Although recently ousted as bit of prankster, Jon ‘Skalie’ Kalmar went a good week or so with the fictitious location ‘Chorleyville’ lying adjacent to his name on every end of day player list. At times, I was tempted to contact Nolan Dolla to inform him of this gag, but the chance to ‘get one up on the World Series, even in such a minor form’ continued to rattle around my brain. “There’s definitely no place called Chorleyville, snoops,” said Skalie on Day 3. “I just thought it would make the lads back home laugh.”But whilst the ‘lads’ may have been laughing on Day 3, their faces have most likely morphed into something slightly more serious with Lancashire’s Jon Kalmar heading into the final day 3rd in chips with 20.32 million.
As expected, support across the net has been overwhelming, with threads galore offering their best wishes to Skalie as he vies for that illustrious Main Event bracelet. Many of these cheers have derived from the blonde poker forum where Jon is a valued blondeite – his friend ‘Norman ‘spiny’ Pace being at the forefront of the Jon Kalmar fan club.
“I need at least 3rd to cover the cost of my phone bill, such has been the level of support from the Brits,” commented Jon in a recent phonecall. “I’m going to win it though.”
And win it he might, as with just 9 remaining, the Last Day chip counts are as follows, with Alex Kravchenko and chip leader Philip Hilm also flying the European flag:
Philip Hilm -- $22,070,000
Tuan Lam -- $21,315,000
Jon Kalmar -- $20,320,000
Raymond Rahme -- $16,320,000
Lee Childs -- $13,240,000
Lee Watkinson -- $9,925,000
Hevad 'Rain' Khan -- $9,205,000
Jerry Yang -- $8,450,000
Alex Kravchenko -- $6,570,000
With poker pro Lee Watkinson and online multi-tabling STT wizard Hevad ‘Rain’ Khan also making the final table, life isn’t going to be easy for the Chorleyville man, but he’s certainly got the game to win it all.
Just a fortnight ago, Jon was talking about going home early, but a last minute satellite victory earned him a much-deserved seat, and Jon was forced to change his flight back to England. If the grapevine is correct, Jon has been struggling of late, and although he has a 3rd in the Ladbrokes Poker Cruies to his name, it really would be a cracking rags to riches tale.With that in mind, blonde poker would like to wish Chorleyville’s Jon Kalmer all the best in the upcoming World Series of Poker Main Event final. Bring it home for your fellow blondeites, Brits and Chorleyvillians!
For more on Jon Kalmar, please see his blondepedia page by clicking here.