| Game Type: | Limit |
| Buy-in: | £500 |
We reported the overnight chip counts yesterday, and by way of a reminder, 32 players returned on Thursday afternoon to play for a prize fund of exactly £70,000, & a first prize of £26,200.
Day one had seen the exit of a whole phalanx of "names" who might reasonably be expected to be present at the sharp end of the tourney. These included Joe Grech, Mike Magee, Jim Reid, Julian Thew, Mark Banin, Neil Channing, Eric Barker, Rumit, Dennis O'Mahoney, Racing Ronnie, Phil Stein & Dave Penly, to name but a lot. Long odds would have been available that none of those would make day two but that's the glorious uncertainty of Tournament Poker.
Mike Magee had been deep-stacked from quite early, but eventually exited after a terrible period in the early hours of Thursday when he repeatedly suffered setbacks. Jim Reid had busted out within an hour of the start, & Rumit was not far behind. Dennis O'Mahoney exited to a real jaw-dropper when he R'd with a monster, & got called on every street & beaten by an optimist holding 5-3. Julian "yo-yo" Thew lived up to his nickname for 7 hours, starting slowly, then going from 4,000 to 36,000 chips within half an hour. His stack then fluctuated between 12k & 70k - some spread! His exit hand was in a 3 way 100k pot, with the winner guaranteed to be runaway chip leader at that stage. Julian held JJ, & was facing AJ, & AK, so he was favourite to take it down, but a 2 outer A sent him home.
Despite this, there was plenty of quality in the last 32. The day two returnees were headed by Rob "Shifty" Stevens with 128,500, but Richard Gryko with 89,000 looked to be in good shape at last to take down a big payday, & the smart money was on him. The Camel, & William Hill's Smokin Steve Vladar were short stacked but hanging in, & average stacks were held by Graham Pound, Tony Hit Man Hakki, & Brighton specialist Mick Clark. The dark horses were Ben "themilkybarkid" Grundy (67,000), & D DE Cruz (90,500). Ben Grundy's hopes were ended when he got into a 130k pot holding AK, but his brave opponent hit his set of 8's first card, & Ben was never to recover. Rob Stevens had his foot to the floor as always, catching plenty of big hands too, & was scything down the low stacks one after the other. In one outrageous play he had made it 10k to go, & was promptly RR'd to 54k - Rob called without hesitation, showed 3-3 (three-three!) & it held up against KQ.
It took 2 hours to reduce the 32 to the 18 who got paid, (10th to 18th was £500) and the 9 recipients of £500 were:
18th Tony "tikay" Kendall
17th K Twigg
16th "Smokin" Steve Vladar
15th Kevin "Lovejoy" O'Leary
14th P Garnham
13th Frances Rohan
12th Name with-held
11th Richard Gryko
10th - Stephen Lennon
The 9 man Final began after a short break, & continued for nearly 4 hours. The first 4 to exit were...
9th D D'Cruz, £1,640
8th - Keith "The Camel" Hawkins, £1,960
7th, N Tang, £2,290
The Camel, smiling as ever, had struggled with his low stack all afternoon, his natural game is to duck & dive, & only by considerable guile & opportunism was he able to survive - though it helped a tad when he had AA & someone bet into him!
The final 6 then slugged it out, Rob Stevens & "Greek Jack" Dionysiou battering away at each other, before a deal was eventually agreed. Note that the official results from Luton always reflect the theoretical prize structure, whereas the numbers below are the "actual" amounts taken by each player.
6th Stuart Fox £8,000
5th Will Purle £8,000
4th "Nottingham Nick" Gibson £8,000
3rd Tony Hit Man Hakki £8,000
2nd "Greek Jack" Dionysiou £10,000
WINNER - ROB "SHIFTY" STEVENS - £17,000
Stuart Fox again impressed - this guy won top side of £45,000 in a three week spell just before Christmas, taking two 2nd's & 1st at the Luton & Walsall Festivals.
Will Purle had returned on day two with 59,000, & refused to allow his stack to diminish, always keeping just ahead of the count without ever being "busy". I guess I am the only person who thinks he bears a passing likeness to Laurence Robjent.
Nottingham Nick made what was in my opinion the play of the tourney with 18 runners left. Richard Gryko was doing his R, R, quick quick R routine, & Nick, in the BB, decided to make a stand with 4-3 (4 of spades & 3 of clubs). 2-5-Q (2 clubs) on the flop saw Nick check call Richard's bet, and a third club on the turn saw a repeat. A fourth club hit the river, Nick once again checked, Richard bet 20k into what was now an 80k pot, & Nick, having missed his straight draw, called - & took the hand down with a flush - he had the bare 3! I promptly removed him from my list of players against whom I might try & make a move.....
Hit Man Hakki had 35,500 overnight, and was down to the felt several times, but just refused to lay down & die quietly.
Greek Jack, who play out of Gala Notts from where so many guys are now making their mark in the Regional tourneys, has moved up in class of late. He played very aggressive poker, and refused to be intimidated by Rob Stevens' buccaneering game.
Winner Rob Stevens was, truth to tell, well nigh unplayable today. He was catching decent hands for sure, but he was relentless in raising at every opportunity, denying free cards, & stifling every attempt by short stacks to get moves through.
And finally, another great structure by the Luton Management contributed to 2 great days poker - well done to all at Grosvenor Luton.
Day one had seen the exit of a whole phalanx of "names" who might reasonably be expected to be present at the sharp end of the tourney. These included Joe Grech, Mike Magee, Jim Reid, Julian Thew, Mark Banin, Neil Channing, Eric Barker, Rumit, Dennis O'Mahoney, Racing Ronnie, Phil Stein & Dave Penly, to name but a lot. Long odds would have been available that none of those would make day two but that's the glorious uncertainty of Tournament Poker.
Mike Magee had been deep-stacked from quite early, but eventually exited after a terrible period in the early hours of Thursday when he repeatedly suffered setbacks. Jim Reid had busted out within an hour of the start, & Rumit was not far behind. Dennis O'Mahoney exited to a real jaw-dropper when he R'd with a monster, & got called on every street & beaten by an optimist holding 5-3. Julian "yo-yo" Thew lived up to his nickname for 7 hours, starting slowly, then going from 4,000 to 36,000 chips within half an hour. His stack then fluctuated between 12k & 70k - some spread! His exit hand was in a 3 way 100k pot, with the winner guaranteed to be runaway chip leader at that stage. Julian held JJ, & was facing AJ, & AK, so he was favourite to take it down, but a 2 outer A sent him home.
Despite this, there was plenty of quality in the last 32. The day two returnees were headed by Rob "Shifty" Stevens with 128,500, but Richard Gryko with 89,000 looked to be in good shape at last to take down a big payday, & the smart money was on him. The Camel, & William Hill's Smokin Steve Vladar were short stacked but hanging in, & average stacks were held by Graham Pound, Tony Hit Man Hakki, & Brighton specialist Mick Clark. The dark horses were Ben "themilkybarkid" Grundy (67,000), & D DE Cruz (90,500). Ben Grundy's hopes were ended when he got into a 130k pot holding AK, but his brave opponent hit his set of 8's first card, & Ben was never to recover. Rob Stevens had his foot to the floor as always, catching plenty of big hands too, & was scything down the low stacks one after the other. In one outrageous play he had made it 10k to go, & was promptly RR'd to 54k - Rob called without hesitation, showed 3-3 (three-three!) & it held up against KQ.
It took 2 hours to reduce the 32 to the 18 who got paid, (10th to 18th was £500) and the 9 recipients of £500 were:
18th Tony "tikay" Kendall
17th K Twigg
16th "Smokin" Steve Vladar
15th Kevin "Lovejoy" O'Leary
14th P Garnham
13th Frances Rohan
12th Name with-held
11th Richard Gryko
10th - Stephen Lennon
The 9 man Final began after a short break, & continued for nearly 4 hours. The first 4 to exit were...
9th D D'Cruz, £1,640
8th - Keith "The Camel" Hawkins, £1,960
7th, N Tang, £2,290
The Camel, smiling as ever, had struggled with his low stack all afternoon, his natural game is to duck & dive, & only by considerable guile & opportunism was he able to survive - though it helped a tad when he had AA & someone bet into him!
The final 6 then slugged it out, Rob Stevens & "Greek Jack" Dionysiou battering away at each other, before a deal was eventually agreed. Note that the official results from Luton always reflect the theoretical prize structure, whereas the numbers below are the "actual" amounts taken by each player.
6th Stuart Fox £8,000
5th Will Purle £8,000
4th "Nottingham Nick" Gibson £8,000
3rd Tony Hit Man Hakki £8,000
2nd "Greek Jack" Dionysiou £10,000
WINNER - ROB "SHIFTY" STEVENS - £17,000
Stuart Fox again impressed - this guy won top side of £45,000 in a three week spell just before Christmas, taking two 2nd's & 1st at the Luton & Walsall Festivals.
Will Purle had returned on day two with 59,000, & refused to allow his stack to diminish, always keeping just ahead of the count without ever being "busy". I guess I am the only person who thinks he bears a passing likeness to Laurence Robjent.
Nottingham Nick made what was in my opinion the play of the tourney with 18 runners left. Richard Gryko was doing his R, R, quick quick R routine, & Nick, in the BB, decided to make a stand with 4-3 (4 of spades & 3 of clubs). 2-5-Q (2 clubs) on the flop saw Nick check call Richard's bet, and a third club on the turn saw a repeat. A fourth club hit the river, Nick once again checked, Richard bet 20k into what was now an 80k pot, & Nick, having missed his straight draw, called - & took the hand down with a flush - he had the bare 3! I promptly removed him from my list of players against whom I might try & make a move.....
Hit Man Hakki had 35,500 overnight, and was down to the felt several times, but just refused to lay down & die quietly.
Greek Jack, who play out of Gala Notts from where so many guys are now making their mark in the Regional tourneys, has moved up in class of late. He played very aggressive poker, and refused to be intimidated by Rob Stevens' buccaneering game.
Winner Rob Stevens was, truth to tell, well nigh unplayable today. He was catching decent hands for sure, but he was relentless in raising at every opportunity, denying free cards, & stifling every attempt by short stacks to get moves through.
And finally, another great structure by the Luton Management contributed to 2 great days poker - well done to all at Grosvenor Luton.