| Game Type: | Pot Limit |
| Buy-in: | £20 |
Gala Nottingham's regular Thursday night £20 PLH event again saw the word value redefined as a field of 76 runners created a total prize pool of £6,300. Yes! - re-buys-a-plenty as one table alone managed to put £1,140 pounds into the pot leaving Tassos Gregoriou with 30K in chips at the end of the re-buy period - now that's action folks!
There were 315,000 chips in play at the freeze as we played down to the lucky 10 who would get the chance to slug it out for the first prize of £2,500 - not bad for an outlay of £20! The joyous screech of final was heard at 2:30am as the remaining 10 collected their chips, belongings and thoughts and headed for table 1.
The chip count was as follows:
Seat 1: Tassos Gregoriou (17,000 chips)
Seat 2: Paul Ng (38,000)
Seat 3: Nick Whitten (27,000)
Seat 4: Dean Whiley (37,500)
Seat 5: Geoff "senior" Hill (32,000)
Seat 6: Scott Oxford (29,500)
Seat 7: A Woods (38,000)
Seat 8: Alex "the sneezer" Ryan (32,000)
Seat 9: Greg "junior" Hill (23,000)
Seat 10 "Captain" Brian Brown (39,000)
With only 22K separating the chip leader from the cheer leader and the line up being nothing short of 'Rockville' this looked like being a tight and drawn out final - little did they know what crash, bang, wallop poker would ensue! The blinds began at 2-4K for one round and then we would be back on the clock at 3-6K.
Junior looked set to try and upset this table of predominantly rocks from the outset and raised two of the first three pots unchallenged, increasing his stack to 35K and assumed the marginal chip lead.
Hand 6 - Junior enters the pot from one off the button with his fourth raise in six hands expecting total surrender and some more blinds with which to bolster his stack. But then came a problem. Captain began to think but worse than that he began to motion towards his stack with intent. He reached for all of his 39,000 in chips and slammed them in the middle announcing "re-raise". Immediate folds from the players in the blinds left the decision back on Junior for all of his chips. The thought process went on for some time until the clock was called by the dealer and a decision from the young aggressor was called for. Junior knowing his opponent to be capable of re-raises with a vide variety of hands decided to call knowing that he was getting odds of almost 3 to 1 on the call. Captain flipped over a very strong looking A-K of spades, which seemingly appeared to be dominating Greg's K-J of diamonds. The flop of Kc-4c-7d brought help for both players who improved to a pair of kings with Greg's back door flush draw looking possibly ominous. Captain's ace kicker though did look to be the key card until the turn brought the 10 of diamonds and the river delivered the 8 of diamonds to send the pot the way of the youngster and captain down to the felt. - Sick bag for Captain!
Hand 7 - Not letting the huge fortune of a 93% - 7% outdraw affect Junior's strategy, he then led out at the pot the very next hand only for the now flustered captain to move the rest of his chips in with his 10-J of spades. Junior embarrassingly turned over his 9-10o which didn't improve and Captain was back in the game.
Hand 9 - Raise machine 'Junior' opened the betting, raising right into the big blind of the super aggressive China man Paul Ng. This met with apparent disapproval as Paul put in the rest of his chips with Q-Ko. An automatic value call ensued and we were face up with Greg's A-6s dominating. No improvement for Ng on the flop and an Ace on the turn saw another pot pushed Junior's way and we had lost our first player for £130.
Hand 10 - At the risk of this sounding like the G. Hill Jnr. Show (seriously no-one else was playing a hand!) we move onto hand 10. Another raise from Junior saw a virtual all in call by Tassos in the small blind. It was only a minimal amount to call the all in so again we were on our backs for another showdown. Tassos with his AA seemed to be in remarkable shape against Junior's A-10 of spades, but 10's on the flop and turn saw Tassos exit in 9 th for £160. - What a rush for Junior who was now up to 90K in chips.
Dean Whiley was next to depart the scene. He had been damaged early on in the final when he raised into Junior's BB and couldn't face a re-raise that for value's sake he probably should have called. He had played solid all night though and was in one of his first ever finals and would be pleased with his 8 th place and £200 pay day.
Hill senior, the father of the now chip leader was out in 7 th for £230. This was only Geoff's 3 rd appearance of 2005 at Gala but was his 3 rd final. Let's hope he can keep up the 100% final to appearance ratio a little longer.
Next to depart was the super-tight 'sneezer' Alex Ryan. He had made an earlier value call from the BB on Scott Oxford's all in with 10-6o only to see Scots QQ stand up. He then lost out in an aggressive battle of the blinds with Junior and had gradually fallen away but nevertheless picked up £270 for 6 th .
Nick Whitten who had played a solid game from three tables out and had been very quiet and pretty much card dead in the final was the next casualty for £340.
This left 4 players. Junior had taken a couple of minor beats and was now down to 115K. Oxford had a playable but low 50K and the other two players (Captain and A Woods) had 70K a piece. Play continued for another 30 minutes with the chips moving back and forth until all four players were playing between 70K and 90K. A deal was agreed that all would take £1,000 and the remaining £610 in the prize pool would be played for.
Brown and Woods departed in fourth and third respectively, which left Junior and Scott heads up. With the chips slightly in the favor of junior he called from the button with 8-9 and Scott declined the raise. The flop came down 6-7-10 all diamonds. What a dream flop for Junior who could surely entice his opponent into a bluff. Junior tapped the table, but no bite from Scott and the turn was dealt a black 4 - no help surely for either player. Junior attempted a feeler bet of 12K fully expecting the super tight Scott to pass but instead he announced "all-in" - exactly the words Junior had wanted to hear, the chips went flying and a huge pot lay before the players. Junior proudly flipped over his nut straight only for Scott to turn over his already made J-Q flush.
With Oxford now a huge favorite it was raise and gamble all the way for Junior in a shit or bust style until amazingly and luckily the chips were back level. Scott then seemed to tighten up significantly and Greg steam rolled his way to first place and £1,610.
Housekeeping: In summary this was another fantastically organized event at Gala which finished at 3:50am (10 minutes from a chip count). Lets hope this kind of fun, excitement and well organized value continues in 2005 when the casino embarks on holding its first ever poker festival, which should see some big games and big names slugging it out in the world's best city.
Final Result:
1 - Greg "junior" Hill (£1,610)
2 - Scott Oxford (£1000)
3- A Woods (£1000)
4 - "Captain" Brian Brown (£1000)
5 - Nick Whitten (£340)
6- Alex "the sneezer" Ryan (£280)
7 - Geoff Hill "senior" (£240)
8 - Dean Whiley (£200)
9 - Tassos Gregoriou (£160)
10 - Paul Ng (£130)
Written by Greg Hill - contributor to blondepoker.com
There were 315,000 chips in play at the freeze as we played down to the lucky 10 who would get the chance to slug it out for the first prize of £2,500 - not bad for an outlay of £20! The joyous screech of final was heard at 2:30am as the remaining 10 collected their chips, belongings and thoughts and headed for table 1.
The chip count was as follows:
Seat 1: Tassos Gregoriou (17,000 chips)
Seat 2: Paul Ng (38,000)
Seat 3: Nick Whitten (27,000)
Seat 4: Dean Whiley (37,500)
Seat 5: Geoff "senior" Hill (32,000)
Seat 6: Scott Oxford (29,500)
Seat 7: A Woods (38,000)
Seat 8: Alex "the sneezer" Ryan (32,000)
Seat 9: Greg "junior" Hill (23,000)
Seat 10 "Captain" Brian Brown (39,000)
With only 22K separating the chip leader from the cheer leader and the line up being nothing short of 'Rockville' this looked like being a tight and drawn out final - little did they know what crash, bang, wallop poker would ensue! The blinds began at 2-4K for one round and then we would be back on the clock at 3-6K.
Junior looked set to try and upset this table of predominantly rocks from the outset and raised two of the first three pots unchallenged, increasing his stack to 35K and assumed the marginal chip lead.
Hand 6 - Junior enters the pot from one off the button with his fourth raise in six hands expecting total surrender and some more blinds with which to bolster his stack. But then came a problem. Captain began to think but worse than that he began to motion towards his stack with intent. He reached for all of his 39,000 in chips and slammed them in the middle announcing "re-raise". Immediate folds from the players in the blinds left the decision back on Junior for all of his chips. The thought process went on for some time until the clock was called by the dealer and a decision from the young aggressor was called for. Junior knowing his opponent to be capable of re-raises with a vide variety of hands decided to call knowing that he was getting odds of almost 3 to 1 on the call. Captain flipped over a very strong looking A-K of spades, which seemingly appeared to be dominating Greg's K-J of diamonds. The flop of Kc-4c-7d brought help for both players who improved to a pair of kings with Greg's back door flush draw looking possibly ominous. Captain's ace kicker though did look to be the key card until the turn brought the 10 of diamonds and the river delivered the 8 of diamonds to send the pot the way of the youngster and captain down to the felt. - Sick bag for Captain!
Hand 7 - Not letting the huge fortune of a 93% - 7% outdraw affect Junior's strategy, he then led out at the pot the very next hand only for the now flustered captain to move the rest of his chips in with his 10-J of spades. Junior embarrassingly turned over his 9-10o which didn't improve and Captain was back in the game.
Hand 9 - Raise machine 'Junior' opened the betting, raising right into the big blind of the super aggressive China man Paul Ng. This met with apparent disapproval as Paul put in the rest of his chips with Q-Ko. An automatic value call ensued and we were face up with Greg's A-6s dominating. No improvement for Ng on the flop and an Ace on the turn saw another pot pushed Junior's way and we had lost our first player for £130.
Hand 10 - At the risk of this sounding like the G. Hill Jnr. Show (seriously no-one else was playing a hand!) we move onto hand 10. Another raise from Junior saw a virtual all in call by Tassos in the small blind. It was only a minimal amount to call the all in so again we were on our backs for another showdown. Tassos with his AA seemed to be in remarkable shape against Junior's A-10 of spades, but 10's on the flop and turn saw Tassos exit in 9 th for £160. - What a rush for Junior who was now up to 90K in chips.
Dean Whiley was next to depart the scene. He had been damaged early on in the final when he raised into Junior's BB and couldn't face a re-raise that for value's sake he probably should have called. He had played solid all night though and was in one of his first ever finals and would be pleased with his 8 th place and £200 pay day.
Hill senior, the father of the now chip leader was out in 7 th for £230. This was only Geoff's 3 rd appearance of 2005 at Gala but was his 3 rd final. Let's hope he can keep up the 100% final to appearance ratio a little longer.
Next to depart was the super-tight 'sneezer' Alex Ryan. He had made an earlier value call from the BB on Scott Oxford's all in with 10-6o only to see Scots QQ stand up. He then lost out in an aggressive battle of the blinds with Junior and had gradually fallen away but nevertheless picked up £270 for 6 th .
Nick Whitten who had played a solid game from three tables out and had been very quiet and pretty much card dead in the final was the next casualty for £340.
This left 4 players. Junior had taken a couple of minor beats and was now down to 115K. Oxford had a playable but low 50K and the other two players (Captain and A Woods) had 70K a piece. Play continued for another 30 minutes with the chips moving back and forth until all four players were playing between 70K and 90K. A deal was agreed that all would take £1,000 and the remaining £610 in the prize pool would be played for.
Brown and Woods departed in fourth and third respectively, which left Junior and Scott heads up. With the chips slightly in the favor of junior he called from the button with 8-9 and Scott declined the raise. The flop came down 6-7-10 all diamonds. What a dream flop for Junior who could surely entice his opponent into a bluff. Junior tapped the table, but no bite from Scott and the turn was dealt a black 4 - no help surely for either player. Junior attempted a feeler bet of 12K fully expecting the super tight Scott to pass but instead he announced "all-in" - exactly the words Junior had wanted to hear, the chips went flying and a huge pot lay before the players. Junior proudly flipped over his nut straight only for Scott to turn over his already made J-Q flush.
With Oxford now a huge favorite it was raise and gamble all the way for Junior in a shit or bust style until amazingly and luckily the chips were back level. Scott then seemed to tighten up significantly and Greg steam rolled his way to first place and £1,610.
Housekeeping: In summary this was another fantastically organized event at Gala which finished at 3:50am (10 minutes from a chip count). Lets hope this kind of fun, excitement and well organized value continues in 2005 when the casino embarks on holding its first ever poker festival, which should see some big games and big names slugging it out in the world's best city.
Final Result:
1 - Greg "junior" Hill (£1,610)
2 - Scott Oxford (£1000)
3- A Woods (£1000)
4 - "Captain" Brian Brown (£1000)
5 - Nick Whitten (£340)
6- Alex "the sneezer" Ryan (£280)
7 - Geoff Hill "senior" (£240)
8 - Dean Whiley (£200)
9 - Tassos Gregoriou (£160)
10 - Paul Ng (£130)
Written by Greg Hill - contributor to blondepoker.com