled cheese sandwiches – world record
2) Sonya Thomas & Pat Bertoletti 37 – tie
4) Rich LeFevre 35
5) Chip Simpson 33
6) Ron Koch 20
7) Erik “the Red” Denmark 17.5

Other results – not necessarily complete
Jason “Erbavore” Erb 15
El Toro 12.5
Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane 10
Doug “Cerberus” Ecks 8

Tim Janus 18 in five minute exhibition against Arena Football player

Mike Justice 9 in amateur contest

updated 10:00 pm

updated June 11, 9:47 am – Marketwire has a press release and video about the contest.

updated 7:34 – Andrew Lane has a trip report (which is a must-see for females who have ever wondered what men’s bathrooms in Las Vegas look like)

Updated 8:43 PM – KESQ has an AP article about the contest

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Tomorrow a potential $100,000 will be awarded if an amateur eater from Las Vegas eats more than 36.5 grilled cheese sandwiches in 10 minutes. The new poll asks if you believe if a feat is possible for the best amateur eater in North America.

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Here are various links I have come across in the past month or so:

Erik Denmark radio interviews: June 2, June 5
Kevin Carr’s interview with Pat Bertoletti (about 50 minutes)

Interview with David “Brickhouse” Braunstein & Matt Streett before Baltimore crabcake contest
Las Vegas Sun preview of Nathan’s qualifier (has only Ron Koch quotes I am aware of)
2005 US Open of Competitive Eating writeups: Round 1 Round 2 Round 3-5
Rocky Mountain News column
Another Natsuko “Gal” Sone fan blog

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Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane has posted a trip report of his expedition to Las Vegas to compete in the Nathan’s qualifier on Thursday (he finished with 12.5 hot dogs)

beautifulbrian.com has a gallery of the Las Vegas contest courtesy of El Toro

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In this oogui forum, Japanese competitive eating fans react to the news that Joey Chestnut ate 50 hot dogs in the Las Vegas qualifier.

Much & Fast has a blog entry about Chestnut’s performance

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Hall Hunt googled Josh Heald, who was listed as a screenwriter who ate 11 hot dogs in the Las Vegas qualfier in the IFOCE report, and found he had written a movie about competitive eating for Disney called “All You Can Eat.” The movie is supposed to come out later this year, but apparently it has not been cast yet.

Articles about studio pickup and director hiring for the movie.

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from IFOCE.com Congratulations to Joey Chestnut who set an American record of 50 hot dogs at the Nathan’s qualifier in Las Vegas today. Chestnut’s performance is better than 2 of Kobayashi’s winning marks and equivalent to one. Rich LeFevre set a personal best of 30.5 and Ron Koch did 15.

Note: The IFOCE report says that the previous American record was 42 when it is actually 37 (set by Sonya Thomas last year.)

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While Brian Seiken thinks he might have seen George Shea at a wedding recently, “The Chicken” not only saw IFOCE president Rich Shea at a Las Vegas Club, he/she received a personal invitation to the Big Daddy Burger contest which was accepted and wrote a blog entry about the experience.

Correction 11:47 pm, Rich Shea and not George was at the nightclub, thanks Ray Meduna

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The Las Vegas Review has a short writeup with three pictures of Saturday’s Big Daddy Burger contest. The Las Vegas Sun has a longer article with one picture.

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Here are the full results of Saturday’s 9 pound Barrick/Big Daddy Burger contest at the Plaza Casino. Thanks to Ray “The Bison” Meduna for the information, who also judged that event. I would appreciate it if someone could tell me what the last name of 13th place finisher Eric D. is. Congratulations to all competitors and officials for a very successful contest.

Update 1/25 4:14 pm Andrew “Skinnyboy” Lane has a first person account and some pictures on his blog.

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Thanks Bubba Yarbrough for the results

In a recent comment on her website, Sonya Thomas stated she intends to represent the 3 billion+ women on earth by injecting a more deadly venom into her male prey. Sonya definitely lived up to that claim today at the 9 pound Barrick / Big Daddy burger contest at the Plaza Casino in Las Vegas. Her time of approximately 27 minutes was almost half the 48 minutes she needed to finish last year’s contest (and is similar to her almost doubling her amount in last month’s meatball contest.) Las Vegas residents performed well at the contest, with Rich LeFevre and Ron Koch comprising half the top four.

Updated 10:02 KVVU has a video of an in studio contest yesterday between Rich LeFevre, Ron Koch, Hall Hunt and Joey Chestnut online

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