Gala Poker Tour Grand Final: Day 1A - At A Glance

[NoflopsHomer]

On a board, Roland De Wolfe c/raises Carl Eglintine's 600 bet to 1,975 board. Eglintine calls and then bets 3,000 on the turn, Roland moves all-in quickly for another 8,000 or so and is equally quickly called.

Roland:



Carl:



River:



Roland doubles through then, almost blissfully ignorant of that increase in chip stack to 25k, immediately starts a conversation with Joe Beevers about how much each of them weigh...

Meanwhile on the turn of a , Ian Woodley check/raises John Tabatabai's 1,300 bet to 3,000. Herein follows an exchange, of, "I know you have nothing," "Well I know you have nothing," "Well your nothing could be even less." The WSOP-E runner-up though, decides in the end that discretion is the better part of valour and passes.

"He didn't have nothing..." says Barny Boatman, referring to Woodley.

[JungleCat03]

Barney Boatman's table is providing its fair share of laughter, much of it being generated by the banter between Barny and John Tabatabai.

I joined the table as the two were in the process of organising a prop bet whereby whoever makes a move with Q3 has to shout the other one dinner at a plush restaurant.

Barny , whose stack has dwindled somewhat partially due to Tabatabai's rivered gutshot versus his set earlier, raises to 375 UTG. Pat Donegan calls, as does Jitesh Thakker, before John Tabatabai reraises Barny's bet by 800.

Fold round to Barney who says, "Looks like I get a free dinner then" before shoving his stack of 4-5k over the line!

The two sandwiched between Barny and John get out of the way before john says, "The annoying thing is even if you showed me Q3 I couldn't call you!" before passing....

[NoflopsHomer]

We've lost Daniel Smith on an action flop.

John Tabatabai (whose surname I still can't remember) raised it up with Aces and got callers in Mark Stewart and Daniel Smith.

The flop came:



Not sure how the action went except I know that Smith and Stewart got it all-in, Smith holding and Stewart with as Tabatabai passed his Aces. Running 3's of the diamond and spade variety send Tabatabai's verbal sparring (of the friendly kind) partner to the rail.

[JungleCat03]

Jamie Gold has taken a bit hit to his stack. It looked like he had 4-5 on a 3-4-6-6-k board and called a bet on the river only to discover his opponent Rob Akery had K7, taking the pot down and leaving Jamie with only 5-6k....

....and as Jamie told his mate "could be over soon" he was involved in another raised pot.

After being checked to by John Bousfield on a board, Jamie bet out 475 and was check raised another 1300 by John. "Gotta get lucky now" sighs Jamie before calling. The turn came a K and as Jamie said "You setting me allin then?" John did as he was told and set Jamie in.

Jamie INSTA-called with his turned 2 pair, and , with John just showing AK for top pair.

"He's got some big outs!" Jamie observed, referring to the T or A that would get John out of the hole....but a blank river appeared and Jamie doubled back into contention to 12k or so...

...Roland De Wolfe has been stood up watching various tables over the last five minutes which led to a mild ripple of panic amongst the press as it was thought perhaps he had been eliminated under our noses without anyone noticing.

Calm was restored though, as news filtered through Roland was still sitting prettily on 35k+, just taking a few momens out to stretch his hamstrings before re-joining his table...

[NoflopsHomer]

And we're one WSOP Champion down.

Joe Beevers raised from the button, Jamie Gold pushed for what looked like 5k total and began his typical speech play drawing the rest of the tables to a stand-still, eventually Joe called with , whilst Gold could only show

Board:



Handshakes, a wish of good luck to the rest of the players and off he went.

Meanwhile former chipleader Mika Ollila has lost a few chips to, I think, Andrew Feenan.

Feenan's held vs the Scandie's on a board after a blank turn and river.

[JungleCat03]

Blinds are now 100-200, 35 players remain and the average stack is 18,400.

Mark Stewart just took down a pot on a K-9-6 flop, his 700 bet into an 800 pot sufficient to take the pot down...

Ian Woodley, Barny Boatman and John Tabatabai all saw a flop of -Jc-2s, checked round to John in position who also checked.

The turn came an to complete the rainbow and two mroe checks to John led him to bet 550.

Ian Woodley called, as did Barny Boatman.

The river came a , eliciting a 700 bet from Ian.

"I wish you'd bet more" says Barny, umming and ahhing before ultimately passing what he said was a T.

John passed and Ian picked the pot up, giving Barny a verbal pat on the back "good pass" as he showed a J for trips. "I knew if I checked top pair twice to you [John Tabatabai] you'd bet..." says Ian.

[JungleCat03]

Richard Ashby has jsut doubled up courtesy of Alex Torrance.

With Richard shortish, all his chips found their way into the middle preflop, as did Alex's.

Cards on their back, Richard showed KsKc, his hand dominating his opponent's and the cowboys held to give Richard a much needed boost and denting Alex's stack considerably...

[NoflopsHomer]

Here's an odd one from Table 1.


Marcus Farthing raises to 700 UTG playing a stack of 7,525, it's passed round to Omar Ghandur, who has roughly 25k. He simply announces all-in from the big blind. Marcus calls after a few seconds.

Marcus:



Omar:



Board:



"Sorry mate, I had to," said Marcus. I'm not so sure myself...

[NoflopsHomer]

Ok, and speaking of weird hands...

Pete Singleton raises to 500 in midposition. Roland De Wolfe and Richard Haile call in the blinds.

Flop:



Roland bets 1,200, Richard calls and Pete passes.

Turn:



Roland bets 3,100 and is called again.

River:



Both players check and bizarrely Richard's is good as Roland mucks, shaking his head ruefully.

[JungleCat03]

Pat Donegan raised to 600 preflop, called by mateyboy just to his left, and also Barney Boatman in the Big Blind.

Barney checked the As flop, as did Pat. Mateyboy took this as a cue to bet 500, which Pat called and Barney folded.

The turn came the , which Pat checked before Mateyboy bet 1700, again  called by Pat.

The river was the , and Pat bet out 2k, called by Mateyboy, who mucked as Pat showed his sneakily played ...

[NoflopsHomer]

It's all crazy on table 1.

A for Roland De Wolfe against Pete Singleton.

On a 9-2-3-5-3 board, Singleton bets, Roland moves all-in with pocket Fives, only for Singleton to show pocket Threes pushing him up to the heady heights of 33k.

"It was a good call." Roland later confirmed.

Roland then had his own piece of good fortune, getting all-in with against Bambos' on a board when it came a harmless river.

Next Bambos knocks out Ian McWilliam sitting next to him with against Kings, all the money going in on the turn of   board.

"I was tilting," claimed Bambos, for the reason of his admittedly fishy call preflop.

*****************************Dinner Break 45 Minutes*********************************

[NoflopsHomer]

ough chip counts as play restarts, courtesy of me angling my neck, and one of the friendly dealers, who I actually know from Gala Birmingham. I'm unsure of a couple of the names, so i'll edit the posts once I find them out.

Table 1:

Andrew Mitson -- 10,200
Omar Ghandur -- 27,000
Marcus Farthing -- 16,150
Pete Singleton -- 36,000
Xanthos Charalambos -- 26,300
-- Empty Seat --
Benedetto Passantino -- 19,300
Roland De Wolfe -- 25,000
Richard Haile -- 17,900

Table 2:

Mark Stewart -- 36,000
-- Empty Seat --
Fiachra Meere -- 10,125
Ian Woodley -- 24,500
Barny Boatman -- 16,700
Pat Donegan -- 43,000
Eddie Gaines -- 8,325
Jitesh Thakker -- 20,900
John Tabatabai -- 2,725

Table 3:

Alex Torrance -- 23,000
Bobby Rach -- 21,000
Andrew Feenan -- 11,550
Mika Ollila -- 27,200
Peter Cockayne -- 10,350
William Haughney -- 18,500
Paul Hardwidge -- 18,450
Andrew Flemming -- 14,400
Richard Ashby -- 5,850

Table 4

-- Empy Seat --
Mark Seagal -- 11,500 (see below)
Rob Akery -- 32,050
John Bousfield -- 5,025
Rob Sherwood -- 13,250
Chris Royle -- 24,800
Joe Beevers -- 33,875
Ben Blackmore -- 17,800
Guiseppe Pillitteri -- 11,525 (see below also)

[NoflopsHomer]

William Haughney has knocked out Andrew Feenan with a brutal A-K vs K-K on a K-J-T flop. Queen on the turn.

[NoflopsHomer]

The Strange Case of the Missing Players:

Over on table 4, there's a slight problem. Both Mark Seagal and Guiseppe Pillitteri have not turned up to the tournament, meaning, they are essentially playing 6-handed on this table. This, combined with the fact there are regular small and big blinds going uncontested, has completely changed the table dynamic here. Ben Blackmore is in the best position here since he'll always be in a position to steal or resteal. When I spoke to the Cardroom staff about this problem, they said that usually they'd have removed the stacks at the start of this tournament, but since the rules regarding this event are completely different they can't do anything except let the stacks blind away. Does this leave some players with an unfair advantage?

[JungleCat03]

After the dinner break, play has resumed with the blinds at 150 300, meaning the pots are now starting to reach more chunky proportions...

As alluded to earlier John Tabatabai's chip stack, however artistically he arranges it, is looking a bit thin and when Barny Boatman and  Eddie Gaines limped in for 300, he moved his 4.2k-ish stack into the middle, taxing those pesky limpers.

Barny passed fairly sharpish and Eddie dwelt for a while, before passing, allowing John to receive a much needed boost to his stack...