Pat Bertolleti, the no. 2 eater in the world, is expected to put up high numbers in Atlanta.

The Georgia Qualifier for the Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship will take place at Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta tomorrow at 2:00 p.m., determining who will join Humble Bob Shoudt, Hall Hunt, plus the remaining TBD qualifiers and Wild Card picks at the World Championship table in Chattanooga on September 28.

Pat Bertolleti, the number two eater in the world, is the favorite in tomorrow’s competition with a personal best record of 94 Krystals in eight minutes.  Tim Brown (no. 13) and Allen Goldstein (no. 15) will also compete and are expected to battle it out for second.

Head over to the Krystal Square Off Blog for more interesting facts and “quick bites” on tomorrow’s eating competition, including a completle list of confirmed eaters.

Hall Hunt claims victory over Sonya Thomas with 60 Krystal burgers, setting a new Jacksonville record.

Courtesy of the Krystal Square Off Blog

The second of seven regional qualifiers for the Krystal Square Off V World Hamburger Eating Championship took place today in front of a boisterous crowd in a hot and sticky Jacksonville, Fla., and it was the hometown hero Hall Hunt, the eighth ranked eater in the world, who reigned supreme by devouring 60 of the fast food icon’s famous hamburgers in eight minutes. On his way to victory over a field that included the fiercely competitive Sonya Thomas, Hunt eclipsed the previous Jacksonville Qualifier record of 52 Krystals set in 2006 by Joey Chestnut, the world’s top ranked eating pro.

The win earns Hunt a spot at the FSN South-televised final table of Krystal Square Off V on Sept. 28, held in Krystal’s hometown of Chattanooga. There, Hunt will go up against defending champ and Krystal world record holder Joey Chestnut, three-time Krystal Square Off World Champion Takeru Kobayashi, the top finisher from each regional qualifier and three wild card entries. On the line will be a $50,000 cash purse, the largest in competitive eating history.

Hunt’s win over Thomas, who finished second today with 55 Krystals, brings The Black Widow’s impressive 12-0 lifetime qualifier streak to an end. Her mark today though could be good enough to earn her one of the coveted wild card spots at this year’s final table.

Finishing in third today was Rich Guadagnolo of Jacksonville with 15 Krystals. Guadagnolo was one of the five amateur eaters chosen on the spot to compete right before the contest began.

Bruce “The Hangman” Pobanz, who rightly predicted he’d lose to Sonya Thomas, ate just 12 Krystals.

In other competitive eating news, Eatfeats is reporting that Humble Bob Shoudt claimed his second victory over Joey Chestnut and Pat Bertoletti in the spaghetti chili contest at King’s Island.  Shoudt consumed 13.5 lbs to win $2,500 while Chestnut downed 13.2 lbs to take home $1,500.  Bertolleti was in third with 11 lbs.

It will be interesting to see if Shoudt can out-eat Chestnut when the two meet up again in Chattanooga at the final table of the Krystal Square Off V on September 28.

In the meantime, stay tuned as we’ll bring you all the latest in Krystal Square Off V news.  You can also check out the Krystal Square Off Blog for photos and podcast interviews with the eaters.  And don’t forget to sign up to follow the Krystal Square Off V Qualifiers via Twitter for live, instant updates.

Joey Chestnut remains at the top of the Major League Eating Eater's Poll for another month.

Krystal competitive eater Hall “Hoover” Hunt has posted the August edition of the Major League Eating Eater’s Poll.

Joey Chestnut, Takeru Kobayashi and Pat Bertoletti once again round out the top three respectively.

Humble Bob Shoudt, however, has jumped up two spots to claim the fourth position, probably due to his wins at Ash Creek and the Krystal Square Off Qualifier in Chattanooga.

Tim “Eater X” Janus moves down one spot this month to claim fifth.

You can check out the entire poll over on Hunt’s blog.

Also, don’t forget to follow Hunt this weekend as he goes head-to-head against the top-ranked female competitive eater in the world Sonya “The Black Widow” Thomas at the Jacksonville Qualifier for the Krystal Square Off V.

Read more about this competitive eating match-up and listen to what both eaters have to say about this weekend’s competition over at the Krystal Square Off Blog.

And remember to sign up for live updates from the Krystal Square Off Tour via Twitter. 

The wonderful site that is CollegeHumor has a video of Krystal competitive eater Crazy Legs Conti attempting to consume “The Michael Phelps Breakfast” in less than five minutes.

And in case you’ve been living under a rock for the past two weeks and don’t know what an eater Phelps is, his usual breakfast includes:  three pancakes, three pieces of French toast, three fried egg sandwiches, a bowl of grits, an omelet and two cups of coffee.

The video of Crazy Legs is below.  And while we’re loving the swimming cap, goggles and the disturbingly tight pants, our favorite is the surprise appearance of the huge Krystal cup he’s using.

Perhaps a souvenir from last year’s Krystal Square Off?

Humble Bob Shoudt takes Chattanooga with 58 Krystal Burgers

Humble Bob Shoudt took the Krystal Square Off Chattanooga Qualifier on Saturday, downing 58 Krystal burgers in eight minutes.

Although Shoudt was disappointed with his performance, he did earn the first seat to this year’s World Hamburger Eating Championship, which will take place back in Chattanooga on September 28.

Head over to the Krystal Square Off Blog for complete coverage of this past weekend’s hamburger happenings, including photos on our Flickr page and a video blog of Humble Bob after the contest.

Remember, you can also sign up to receive Live Twitter coverage of each event at Twitter.com/ksquareoff.

Next stop on the hamburger competitive eating tour: Jacksonville.

Get instant updates from the Krystal Square Off V tour by following us on Twitter.

Krystal Square Off V officially kicks off in Chattanooga in a couple of hours, and if you find yourself thinking “man, I wish I was there” or “I can’t wait until the Krystal Square Off Blog is updated so I know what’s going on” or “what’s this hamburger competitive eating stuff all about” - well, you’re in luck.

Thanks to the wonderful world of technology that is Twitter, you can be the first to find out what’s happening along this year’s hamburger eating tour. From what the competitive eaters are saying before the gurgitating contest, to what they’re saying afterwards, to the final results and everything in between, sign up today to follow the official Krystal Square Off V Twitter feed at twitter.com/ksquareoff and you won’t miss a thing.

Never heard of Twitter? Well, it’s an instant, micro-blog that allows us to send messages, known as “tweets,” directly to everyone following our feed. These updates will be displayed at twitter.com/ksquareoff and delivered to your Twitter page. Not only that, but you can sign-up to get tweets via IM, SMS on your phone, RSS, email or through an application such as Twitterrific or Facebook.

You can read more about Twitter here.

So go ahead and stalk us by signing up for the Krystal Square Off V Twitter feed today. Oh, and you can also stalk some of our Krystal competitive eaters like Hall “Hoover” Hunt and The Hangman.

Go ahead, we won’t think you’re creepy.

Hall "Hoover" Hunt (at left) competing against fellow Krystal competitive eater Pat Bertoletti (at right) in the Czech Republic.

Our good friend and Krystal hamburger competitive eater Hall “Hoover” Hunt just posted a recap of his trip to the Czech Republic for the plum dumpling eating contest.

Sounds like he had a rough trip over there, and he had to do some serious soul searching to make it through the first event, which included pizza, pickles and ice cream - gross.

According to his recap, the second day wasn’t any easier with the plum dumpling contest, as he struggled to remove the pits from each dumpling.

Head over to Hunt’s blog to read more about his trip and to see the full results, including how fellow Krystal competitive eater Pat Bertolleti fared in each contest.

And don’t worry Hall, you won’t have any pesky pits to worry about in the Jacksonville Qualifier for the Krystal Square Off, where we’re guessing you’ll compete. Although, we hear you may have a certain number-one ranked female competitive eater to contend with.

*photo courtesy hallhooverhunt.blogspot.com

It’s been a tough couple of days for reigning Krystal Square Off World Hamburger Eating Champion Joey Chestnut.

First he lost a beer chugging contest to Dewey Hammond, the managing editor of Yardbarker.  Deadspin.com has a great post (and photo!) about the contest.  We’ve got the video below.

Now Eatfeats is reporting Chestnut came in second at the Ash Creek Saloon Rib Eating Contest this past weekend.  Chestnut lost to “Humble” Bob Shoudt, who consumed 6.8 lbs of ribs in 12 minutes to Joey’s 6.6 lbs.  Tim “Eater X” Janus came in third and Juliet Lee was fourth.  For full results, head over to Eatfeats.

Maybe beer and ribs really don’t go well together?

Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps consumes 12,000 calories a day. Perhaps he's the next Krystal Square Off Champion?

Rumor has it Olympian Michael Phelps is going to take a short break from swimming after the Beijing Games. So what do you think the world’s greatest Olympic athlete of all time will do next?

Well, considering he gobbles down 12,000 calories a day, we think he should take on the world’s best competitive eaters. He’d only have to add a couple thousand extra calories to his already enormous daily intake.

See, last year’s Krystal Square Off champion Joey Chestnut ate 103 Krystal burgers in 8 minutes. With each Krystal consisting of 160 calories, that’s only a total of 16,480 calories. Definitely doable for Phelps.

Then, of course, there’s the whole speed eating issue - but for some reason, we don’t think being fast is a problem Phelps would have.

So what do you say Michael? The Krystal Square Off V is the next event on the eating circuit, and it’s not until the end of September, so you have plenty of time to prepare.

And since competitive eating is considered one of the world’s fastest growing sports, perhaps it will be an Olympic event by the time the 2012 games in London roll around. Then Phelps, you can add to your already ridiculous medal count in another sport.

Head over to the Wall Street Journal Health Blog for an article about Phelp’s diet.

And check out Eatfeats for a slideshow that details what other Olympians, both past and present, consume. It’s amazing.

*photo courtesy of AP.