| Game Type: | Limit |
It was business all the way in the The Blue Square sponsored Midlands Masters Festival held at the Grosvenor in Walsall - all 7 Finals ended with "business" being agreed between the remaining combatants. Players gathered from all over the UK, and there were a good number from Germany & France, plus a contingent of Swedish raiders.
The week began with 95 runners for the £100 ROE. A five way chop ensued, with the unlucky Howard "The Magician" Plant holding pocket Aces when the deal was agreed! He pocketed £4,300, & 4 others each took £4,150 - his Blackpool ally Shaf, D. Sami, Stuart Fox & A Abbassi.
Tuesday saw the weeks biggest field when 165 players took part in the £100 PLHE, with 20 or more being turned away due to lack of space. In a keenly contested Final, the diminutive Max Hussain from Sheffield earned his biggest ever payday (£15,000) when he eventually prevailed over A Cartwright (£12,720).
The in-form Micky Jones from Derby almost pulled off a festival double (he scooped at Blackpool) when agreeing to accept £15,000 & 2nd place in Wednesdays £250 PLHE, the worthy winner being A. Cartwright (£20,250) with local celebrity "The Undertaker" picking up a handy £9,000 for 3rd.
Things hotted up on Thursday with the £500 NLHE, & a whopping prize pool only £500 shy of £100,000. It was another big chop though, with no less than 6 players each pocketing £5,000 each for the minor placing's, & a handsome £55,000 being split equally between Ian McDonald, N Tang & B Mirza. Ian's son Tristram finished 2nd in the main event in Amsterdam, so it's been a good month for the McDonald clan.
The £250 Omaha on Friday saw 9 runners line up for the final, & agreeing to a 9 way equal chop without a hand being played! Among those scoring was big comp specialist Peter Roche, & Micky Jones taking his second draw of the week.
So we came to the Main Event on Saturday, the £1,500 NLHE Double Chance Freeze out, which attracted 108 runners, & a prize pool of £162,000. A star studded field included Devilfish, Dave Colclough, Lucy Rokach, Simon Trumper, David Mehrnand, Peter Roche, Mike Magee, Julian Thew, Tony Bloom, Korosh, The Camel, John Shipley, & Surinder Sunar. But only one of those 13 were lucky enough to make the Final, Simon Trumper grinding it out for 5th spot & £14,900. The remaining 4 had a "saver" based on chip counts before playing on to find a winner, so we had an odd situation where the winner (Geoff Burke) took the trophy & £28,500, & 4th place Paul Jackson (aka "actionjack") £32,000. "Anon" took £28,100 for 2nd, & Stuart Fox £30,500 for third. This was Stuart's second Final of the week. Arguably, one of the best performances of the tournament came from James Fisher, (Wales). James, an ex-boxer, was fearless, & his opening table featured Devilfish to his immediate left, Ali Malu next to Devilfish, &, later, Lucy Rokach. But he played them at their own game, relentlessly raising & re-raising every hand. He certainly enjoyed the rub of the green, catching cards all afternoon, and by the time the table broke just before 9pm, he had quadrupled his starting stack. James went on to finish 9th in the Final, a splendid effort from one of the lesser known names, but we will hear more of this guy soon, of that we can be sure.
A feature of the week was the high quality fields, with plenty of big names taking their chances, doubtless with an eye on the Ranking points available as the year draws to a close. But Mike Magee (8th on Tuesday), Peter Roche (a Finalist in Friday's "final that never was"), & Aces Trumper (5th in the Main Event) was the best they could achieve, showing just how closely matched today's players are. On Sunday afternoon, as the last 2 tables in the £1,500 NLHE gathered this looked most unlikely, with Dave Colclough, Lucy Rokach, & The Camel all in contention, but they had all exited before we were down to 15.
Despite the grumbles about prize structure (Grosvenor tell me that are going to change it for the better soon), & the tardy start times, most players agreed that this was another excellent Festival at Walsall, surely of our better venues. The staff all worked hard, were cheerful and efficient all week, and the players enjoyed a free buffet every night. Well done to Grosvenor, Blue Square, & all the players for a memorable week.
The week began with 95 runners for the £100 ROE. A five way chop ensued, with the unlucky Howard "The Magician" Plant holding pocket Aces when the deal was agreed! He pocketed £4,300, & 4 others each took £4,150 - his Blackpool ally Shaf, D. Sami, Stuart Fox & A Abbassi.
Tuesday saw the weeks biggest field when 165 players took part in the £100 PLHE, with 20 or more being turned away due to lack of space. In a keenly contested Final, the diminutive Max Hussain from Sheffield earned his biggest ever payday (£15,000) when he eventually prevailed over A Cartwright (£12,720).
The in-form Micky Jones from Derby almost pulled off a festival double (he scooped at Blackpool) when agreeing to accept £15,000 & 2nd place in Wednesdays £250 PLHE, the worthy winner being A. Cartwright (£20,250) with local celebrity "The Undertaker" picking up a handy £9,000 for 3rd.
Things hotted up on Thursday with the £500 NLHE, & a whopping prize pool only £500 shy of £100,000. It was another big chop though, with no less than 6 players each pocketing £5,000 each for the minor placing's, & a handsome £55,000 being split equally between Ian McDonald, N Tang & B Mirza. Ian's son Tristram finished 2nd in the main event in Amsterdam, so it's been a good month for the McDonald clan.
The £250 Omaha on Friday saw 9 runners line up for the final, & agreeing to a 9 way equal chop without a hand being played! Among those scoring was big comp specialist Peter Roche, & Micky Jones taking his second draw of the week.
So we came to the Main Event on Saturday, the £1,500 NLHE Double Chance Freeze out, which attracted 108 runners, & a prize pool of £162,000. A star studded field included Devilfish, Dave Colclough, Lucy Rokach, Simon Trumper, David Mehrnand, Peter Roche, Mike Magee, Julian Thew, Tony Bloom, Korosh, The Camel, John Shipley, & Surinder Sunar. But only one of those 13 were lucky enough to make the Final, Simon Trumper grinding it out for 5th spot & £14,900. The remaining 4 had a "saver" based on chip counts before playing on to find a winner, so we had an odd situation where the winner (Geoff Burke) took the trophy & £28,500, & 4th place Paul Jackson (aka "actionjack") £32,000. "Anon" took £28,100 for 2nd, & Stuart Fox £30,500 for third. This was Stuart's second Final of the week. Arguably, one of the best performances of the tournament came from James Fisher, (Wales). James, an ex-boxer, was fearless, & his opening table featured Devilfish to his immediate left, Ali Malu next to Devilfish, &, later, Lucy Rokach. But he played them at their own game, relentlessly raising & re-raising every hand. He certainly enjoyed the rub of the green, catching cards all afternoon, and by the time the table broke just before 9pm, he had quadrupled his starting stack. James went on to finish 9th in the Final, a splendid effort from one of the lesser known names, but we will hear more of this guy soon, of that we can be sure.
A feature of the week was the high quality fields, with plenty of big names taking their chances, doubtless with an eye on the Ranking points available as the year draws to a close. But Mike Magee (8th on Tuesday), Peter Roche (a Finalist in Friday's "final that never was"), & Aces Trumper (5th in the Main Event) was the best they could achieve, showing just how closely matched today's players are. On Sunday afternoon, as the last 2 tables in the £1,500 NLHE gathered this looked most unlikely, with Dave Colclough, Lucy Rokach, & The Camel all in contention, but they had all exited before we were down to 15.
Despite the grumbles about prize structure (Grosvenor tell me that are going to change it for the better soon), & the tardy start times, most players agreed that this was another excellent Festival at Walsall, surely of our better venues. The staff all worked hard, were cheerful and efficient all week, and the players enjoyed a free buffet every night. Well done to Grosvenor, Blue Square, & all the players for a memorable week.