Gala Poker Tour Grand Final: Day 1A - Interactive

[JungleCat03]

Play seems somewhat cautious at the moment. Nobody seems massively keen to get too many chips in preflop....there is a lot of limping occurring, and less late position raising than you would expect.

One such pot involves Jitesh Thakker, who limps in from middle position on Barny Boatman's big blind. Ian Woodley completes from the small blind.

The flop comes and you would find more action from a dead hamster in a freezer as it goes check check check.

The turn leads to a little more action, Barny betting 500 which is called by Jitesh and also by Ian Woodley.

The river is the and again the iced-hamster comparison looms over the action as all three players check it down.

"Well I've got a full house" announces Barny..."anyone beat that?"

"I've got a house too" says Jitesh.

"You win" says Barny as Jitesh turns over his slow-played Q-Q. Ian shows the and Barny doesn't show his house, which was probably, although not certainly, a deuce.

The next hand, Ian Woodley abuses the button after it is passed round to him with a vicious limp.

Barny completes and Pat Donagan checks.

Flop .

Check check, Ian bets 625 and Barny passes. As soon as Pat also passes and Ian prepares to sweep up the pot, Barny reaches back into the muck to retrieve his cards flipping up Q3.

"I nearly went for it!" he tells the table (referring to the earlier prop bet he had to bluff with Q3.) The absence of the now eliminated John Tabatabai no doubt contributed to his reluctance to run a move in this spot though. Come back John with your funky stacks, all is forgiven!

[NoflopsHomer]

Play has really slowed down now. Suddenly players seem reticent to play a big pot anymore, with the antes not kicking in til the next level, it's difficult to see if this slightly subdued atmosphere will change before the end of this level. Bambos is doing his best to stem this tide by playing almost every pot, but everyone is tending to be much more cautious. A crowd has developed around the edge of the tournament area, though I have to wonder why as poker doesn't seem to work a spectator sport this early in a competition for me. As it stands, no-one is really shallow at the moment, but of course that means no-one is galloping ahead in the chip stakes either.

[JungleCat03]

Blinds have now risen to 200 400.

I join a table to witness a hand between Bobby Rach and Peter Cockayne.

In a preflop raised pot and on a board, Bobby has evidently checked the flop to which Peter has responded by moving ALLIN for 9k. Although this seems a big overshove with the pot in the region of 2.5-3k, it seems bobby only has 6k or so in his stack.

After thinking for a while and eyeing up his opponent, Bobby eventually reluctantly folds his cards and Peter adds to his stack.

Meanwhile Barny is seem contemplating a button raise by the ponytailed and so far fairly quiet Fiachra Meere to 2k or so on the button.

I see Barny's cards and am suprised when he folds A-Q. Apparently Ian had been dwelling in the small blind and Barny felt he had an ace "that made the fold easier."

ALthough Fiachra doesn't show his cards after the hand, he indicates to Barny that it was a good fold and he seems genuine, but with poker players, well you never know do you!

Richard Ashby has been eliminated apparently. His exit hand is unknown to me at the moment but I will sniff about like a bloodhoundcat and see what I can find out about this.

[b4matt]

Really good updates guys, I'll be buying you both a beer tomorrow.

[NoflopsHomer]

Fiachra Meer is now out, his Sixes no good against Pat Donegan's Jacks. Also gone from the same table is Edinburgh Champion Eddie Gaines, whose push for 4,400 with was looked up by Mark Stewart's pocket Fives.

28 players remain, apparently we're playing 10 levels tonight, which more than likely means we'll be short-handed very soon. At the moment it's 7-handed, but we'll go to 3 tables of 9 as soon as one more player is out.

[JungleCat03]

Fiachra Meeres is OUT.

I gleaned this information not from the poker tables but by overhearing him talking on his mobile away from the tables.
All I managed to discover was that he got his chips in preflop with pocket and found himself dominated by his opponent and removed from the tournament. I wanted to have a chat with him about the tournament and his exit but his phone call went on an extended time.

I am committed to getting as much info as possible for you faithful blondites but I thought interrupting the man on a call when he's just been knocked out would be pushing it a little too far.

I did overhear him say "The dream is over...." and for him it is, although 28 gladiators remain doing battle across the bloodied arena of the felt (actually the tables are quite clean) and for them the dream lives on....for now.

EDIT: apologies for repeating Homer's information. The man is like a wild animal, stalking fallen poker players like a lion before pouncing with lightning speed, leaving the bones of their carcass for me to sweep up. He has to be admired for this.

Play continues with 14 minutes of 200-400 left before the 200-400 with 25 ante level begins....

[action man]

picture of mikka please!

[NoflopsHomer]

And just as I was having a moan about a lack of action, we've lost two more players.

First William Haughney takes out Paul Hardwidge, calling his all-in on the turn of a board with which held against his opponent's after a blank river. Then after a checked flop of , Joe Beevers bets 3,200 out from the small blind in a 3-way pot. John Bousfield calls for his last 2,125 with but missed his straight draw and overs.

11 more minutes of 200/400 and then we'll be on 200/400 with a 25 ante.

YES! The will be kicking in!

[kinboshi]

Really good updates guys, I'll be buying you both a beer tomorrow.

[NoflopsHomer]

picture of mikka please!

There you are sir.

Meanwhile Ben Blackmore, cut out of the picture to the left is OUT. Jacks against Alex Torrance's Kings.

Here's the remaining 3 tables just prior to us going on to a 15 minute break.



Blinds 200/400/25 when we return

[JungleCat03]

Whilst floppy soaks up the action occurring like a sponge, all the action seems to die whenever I join a table. I'd like to think that the players all tighten up their game in front of me, keen not to make an error and appear foolish, although this is highly unlikely to be the reason...

Whatever, in 10 minutes of walking round the tables, the best hand I could find to comment on involved Pete Singleton limping under the gun. Joe Beevers, DaMatrix, and Roland De Wolfe also limped before the small blind completed and big blind checked.

"What have i started!" asks Pete exasperatedly at the limpathon occurring behind him.

The flop of As is checked around to Roland, who picks up 2 yellow chips and 2 100 chips and spins the 2,200 bet out fluidly. Everyone folds to his wolfish aggression and he shows the table for a flopped pair and flush draw...

Just as a side-note, whilst Barny has been grinding away hard all day, struggling to get a stack going after various set backs, his fellow mobster Joe has been increasing his stack in imperious fashion and now has a tower of 35k+ in front of him. He is no doubt not massively happy to have been moved to Roland's table though, especially as Roland has position on him.

[JungleCat03]

Floppy's animal hunger for action is currently being muffled by his internet connection which has just gone down.

Whilst he vents his wrath on vodaphone operatives, I'll tell you about a big hand that just took place between Rob Akery and a player whose face is unknown to me and unfortunately is not on the player list I have in front of me. For originality's sake let's call him mayteaboy.

I joined the action on the turn of a hand just as Rob in position bet 4k in chips on a Ah board which mayteaboy called. The river came the . Mayteaboy checked and Rob now bet a whopping 10k, which mayteaboy called.

Rob showed for the turned flush, whilst mayteaboy mucked, with his stack severely and most probably critically damaged by that hand...

[Djinn]

Please tell Homer (there is now a worrying MSN silence) that the Vodafone problem is fixable, but you need to go through a conversation like this one:

"Hello, this is Matey speaking, how may I help you?"
"Hi, I was just using my data card when the connection broke off stating content control as the reason.  Could you make that error message go away?"
"Have you turned off content control?"
"Yes."
"Are you looking at an adult content website?"
"No. Yes. No, not like that - look - I need this to work for my job, right now, can't you just turn it off?"
"Do you have a credit card?"
"Not with me."
"You need to come into the shop."
"It's midnight."
"Tomorrow morning."
"But it was working just a second ago."
"There's nothing I can do for you from here, it's a security measure."
"To stop me looking at stuff I've been looking at all day?  Like in case I burn my retinas?"
"No, content control is in place to stop under 18's looking at restricted material."
"But I'm not under 18."
"I don't know that."
"To get this card, I had to sign up for a 12 month contract, and needed ID and a credit card."
"Do you want to speak to my supervisor?"
"No, I want to cry."

This is almost verbatim what I overheard Snoopy saying last time it happened to him...

But great update, in spite of the technical difficulties.

[JungleCat03]

A big hand just transpired between William Haughey and Peter Cockayne.

Peter raised the 400 BB to 1300 UTG and William called.

The flop came down As .

Peter checked and William bet out 2k. Peter check raised this bet to 4k, leaving 4k or so back and William went allin for 6k more or so. Peter called instantly.

Cards on their back and Peter showed for top 2, whilst William showed for just top pair.

The turn and river blanked out and William stood up got his coat, wished everyone luck before it was pointed out to him that he actually had Peter covered by 2k or so, and sat back down again.

Peter apologised to William for outflopping him but surely was inwardly shouting "get it!"

[danafish]

I'm sorry, this is just too good to rot away on the APAT forum alone, it must rot here too.