Christmas Cracker £750 Main Event - Final Day - At A Glance

[Djinn]

Driton moves in preflop...he has 48k.  Neighbour Ryan Fronda really thinks about it.  He counts the call, counts his stack.  Looks at everyone.  Both players stand up for no apparent reason.  Then he passes.  And Paul King calls.

Driton shows: 
Paul shows: 

The board comes out

So Driton Haxhiaj is the 6th place finisher, winning £3,200

[Djinn]

Chip Counts:

Anthony Kirkbride   392,000
Bill Davies                95,000 
Ryan Fronda          221,000
Paul King               187,000
James Mcbride         65,000

[Djinn]

It was short stack James Mcbride's turn to go all-in preflop, called by Anthony Kirkbride.
Anthony showed: 
James showed:  *

* The only suit I know is correct is the held by Anthony, as the board brought four running diamonds to knock James Mcbride out in 5th place, for £5,000.

[Djinn]

It gets weirder as it gets later.  The last pot was a family limp-check affair, first Bill called, then Button Ryan then small blind Paul King; Anthony checked.
Flop:  check-check-check-check
Turn:  check-check-check-check
River:  check-check-check-check

Ryan shows for the winning pair of nines, and takes a 64k pot risking only the call on the button.  "I bet I win," muses Paul, correctly.

[Djinn]

Bill Davies was just knocked out in 4th spot, for 4th £6,800.

His eliminator - the seemingly unstoppable Anthony Kirkbride, who now has a daunting stack of well over 500,000. 

[Djinn]

Chip counts, roughly:

Anthony Kirkbride   635,000
Ryan Fronda          200,000
Paul King              105,000

Until - Paul King moves in preflop - instacall from the chip leader.
Paul shows: 
Anthony shows: 

Flop: 
Turn:  
River:    and so busy are the Paul supporters shouting 'Seven' that it takes a minute to find Paul's straight.

So it's actually now:

Anthony Kirkbride   530,000
Ryan Fronda          200,000
Paul King               220,000

[Djinn]

Sorry been a minute or two - watched Paul King raise a few times taking some blinds before this big hand:

Anthony and Ryan all-in preflop (there seems to be almost no post-flop stuff going on)...
Anthony shows: 
Ryan shows: 

Flop:    (he's probably reliving that AK vs A7 from earlier)
Turn: 
River:

And the rivered straight puts Ryan Fronda back in contention to win.  I really don't want to say it...OK...It's anybody's game.

No business struck.

[Djinn]

Hand 1 - Anthony raises from the button to 40k (blinds are now 10k/20k), Paul calls and then check-folds the A 4 4 flop.  (Succinct, no?)

Hand 2 - Small blind Paul calls and Anthony checks.  Flop:  .  Paul bets out 20k; call.
Turn:  .  Paul bets out 20k, Anthony raises to 40k, call.
River: .  Paul now bets out 50k, and gets a pretty quick call - he mucks when he sees Anthony's .

Hand 3 - Paul raises all-in on the button, called by big blind Ryan with Ah .  He held and the board brought the likely split.

[Djinn]

Now Paul and Ryan get it all in preflop (Ryan button pushing, called by Paul): 
Ryan's K6 in bad shape against Paul's KQ, especially after two Queens flopped.

Now they do a deal - £14,000 each, play for the rest.

[Djinn]

Ryan Fronda now has twice 250,000 after his button all-in was called by Anthony Kirkbride -

Ryan held pocket Jacks and although an Eight came matching Anthony's somewhat, the Jacks held and they're still three handed.

[Djinn]

The chip position is now Ryan - in front, Anthony - second with 300k or so, Paul  - third with 200k or so.  Impossible to bring you an accurate count, mainly because they are playing a good number of hands per hour and it will have all changed by the time I get back to my table to write about it.

Only one hand got as far as flop action in the last 15 minutes:

Anthony limps on the small blind, Ryan checks the big blind.  Flop:  .  Anthony checks, Ryan bets what looked like an arbitrary chunk of chips but I'm sure was a calculated 60k.  Anthony quickly raises all in, for 180k more.  This sparks probably the dwell of the tournament from Ryan, but he eventually passes, showing the .

[Djinn]

The dynamic changes yet again as Paul moves in with pocket Nines, called by Anthony with AJ.  A low board brings the earlier leader to around 100k and it's looking like the more even stacks of Paul and Ryan Fronda will be heads up shortly...

[Djinn]

Not so fast... small blind Paul puts big blind Anthony all in with .  Call, with .
Flop: 
Turn:
River: 

200k is better than 100k. 

[Djinn]

As they head into the 65th break of the tournament so far, Anthony has doubled up again with KQ against A9 (hitting the Queen), making it all nice and level.  Like a flat thing, that I could rest on.  Like the floor.

[Djinn]

We've lost Anthony Kirkbride - A5 vs. the AQ of Paul King, I hear - that means we're heads up as Anthony finishes 3rd, winning £9,700 (officially), but actually £14,000.