blonde poker

 

I have mixed memories of the Broadway, I recall turning up there for the first Blonde Bash having taken my traditional route of getting to a casino in the UK, i.e. at least 3 wrong turns and a high number of quizzical looks through my car window. Unlike just about everyone else there, I was not able to drink, but everybody had a great time and was in high (percentage) spirits, though staggering (from tiredness you must understand) to my car at around 5am probably wasn’t my original plan.

The second time I was at Broadway was for the inaugural APAT tournament right off the back of updating the London EPT, I think I spent more time on the train than in the tournament when I suffered a nasty case of overpair into raggy two pair.

This time, I was just here in an observing capacity, though this did give me a brief period to marvel at the casino that is the Broadway. Simply put, it’s the best-looking cardroom I’ve been to in the UK, which, combined with the elegantly dressed staff and dealers make it a place probably worth visiting more often.

Snoopy and I set-up a little fort on one of the several tables along the raised platform, Snoops stayed on picket-duty whilst I watched a one-hand turnover for a seat. I must say, I enjoy these, they always draw a big crowd and whilst they aren’t going to be the sort of thing the defence would use as evidence in the Gutshot case, there is a great element of theatre about them. It’s almost like a fast-food poker, there’s nothing inherently good about it, but boy is it fun. After a few ‘Oohs’ and ‘Ahhs’, Mad Turk ended up chopping the pot with a local, the Turk’s Q-7 was unluckily counterfeited on the river of an A-T-7-Q-A board, forcing him to share the winnings with Q-2. - though afterwards Mad Turk would be demanding ranking points for a victory.

With 15,000 starting chips, (two sets of 7.5k chips, bizarrely which had to be taken by the end of the first level) a one hour clock and no running antes to come in later, this was a structure designed for maximum play allowing everyone to take there time, though of course, some would start off more aggressive than others.

Whilst many regulars were here, there were only 93 runners, I can only speculate that the combination of horrendous weather and upcoming GUKPT event in Walsall caused a slight lack of numbers. At least though, unlike the Luton event a few weeks ago, they were only paying 10 spots and not a ludicrous 18 from just over 100.

Despite the uberdeepstackageness (look it up, it’s in the dictionary) of the tournament, casualties early on are still inevitable, especially those of the famed set vs. set variety. Martino Libertini was such a case, running afoul with trip sixes against S Javadi’s (right) trip Jacks on a J-9-6 board. Mick Fletcher was the early chip leader, racking up 45k in chips without blinking during the opening levels, and although it seemed he was cooking with gas early on, by the end of the day it would prove to be nothing more than a flash in the pan.

Elsewhere, Michael Greco managed a good fold when he was 3-bet all-in on the river of 8-T-9-5-9 board, he mucked his pocket 5’s only to be shown the pocket 10’s of Dave Clayton. Speaking of 3-betting, Nick Slade 3-bet a J-9-7 board in between a check/raise and managed to get his opponent to show and pass J-7, Nick had 6-3....

Eventually the casualties began to roll in with an increased regularity, some like Marc Goodwin, lost huge coin-flips for their chips (6-6 vs. A-8 hitting the 8), others like Bambos would walk into monster hands (8-8 into A-A).

With the dust settling, 36 players remained for Day 2, including Rob Garfield who had the misfortune in the dying moments of the first day to hit an Q-8-J flop, all hearts, with Ah-Qs, what he couldn’t count on though, was that Simon Zach had called his raise with Kh-4h and flopped the flush leaving Rob to return quite short.

The knockouts would continue as we ebbed slowly towards the money spots, Henning Bolstad (left), a Norwegian who is the highest raker on the Cryptologic network, was the first to reach the 200k mark in chips, his A-A taking down a monster pot against A Mackay’s A-K. He followed this up with K-K against A-K and for a couple of hours had the knack of managing to pick up huge cards whenever there was action in front of him. At the same time, he was capable of some decent folds too, when on a 6d-3d-2d-4d-Ac board between himself and Simon Zach he managed to pass the Ad after Zach 3-bet the river. Zach of course eventually showing the 5d for the straight flush.

With the bubble looming, the unlucky recipient was local player Santhe Somaratine who lost a race to Mohammed ‘Shaf’ Shafiq with Sevens against Ace King, giving us a final table looking like this...

(1) David Lloyd -- 58,000
(2) Chris Gavriel -- 85,000
(3) Trevor Reardon -- 85,000
(4) P Pihlajamaa -- 129,500
(5) George Geary -- 40,000
(6) Mohammed ‘Shaf’ Shafiq -- 348,500
(7) Simon Zach -- 173,000
(8) Henning Bolstad -- 171,500
(9) Praz Bansi -- 190,000
(10) S Javadi -- 90,000

Playing for fabulous cash prizes such as these:

1st = £32,550
2nd = £13,900
3rd = £11,625
4th = £9,300
5th = £6,975
6th = £5,580
7th = £4,650
8th = £3,720
9th = £2,790
10th = £1,860

The final table started off slowly, every hand had a raise followed by more passing than a bad Mastermind contestant. Eventually the blinds began to sting and Chris Gavriel exited in 10th place, running K-Q into Bolstad’s A-K. From losing just the bubble boy in around 4 hours of playing, suddenly with Gavriel leaving, the exits kicked into overdrive and within an hour and a half there would be only two left.

Javadi would be next to go, hoping for live cards with Q-T, but finding Shaf (right) with the dominating A-T. P Pihlajamaa who capped a good week, having finished 3rd in the £500 event early, could only manage 8th when he ran pocket 3’s into the pocket Aces of the other Scandieman Bolstad. His exit was followed by George Geary who was so short his all-in was called by four other players, Simon Zach’s A-Q making the nut flush on the river to send him home. Zach would also knock out David Lloyd in 6th, not content with flopping a set, he’d river quads with his pair of fours which was way to strong for Lloyd’s K-Q.

Jacks were the architect of Trevor Reardon’s demise, running into Simon Zach’s A-K with a king coming on the flop, giving ‘The Bubble’ around 600k in chips, almost half in play against his three remaining opponents. Bolstad then pushed from the small blind, he and Praz were about equal in stacks with the GUKPT inaugural event winner just covering him. Praz called and they both flipped over A-5, Praz’s cards were suited in spades though and he flopped a flush draw that came on the turn knocking the unlucky Norwegian out in 4th place. Shafiq, who started off the final table as chip leader, could only manage third, his Q-J losing to Praz’s 7-7 which spiked a set on the flop giving Praz a small chip lead of 800k to Simon Zach’s 600k heads-up.

 A deal was discussed, £20k each and play for £6 and the trophy, but in the end, this was rejected, Praz apparently wanting a chance to win outright for the ranking points. With the blinds being capped at 10k/20k, there was no way this could turn into a crapshoot though and be able to watch a proper HU game where it’s not just push/fold poker, is always exciting. Simon would draw early blood, making all-in pushes against Praz’s raises forcing the latter to back down a number of times and when Praz did re-raise, Simon would come back over the top. This gave Zach around one million in chips compared to Praz’s 400k, Praz managed to get some back with K-9 on a 2-K-3-4-7 board making them closer to even.

Then, the turning point came, in an unraised pot they saw a 8s-5d-7s flop, Simon checked, Praz bet 20k, Simon made it 40k and Praz moved in, Simon called instantly with 9d-6s for the nuts, but Praz held 9s-4s for the flush draw with a gutshot. The turn was a blank 8d but the river was the 2s giving Praz all but 100k or so of the chips. Within a few minutes, it was over, despite doubling up with T-6 against A-K, Simon Zach pushed his K-5 against Praz’s A-3 with an Ace coming on the flop giving Praz the trophy, the ranking points and the £32.5k first place prize money.

The photos/trophy ceremony commenced, unfortunately Praz was still wearing his same coat which had these reflective silver parts on the cuffs ruining any flash photos I tried to take, so if you see a lack of Praz photos with this report, you’ll have to blame him! Surely though, at the moment, there is no one on a hotter streak in the UK than Praz at the moment, and you wouldn’t like to bet against him in Walsall either.