blonde poker

After a hard month of grafting and hoop-jump-throughage in Las Vegas, coming back to update an event in the UK is as fresh as the cool wind breeze that greeted my arrival at Luton station. Whilst 'over the pond' it seemed as though we had been enveloped in enough red tape to prevent us from working, which, when combined with the constant air-con, was not a happy occurrence. Since returning, I now, more then ever before, appreciate the work that Jon Raab and the Blue Square team put into the GUKPT events in terms of access and general helpfulness, long may it continue.

Luton was a time of new debuts, the first being intrepid new reporter, Rod aka "Junglecat" who lives with James 'Flushy' Dempsey down in Brighton. With a keen wit and a good writing hand, he settled into this new job quickly as though he had done it all his life. Of course, none of this stopped him from dropping by to frequently mock his slightly hungover housemate's daft bright white 'Don Fanucci from Godfather 2' suit. Our other new debut was a brand spanking new camera, which allowed to move away from the days of small digital cameras to er... the days of larger digital cameras. At the same time, it did allow us to take photos of an apparently 'awake' Willie Tann...

Meanwhile joining Flushy in the 'worse for wear' stakes was Rick 'Actionman' Trigg who had managed to get 3rd in the Newcastle leg, but started off none too well here, apparently forced to fold bottom set after his re-raise of a check/raise was met with an all-in move. Sadly for Rick, he couldn't recover from this early set-back.

Setting the pace early on in Day 1A, was Norwegian Torstein Iversen who had eliminated Martyn Cavanagh with Aces against Tens, then taken out Jeff Kimber too with Kings against Ace King on a A-7-3-K board, over here with fellow Scandie Jan Sjarvik. They were just one of a number of different groups of Europeans as there were also a smattering of Spaniards and a gaggle of Italians here too in glamorous Luton, the latter being led by Cristiano Blanco, the Dortmund EPT runner-up.

Luton local and blondeite Ben Turnstill was also in the mix from Day 1A managing to navigate successfully through saying: "Dropped to 3.6k after a bluff went wrong, managed to nurse up to 6k before finding AA and getting doubled vs AK. Was on around 15k mark before i took out Alex putting me on 21k. I then move table, (good job, i had an awful reputation and no cards looking likely on the one i was on). New table was bad, donked off 10k straight away and then got them back a round or two later and got up to 30k before moving again to my final table of the night. Last level i had 30k and wasnt going to try and scrape into the next day like some. Made a r/r with A4s on the button forcing Willie Tann to fold  a bigger ace on sb and the original raiser also to fold.

I call a raise with AQ, flop K 9 5, he checks i fire in 4k, he calls... he checks the blank turn so i fire in 7k and he folds QQ face up - lovely. then i have the A4 hand vs willie that JC mentioned and have made it to saturday with 43,375, from the 3k i was down to at one point!"

Those who didn't make though, included Flushy, Dan Carter (who lost a chip leader sized pot of 80k with 8-7 vs T-T on a 9-8-7 board), Praz Bansi, Karl Mahrenholz (who was also celebrating his birthday), Julian Thew (straight vs straight flush), Ram Vaswani and also Barry Neville - complete with quote. "Ah pleyed the hand diabolical, an ah mean diabolical, I knew ee 'ad a set, 'ee put is chips in the sehm wey earlier when ee 'ad it".

The second day was complete with another strong line-up, Roland De Wolfe, who hadn't been able to register the previous day managed to get in, only to be sent packing early on when his Kigns were cracked by Queens. Colchester Kev, who, having won the Virgin/Blonde team challenge the previous month, picked up a seat to this event as a prize, was sat next between Zippy Aslam and a super-aggressive John Wong while Michael Greco and Tikay shared a table also, alongside Surindar Sunar. In the very first hand, the WPT winner called a raise with A-Q, then called a weak bet on a Q-8-6 board, both players checked the 6 turn, and then his opponent bet 500 on the blank river, Surindar made it 1,400. His opponent made it 2,500. Surindar passed, and he was shown a well-played quad sixes.

Dutchman, Tic-Tac connoisseur and sometime updater Rolf Slotboom was here in full poker warfare gear, bewitching Tracey Dell when he kissed his chips before throwing them in the middle. Tracey had said, "It was the most erotic thing she'd even seen," (I only half suspect she was joking). At the break, Rolf said, "Chrish, I've playedsh two potsh in two hoursh. Whatsh is that like? Shixty hands? I've played two handsh, and I played them both terrible."

After the break, Rolf was all-in on a A-7-3 board with A-K against A-7. "Come now dealer, concentrate. Loadsh of kingsh in the deck, loadsh of kingsh."

No 'kingsh' came though and Rolf was another one sent to hit the showers early from Day 1B, alongside Micky Wernick, Womble and the Newcastle Winner Maz Nawab, who went out at the end of the day with a set against a straight.

Day two rocketed quickly past as 83 players were whittled down to 28 and the faintly sonorous sounds of MC Hammer on the updates. Amongst the departed were Willie Tann (right), Paul Jackson and Surindar Sunar.

Eventually, something had to give and it was Torstein Iversen who bubbled, the scandie’s suited-gapper 9-7 coming unstuck against A-K

Nik Persaud had looked as though he wasn’t going to be caught, on the first day he busted Iwan Jones with Ace King against Aces before winning a succession of coinflips, 60/40’s and dominating pairs. He hit quads and sets with, for his opponents, alarming regularity. Coupled with his loose aggressive style, this had lead to him to being in that ‘always around the chip lead so one of the favourites’ group. Sadly Nik’s luck ran out in two cruel blows, first unavoidably losing most of his chips with K-J against Warren Wooldridge’s K-3 on a K-2-2-K-3 board. Then the rest of his stack would end up going all-in with A-Q against A-6, the 6 spiking and a man getting firmly kicked when he’s down.


With a couple more down, we were left with a final table of:

Seat 1: Dave Clark -- 378,000
Seat 2: Ian Herbert -- 427,000
Seat 3: Jan Magnus Brevik -- 195,000
Seat 4: Tony Ringe -- 385,000
Seat 5: Alan Vinson -- 595,000
Seat 6: Adam Stoneham -- 351,000
Seat 7: Ben Turnstill -- 167,000
Seat 8: Jonothon Butters -- 97,000
Seat 9: Warren Wooldridge -- 559,00



After the customary walk-ons with their customary multiple takes, Ben ‘RookieITB’ Turnstill was out in 9th. A loss with Ace King against Warren Wooldridge’s Sevens had reduced his stack just before the final and his Jack Ten suited push from late position was unable to beat Dave Clarke’s Queens. Nevertheless, it was still a good result for Ben, who had started Day 2 with average chips and then fought, bluffed and 3-bet his way into the final.

He could have finished even higher, had it not been for Jonothon (yes, 3 o’s) Butters, a previous finalist at, who was one of the short stacks going into this final, but somehow got his Ace Jack to crack the Aces of Alan Vinson. Adam Stoneham, who had chopped the Stars Sunday Million a few weeks back left us next, followed afterwards by Tony Ringe, Ian Herbert and then our first scandie finalist, Jan Magnus Brevik who fell just short of the uber-money. Vinson ended up 4th meaning that Butters had managed to complete a remarkable act of J-J against Dave Clark’s K-Q in an incredibly long three-way battle.

Heads up was incredibly short compared to the lengthy 3-handed game we had, chip stacks were close to equal, when Dave’s limped Kings trapped Warren’s Q-8 on an 8-high board taking most of his stack in a decisive stroke that pretty much ended the tournament. Afterwards, the cameras and presenters jumped in to take control of the situation, I remember Warren Wooldridge being told something along the lines of “Don’t look too sad” for his interview. I think at this point though both players were too tired to even contemplate what they’d won and both seemed just to look a little spaced, understandable, given they’d been playing for nearly three days straight.

Congratulations to the winners here and thanks to the fabulous Luton staff and cardroom, one of the best rooms I’ve seen for poker in the UK.