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"SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL"

And we're under way...

Despite the timely start, the hordes of players are still drifting down the mile of corridor towards the Room - Chris Ferguson didn't seem to be able to make it past the massage stand due to the crowd of guys wanting their merchandise signed...

Thousands of players, literally, are taking their shot at this $1,500 NLHE event - I think the alternates list is a good size too.

Oh, and Welcome back to the Rio!

I know it looks like I just drifted off for an hour, but that's about how long it takes to wander between all the tables - I haven't yet seen the room packed to the rafters, all with people playing the same comp - just before the players went in I missed a great chance to snap 200 tables+dealers all sitting there in anticipation...

But here are those whom I spotted while doing the "Sorry, I'm not a waitress" routine:

Skalie
Sverre Sundbo
Ariston   (Who's lasted longer than yesterday's 12 minutes)
Torstein Iversen
Karl Mahrenholz   
Richard Redmond
Marc Goodwin
Dave Ulliott
Noah Boeken
Annie Duke
John Hewston
Andy Bloch
Erik Seidel
Padraig Parkinson
Barry Greenstein
Andreas Hagen
Andy Black
Mike Matusow
Tony Bloom
Isabelle Mercier
El Blondie    (2,400 currently - wanted to tell me that on the table behind him a certain Mick Stanton doubled up with quad Fives vs KK)
Carlo Citrone
John Gale
John Duthie   (sat next to...)
Greg Raymer
Peter Evans

And that's just about half the room thoroughly searched, and the other preliminarily scanned!

They've already broken two tables (or those were never used) and occasionally some announcement goes off about Alternates, but since we tend not to get that in the UK, I'm not sure for how long you can get in, how many are on the list, or if there's any chip penalty for coming in late etc.

Johnny Chan, Annie Duke, Andy Bloch and Erik Lindgren have also been spotted.

Isabelle Mericer has taken an early exit.

Some early chip counts for you:

Marc Goodwin -- 700
Neno Bear -- 1,675
Johnny Chan -- 2,500
Darren Grosvenor -- 1,800
Mark Seif -- 3,800
Andrew Bloch -- 2,900
Torstein Iversen -- 2,800
Juha Helppi -- 625
The Shiek -- 3,425
Padraig Parkinson -- 1,850
Kenna James -- 3,100

Julian Thew is OUT - apparently 20 mins or so into the comp... Ariston tells me that's better than he fared yesterday.

Meanwhile Ariston himself has exited - this time through no fault of his own - he raised to 225 with Kc Kd, found one caller and then the big blind made it 600 to go.  Ariston pushed all in for just under 2,500, and the big blind called like a shot, with Qh Qd.  The way they deal over here (all three flop cards out at once, turn and spread) meant that when he saw the Queen on the top of the flop, he was already standing up, and wondering whether he ought to swear seeing as the 10 minute penalty would be irrelevant...

blondeite jbsc is down to his final 50 after running J-7 into 5-5 on a J-7-5 board.

Shootout News

Blondeite Roland de Wolfe has made the Final Table of the Shootout event!  And word is that he may be the newest Full Tilter...although no sign of him in the hospitality  suite.

Sam Wardlaw -- 1,200
Michael Mizrachi -- 1,450
Rob Hollink -- 1,500
Andy Black -- 2,000
Barry Greenstein -- 5,100
TJ Cloutier -- 4,550
Dave O'Callaghan -- 1,500

Men 'The Master' -- 600

John 'Skalie' Kalmar has just jumped up to 5.2k

Mateyboy raised 200 from the small blind, Skalie called.

Flop = 5c 6s 2c

Mateyboy pushed all-in for 750, Skalie called.

Mateyboy = Ks 9s

Skalie = 3c 3h

Turn = 8d

River = Th

Womble is OUT - just caught him joining Ariston, Dubai and DPommo railing Roland at the TV final...

Apparently KJ wasn't in such good shape against AK, and after the K Q Q flop, the J turn did nothing to help him.  Doesn't look too gutted, to be honest - in Vegas there's always another game round the corner.  Even if it's an STT back at their place against us and the Poker Mansioners...

Marc Goodwin is OUT.

Tens vs Jacks

No help

Incidentally, Marc managed to double up after just 2 hands.

Sat in the blind with 2-3, he called a 100 raise on a flop of 4-5-K

Turn brings a T, Mateyboy bets 200, Marc calls.

River = A

Marc announces all-in and Mateyboy calls, showing K-K

TJ Cloutier -- 6,625
Bhupinder Kholi -- 12,300
Ian MacDonald -- 925
Sverre Sundbo -- 6,500
Allen Cunningham -- 3,200
Dave O'Callaghan -- 4,000

Doyle Brunson -- 3.7k
Barry Greenstein -- 5.8k

Film actor James Woods was furious just after the break as his chips had been moved to another table. As he was unable to find his seat, he lost the blinds.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=12697.msg264486#msg264486
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=12697.msg264487#msg264487
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=12697.msg264496#msg264496

A couple photos from the early afternoon...

Greg Raymer busted out early.

Clonie Gowan -- 3,600
Chris Moneymaker -- 700
badpab -- 2,000
Sverre Sundbo -- 8,500
Mike Matusow -- 7,150

badpab did have 5k at one point but lost more than half of it being "too agressive"

Just caught Matusow betting 700 into a 5-Q-9 (two clubs) flop - opponents folded.

Chris Moneymaker is OUT

Meanwhile, Tony G and blondeite Peter Costa have made it into the final 18 of the Omaha rebuy.

Please forgive Snoopy, I don't think he's had breakfast...

Just before the BREAK (which is now) I saw Irish Denis heading for the rope prematurely, and yes, he was out.  He raised preflop to 600, was re-raised his last chips (2.5k or so) and called with Aspades Qs.  "I was up against Fives."
"That's it?"
"That's it."

So there's your story.

Here's a pensive Carlo Citrone, on around 7,400 currently.

[attachment deleted by admin]

Other couple of counts from that area - -

John Gale    5,200
Juha Helppi  4,800

Now that the field has shrunk to the point where they can take communal breaks, my carefully drawn up blondeite-map is totally useless as they're effectively playing musical chairs.

The players are currently on a short break.

Miami John Cernuto -- 8,225
David Sklansky -- 5,100
Jimmy Hunter -- 900
TJ Cloutier -- 8,900
Padraig Parkinson -- 5,600
Doyle Brunson -- 2,500

Correction on the Moneymaker exit report.

He's still in, but is clinging.

He just bet 400 into 3d Jc Jh flop, Mateyboy called then bet the Kh Turn.

Moneymaker is down to the felt with just 600.

Well, taking a fleeting glance, it looks as though the Event has been sliced in half with just the right hand side of the cardroom being devoted to today's $1,500 Event.

Meanwhile, Mike Matusow has joined Padraig Parkinson's table.

Meanwhile, in the Final of the $2,000 No Limit Hold 'Em Shootout Event, blondeite Roland 'Rolandinho' De Wolfe has just eliminated David Bloch in 7th.

K-K vs Q-Q

5-A-5-2-2

Bhupinder Kohli is on 10.5k. Apparantly, after his ferocious start, he hasn't seen a hand within the last 2 hours, apart from Jacks which he was forced to release due to some heavy preflop action.

Tony G has just eliminated Mateyboy from the Omaha Event (A-3-A-K on an 8-J-7-J-5 board), which means there are just 13 left, one of whom is Peter Costa. Also plugging away is fellow European Bruno Fitoussi.

And the tournament is down one Sverre Sundbo -
With the blinds at 100/200 ante 25, he limped in early position.  A rather annoyed-looking button, when it folded to him, popped it to 1,500.  The blinds got out of the way and Sverre immediately moved in for 3,375 more.  A strong move, if Mr. Button hadn't been sitting on Kc Kh - Sverre's 2h 2s made a flush, but it was in hearts, so was beaten by the Button.

No sign of Annie Duke, Johnny Chan, Erik Seidel, Erick Lindgren, Men 'The Master', or Chris Moneymaker.

Bruce Atkinson -- 4,200
Kenna JAmes -- 8,100
Dustin Woolf -- 9,500
Michael Mizrachi -- 10,100
Steve Zoine -- 9,600
Mike Matusow -- 6,900
David Singer -- 3,925
Padraig Parkinson -- 11,250
badpab -- 6,500
Clonie Gowan -- 2,700
Juha Helppi -- 3,100
Carlo Citrone -- 2,150
TJ Cloutier -- 11,100
Allen Cunningham -- 15,800

Juha Helppi eliminates a very small stack and builds up to 4,200...
also
Mike Matusow    nearing 10,000
Carlo Citrone      4,200
David Singer      3,600
Padraig Parkinson  15,100
Barry Greenstein   9,800    (the last two on the same table)

410 in the $1,500 No Limit - I think pretty precisely 410 as a table was reassigning its players this very minute - this means that over three quarters of the field is On The Rail already.

Miami John Cernuto is OUT

Paul McKinney loses big pot.

Paul = 8c 8h

MB = Ahrt 4h

Board = 7c 3h 5c 3c Aspades

Players are now on the dinner break and will return in approximately 1 hour from now (8pm Vegas time)

40 tables, 400 players
Blinds = 150/300 (25)
Next Level = 200/400
Averags Stack = $7,972
198 paid
2126 overall runners
$2,901,990 total prize pool
1st = $655,141

Bubble time in the Omaha, and Bruno Fitoussi is in the final 10.

Bhupinder Kohli -- 9,500
Paul Woolfe -- 14,800
Rob Hollink -- 9,600
Sam Wardlow -- 7,500
Barry Greenstein -- 14,500
Michael Mizrachi -- 11,100
Huck Seed -- 16,200
Paul McKinney -- 4,700
Allen Cunningham -- 15,300
TJ Cloutier -- 11,700

3 left in the Shootout final, one of whom is Roland De Wolfe.

Shootout Final

David Pham 1,100,000
Roland de Wolfe  600,000
Charlie Sewell  301,000  (after a double up a moment ago - it looked like against Roland)

Blinds over there in the TV Zone are 8k/16k ante 3k...

How about this for a hand?

A-A v A-K v Q-Q

Board = 2-Q-6-J-7

Paul 'badpab2' Foltyn is OUT

K-Q button raised preflop, bb calls.

Flop = K-8-2

All-in on flop.

Opponent = A-8

Turn = Q

Rver = A

Rob Hollink -- 16,700
Paul Woolfe -- 17,800
Allen Cunningham -- 16,500
TJ Cloutier -- 17,000
Paul McKinney -- 8,300
Huck Seed -- 17,200
Padraig Parkinson -- 7,900
Michael Mizrachi -- 6,200
Mike Matusow -- OUT
Sam Wardlow - no sign

Level 8

Blinds = 300/600

A walk out into the Tournament Hall and within a minute, I saw Bhups going all-in!  The pot preflop already had around 4,000 in it, and Mr. Kholi had moved in for about that again... eventually Matey calls his Ac Kh with Kd Qd.  He must have been relatively happy about that - and with the board coming all low he's regained the ground he apparently lost in the last level...

Just 209 remaining.

Londoner Bhupinder Kohli still flying the flag for Britain with 19k.

Caught up with him outside the food tent in the last break, and he says he got off to his great start (10k when the average was2k) thanks to a lot of serial callers of a guy with Kings who'd raised to 150 (the blinds being 25/50).  This made him fancy his Ad 3d, and when the flop came all diamonds, his accelerated start began.  Then, more recently, it has been his opponents' paying no attention to his rock-like behaviour and calling away when he moved in with his AK (KQ) and KK (10 10) - it does look like it's taken a phenomenal amount of time for them to register that he's not played a hand for 2 hours...

Seated opposite one another are Huck Seed and Padraig Parkinson. Whilst the former World Champion is on a comfortable 18k, the Irishman has dropped to 8k.

Whilst Mateyboy blew down Paul Woolfe's stack creating an empty seat, neighbour Rob Hollink is sitting pretty with 34,800, which is rather good going considering the average is still only 15k. As one of few Europeans, I'm flly backing Mr Hollink in this comp.

B Kohli -- 15,000
Pepperone -- 9,700
Allen Cunningham -- 19,600

They're in the Money!  In case that crucial bit of information somehow didn't filter down to you...

But when we question Bhupinder, it's all about the top finish...he's on average chips with 20k, but knows that the first level they'll play tomorrow will be 600/1,200 with a 200 ante, and having just been playing 400/800 ante 100 that's the biggest jump so far.  So I may go back and hover over his table and see if he capitalises on his tight image.

15 tables remaining
149 players
Level 10
15 minutes left before the end of today's play
Current binds = 600/1200 (200)
Tomorrow will start at 800/1600
Prize Pool = $2,901,990
Chips in Play = 3,189,000
Average Stack = $21,402

Three Europeans of note still remaining; Rob Hollink, Padraig Parkinson and Bhupinder Kohli.

Play has just come to end