Luton Christmas Cracker: Day 1 - At A Glance

[danafish]

Mr Danny D'Borin moves in on a flop. The rather glum-faced pink-shirted gent below dwells up for a very long time before folding. Another victory for the mighty 2-7! Maybe. Probably that's not what D'Borin had. I just made it up.

[snoopy1239]

Driton Haxhiaj -- 25,000
Daniel Rudd -- 7,900
Ali Mallu -- 11,925
Dave Courtney -- 12,525
D Shearer -- 25,900
Tony Ringe -- 12,300
Craig Owen -- 9,525
Lee French -- 13,000
Jeff Rogers -- 31,000
Martin Lawton -- 10,000
Allan Shields -- 18,000
Ben Turnstill -- 23,125
Graham Hiew -- 15,725
Jim Reid -- 11,675
Dervis Ozkarapinar -- 10,250
Danny D'Borin -- 10,750
David Young -- 16,200
Rob Garfield -- 7,775

[danafish]

Paul Alterman is OUT to the gent in the white jumper trying not to look at him as he leaves. I believe Paul's K-J fell victim to White Jumper Gent's T-7 that must have hit at some point, although I don't know when the chips went in.

[danafish]

A really astounding hand between Rob Garfield and Pink Shirtyboy.

Rob raises to 1200 preflop. Pink Shirtyboy calls.

Flop - - Pink Shirtyboy checks. So Rob puts him all in. As you do with your pocket Queens. Now here's the astounding bit: Pink Shirtyboy calls!

Rob Garfield -

Pink Shirtyboy - wait for it wait for it -

Turn -

River - obviously, doubling up Pink Shirtyboy. "I can't believe he made that call," fumes Rob to me a few minutes later, "For his tournament. For his tournament!"

[EDIT - Pink Shirt Man is in fact Lee French. Apologies.]

[snoopy1239]

Ben Turnstill has taken a major hit of courtesy of Dervis Ozkarapiner. With a Flop lying patiently on the felt, Rookie raised Dervis' initial 2.5k bet to 10k. Dervis had less than 10k in front of him at the time, so the decision was for his tournament life. With Rookie's stonecold glaze plastered across his face, Dervis tried to breakdown his foe by asking, "So, you have a flush draw?" Feeling obliged to respond, Turnstill temporarily side-stepped his silence by replying, "I have better than that".

Following a momentary huff and puff, Dervis chucked in his chips and flipped over . At this point, and I think I knew exactly what is in Rookie's hand due to his answer to the prior question, the youngster showed for the monster draw. any heart, any nine and five - in fact, he probably didn't mind the call, especially as he had chips behind.

However, come the decisive and Turn and River, Rookie could do nothing but tap the table and congratulate his victorious opponent on a nice hand.

[danafish]

Mike Moore is on 29k, one of two relative big stacks on his table.

[danafish]

Craig Owen has doubled up with Aces v Jacks.

--------

Jim Reid has been spotted in the cash game, which means he's either multi-tasking or is out. I'm leaning towards the latter.

[snoopy1239]

Although Daniel Rudd was down to 7k, he is now back up to the dizzy nosebleed inducing heights of 24k. He dropped down to 10k after his T-9s (which was raised from the button and called in two positions) hit a T-9-7 Flop but was beaten by A-Q which hit top pair after making what Daniel believed was a somewhat suspect call to his bet on the Flop.

But fear not, because out plucky hero's column was soon sprouting chips again as he flopped a straight with T-9 on a Q-J-8 Flop. Initial raiser Dave Courtney continue bet (or is it betted?) the Flop, Daniel smooth-called and another player pushed all-in. Funnily enough, after Courtney had stepped out the way, Daniel decided to call, finding that he was in pretty good shape against his opponent's A-Q which failed to escape the Mariner grasp.

[snoopy1239]

Ryan Fronda and his all mighty nipples are flying high now, the former GUKPT finalist having knocked out Martin Lawton with versus , board.

Pow Pow! 

[danafish]

Terry Mason, whose name is amusing to apparently no-one but me, is OUT. Q-8 on a Queen-high flop was no good against Rob Garfield's A-Q and he's gone, apparently putting his trousers on to leave, like he wasn't wearing any under the table all that time. Is that what people usually do at these events?

[snoopy1239]

"What a fold," says the nippletastic Ryan Fronda.

"Who by?" I ask.

"Me," he replies.

"What happened?" I request enthralled.

"I raised it up with 8-5 under the gun?"

"Under the gun?" I said, convinced I'd made a mishear.

"Yep, and that guy [Yilfer Shevket] called. The flop came , I bet out and he went all-in. I managed to find a fold, and he had A-5."

"Did he show?"

"Yep,"... 

"So how did you fold."

"Well, it took me a while."

"But you must have had a reason."

"I got a read on him. I worked it out. Raising under the gun, he'd expect me to call with a hand."

[danafish]

Dave Shearer and Mike Moore check down a raggy board. Mike turns over Q-9. Dave makes a noise like "WAAAAaaAAAAaAAAaHHh! and turns over Q-T to take it. Much hilarity.

[snoopy1239]

Golly gosh, where's the camera when you need it? When there's no hand, there it is, dangling around my neck like a Tom Jones' medallion, but now I see a three way all-in (yes, THREE WAY!), it's nowhere to be seen. The action that warranted a snap involved early pace setter Jeff Rogers, Irish Open casher Danny D'Borin and the lesser known (well, a new face to me anyhow) Darren Smith.

With all the chips flying in at the speed of light on a Flop, it was on their backs time, with Darren the shortest stack, and Jeff the biggest.

Jeff Rogers =

Danny D'Borin =

Darren Smith =

An ineffective Turn and River gave the main pot to Smith, and the chunky side pot to D'Borin, but, miraculously, no one was eliminated.

The resulting chip counts are as such:

Danny D'Borin -- 32,250
Darren Smith -- 21,875
Jeff Rogers -- 14,100

"I wasn't sure what I was going to do," added Smith, "whether I was going to be the flop or what. Luckily, they did all the work for me."

It sure is easy this game.

[danafish]

Allan Shields seems to have somehow slipped down to about 6.5k. Doesn't seem too miffed though. Similarly Rookie seems to be on around 7k currently.

[snoopy1239]

As I snuck out of the cardroom toilets (why I was snucking, I'm not sure), I was graced with the presence of a major hand taking place on the nearest table. With the distant sound of the mega powerful hand driers (seriously, they nearly blew my pants off) still whirring away in the background, Driton Haxhiaj was in full re-raising mode, sticking it to Allan Shields' initial 3.5k bet on a board with an extra 5k to play.

Expecting the action to fold back round to Shields, it suddenly stopped at Daniel Rudd who unexpectedly fell into a pit of pensiveness. With eyes darting back and forth, and even Rookie blowing out his cheeks to me as if to say "blimey, son, what a pot", Rudders meekly slid his single columned stack across the line for an extra 13,325 more.

With Shields quickly stepping out of the way like Superman dodging a speeding bullet, Haxhiaj dipped into the mindfield of his brain and, as Chili would say, took a trip to think tank town. After the odd twitch of an eyebrow, Scrabble Man eventually made the call and turned over . However, although I'm sure he had his man on the flush draw, he could only weep in dismay as Rudd proudly revealed for a set of ducks, leaving Scrabble Man requiring a bingo and a miracle 2 outer.

Turn =

River =

... and it looks like Mr Rudd is your new chip leader with... er.... lots.