blonde poker forum

Hello and welcome to Blackpool, where I'll be bringing some action from the near sell-out £1,000 Main Event over here.  From the comfort of the bar area (as suspected, we have no space until a table breaks, and things like power sockets and mobile connection are as infuriating as ever).  And when I say comfort, I mean a slightly scowly resignation.

But never mind!  This festival has been undeniably popular (this is the biggest turnout for a Blackpool main event ever), with the card room reaching capacity for all events leading up to this one...no doubt the 170 or so players (full list coming shortly) will enjoy their decently-structured main event.  Tikay's lost his glasses, so that's a decent reason why he's not won one yet.

How about a full player list, then?  Here goes:

163 Runners:

Anthony Adderley
Richard Ade
Om Aggarwal
James Akenhead
Wasim Akhtar
Andy Andreou
John Angioy
Alan Armitage
Ed Arees
Derec Asher
Amjid Aslam
Zafar Aslam
Zahir Aslam
David Baker
Alan Barnacle
Emma Beattie
David Birtles
John Bousfield
Robert Bright
Kenny Burke
David Burton
Garry Bush
David Buttle
Andrew Camp
Martin Cavanagh
Andrew Chambi
Gary Chatterton
Charles Chattha
Sunny Chattha
Carlo Citrone
Adam Clark
Graham Clarkson
Dennis Clough
Bradley Cowling
Steve Craig
Lee Danaher
Alan Davies
Mal Dawson
Charlie Denton
Kyriacos Dionysiou
Phil Dorrington
J. Doyle
Thomas Dunwoodie
Lee Edwards
Michael Ellis
Peter Evans
John Falconer
Dave Felton
Tim Flanders
Mick Fletcher
Hugh Frew
Ryan Fronda
Paul Gardner
Richard Gilby
Ian Girdwood
Andy Gomm
Lawrence Gosney
Joe Grech
Michael Greco
Mark Greenwood
Norma Gutteridge      (although I have been reliably informed that she is already OUT)
Steve Hamilton
Sid Harris
Kathryn Hartree
Keith Hawkins
Ashley Hayles
John Hewston
O. Hikary
Gez Hilton
Gary Holden
Ash Hussain
Chris Huyton
M. Javed                            (also OUT - and all this in the mere seconds it's taken to write up this list!)
William Jenkins
Chris Johnson
Paul Johnstone
Gareth Jones
Iwan Jones
Jon Kalmar
John Kay
Nicholas Kay
Hanif Kazi
Les Kearney
JP Kelly
Tony Kendall
Iqbal Khan
Simon Kinnard
Kevin Kirtlan
Costas Kkola
R. Korecha
CT Law
Joan Lawley
T.V. Le                            (OUT too)
Peter Leonard
Martino Libertini
Jimmy Lister
Brian Little
Keith Littlewood
Michael Loft
Paul Longworth
Steve Lovett
Mark Lowe
Eddie Lundon
Ali Mallu
Dave Mayall
Mick McCloskey
Tom McCready
Alan Mclean
Andy Mcnair
John Meakin
Grant Mercado
Craig Metcalf
Andy Miles
David Mitchell
James Morgan
Paul Moss
Mazhar Nawab
Ian Nelson
Barry Neville
B. Ngo
Simon Nowab
Kevin O'Leary
Hoss Parhizkar
Paul Parker
Sal Patel
Stuart Pearson
Niamh Peters
Phil Peters
Howard Plant
Allen Rayner
Paul Rayner
Trevor Reardon
Martyn Reeve
Norman Reynolds
Paul Rigg
Nicholas Risdale
Mark Robinson
Jeffrey Rogers
Roberto Romanello
Neil Rutter
Stuart Rutter
Maurice Samuels
Nick Slade
Peter Smythe
John Stamatelopoulos
Matt Tyler
Dave Ulliott
Joe Wade
Steve Walmsley
Elizabeth Webster
Mickey Wernick
Bill White
Craig Wildman
Martin Wilson
Paul Wilson
Steve Wilson
Richard Wong
Ian Woodley
Bambos Xanthos
Stasia Xanthos
Manolis Xipolitas
Simon Zach
Jehan Zaib

Tales From The Rail (sponsored by Ariston):

Gareth Jones was the recipient of Norma's entire stack on the second hand - she raised all in on an A J 10 rainbow board (into a pot of 400)... as he says, "Tricky call with the KQ; Norma's 10 J was just behind..."

Simon Zach's down 500 with his nut flush, after Burnley John's set of Queens hit the housing pair on the river.  He passed the ex-nuts face up.

Des Jonas loses half his stack with KQ to an AA which milked it all the way on a King-high board...

Just deciphering the rest of it...

Seeing as Ariston is being so helpful, he gets to name the Table of Death - and here it is:

Ian Woodley
Matt Tyler
Joe Grech
Beppe
Mad Marty    (who's already talking stuff like, "Let's spice it up a bit..."

It has been pointed out by someone with a better memory than I have that Mad Marty is in fact the defending champ for this event...

More ramblings insight from Ariston:  Headline, "Chubbs Refuses Glass of Wine Shocker"

Mad Marty makes it 325 under the gun.  Called by a Matey and Beppe (in the blinds).  Flop 9 5 J, three checks.  The turn brings a Seven and now Beppe bets out 800 and gets it passed by the others.  "Who said he's tight?  He's played more pots than anyone on the table.  Oh, and Mad Marty 'had' AK, apparently."

Footnote, "I a lot of the action (Ariston's reporting) seems to involve the same players it's because I'm next to the rail and sat on my arese with a bottle of win and an ashtray.  Wine report:  crap.  No Chablis left after we had 17 bottles on Thursday."

Well, there you go.

Wow Ariston is quite a worker, pre-multiple drinks - here are some chip counts, left in original style for authenticity:

Booder      8,000
Womble     9,000
Big Barry    14,000
Legend      12,000
Tikay         9,000
Ash Hussain   9,000

Red raises, two callers.  Flop 10 high, check-check, so Red bets 600, Matey makes it 1,500; call.  Ten on the turn, he bets 2k, Red decides to call.
River is a rag, he moves in, Red calls, and finds 9s 9d to Red-Dog's Js Jc - giving him a nice early stack of 19,000.  "But I might need to go back to the hotel for a change of underwear."

Good News and Bad News Balance the Ever-Turning Wheel of Fortune News Now -

Mr. X reports that Mickey Wernick took down a juicy 4k pot with Ac Qs on a K Q Q x x board, no show from the defeated opponent.

Meanwhile Mad Marty gets all in for 6,000 on a board of Th 3s 7h 3c 5d.  Matt Tyler gives him a spin, and gets shown Marty's two pair (Threes and Threes).  Trying to put a brave face on it, but he's been quadded and is down to just 4k while Marty's up to 17k.

The devilfish is no more - Mr. X saw him at the bar, and he didn't look like he'd appreciate a post-knockout interrogation...

JP:  "I'm on tilt.  I made a good call with Ace-high on the river, and the guy who'd been bluffing for 2,300 there said, "Good call," and tapped the table." 
Now JP shows his Ac 8c with which he'd instacalled what he knew was a bluff; unfortunately the guy got to see JP's hand and his 10 2 had made a pair of deuces - could possibly have been about to be mucked, but as it was, good call or not, his deuces won the pot.

We find another interesting table lurking on the other side of the room - it holds Tikay, James Akenhead, Booder, Ash Hussain, er, my memory really could be better.  But that's not a bad lineup actionwise.  Tikay just had one of his famous card-related 'accidents' with 10 5.  I don't know if that story deserves elaboration...

From Ariston:

Flop of 4 6 8, Big Trevor Reardon bets, and Burnley John calls.
Turn:  A   Bet-call, much the same as on the flop.
River:  8  Trevor bets, and 'station John' (his words, not mine) calls with 77, which is good against K6.

JP's tiltmeter has gone down after hitting a set with 8s 8c on a flop of Kc 6c 8d.  He bet out (applause; the rest of the table thinks he's on tilt, which he may or may not have been) - gets a raise and just pushes in quickly.  Call from the hand he doesn't really want to see - Ac 4c, but no hit and he's back to 8,400.

Chip counts, not comprehensive (without Snoopy I feel like I'm down an arm.  Oh, OK, a toe), but as accurate as you like.  And that's very accurate.

Alan Armitage       10,500
Ouday Hickary         3,000
Ian Woodley           8,700
Matt Tyler              6,000
Joe Grech              8,600
Michael Greco        13,700
Mad Marty             11,500
Paul Moss              12,600
Stuart Rutter         11,000
Peter Evans           14,000
Sid Harris                2,600
Red-Dog               16,500
Keith Hawkins        14,000
Howard Plant         13,800
Ryan Fronda            5,900
Michael Ellis             5,800
Burnley John          13,800
Roberto Romanello   8,900
Craig Wildman          8,400
Kevin O'Leary          8,500
Niamh Peters          9,600
Iwan Jones             17,200  (says "The Cardiff Two are running over the table.")
Martyn Cavanagh     16,600   (The other half of the Cardiff Two)
Trevor Reardon        4,200
Paul Parker             10,000   (What a surprise)
Garry Bush               9,200
Jon Kalmar              24,200
Simon Nowab           6,300
Jon Hewston           9,700
Mick McCloskey        16,800
Andy Gomm             7,500
Bambos                   9,900
Ash Hussain             15,800
Tikay                      5,600
James Akenhead      7,800
Mickey Wernick        12,400
Barry Neville             11,700
Womble                  15,500
Booder                     9,900    (bold indicates they are all tablemates)
Chris Johnson            31,000
Simon Zach              29,000

Aside - I must thank Ariston for his energetic note-taking, and the large bowl of fries and onion rings which just appeared in front of me.  I would buy him a glass of wine if he hadn't drunk it all yesterday.

He notes:  Sal Patel loses most of his stack with AA vs. KK, down to an out-in-a-second 275.  "It never happens on the internet."

Skalie doubled up thusly:  Three limpers, Skalie charges limpers' tax of 500 on the button, under the gun makes it 1,000.  He calls.
Flop:  Ks 5s 3s   Matey bets out 3k, Skalie smooth calls...
Turn:  Blank   Matey moves in for 7k, and Jon's chips beat him in the pot, seeing as he had the Aspades Js.  The river was a blank, but Matey had K2 off...

Nick Slade is OUT - a combination of Js Jd into Qd Qh on an Eight-high board, then a series of Two QQ into AAs - the first one saw an Ace on the flop, so he got away, but the second one he, er, didn't.

Jon Kalmar is chip leader, on 45,000 - most recently accumulating a stack from a guy with pocket Tens on a J J 9 flop, when he held the AA and was clearly not believed.

But of course:

No sign of Richard Ade
Richard Wong         15,400
Lee Edwards           31,800

Booder Busts Barry:

Mr. Neville called Booder's preflop raise with Aspades Qs, and hit the Qd 4s 5s flop pretty hard.  All the money went in, as you may suspect when the initial raiser held Kc Kd, and a spadeless turn and river ended Barry's tournament.

Red-Dog Loses 36k pot -

With Kings into Aces.  Down to under 2,000 - looking a bit downhearted, but we'll see if he can turn it around, or if Tim Flanders' Aces have ended the run...

Blinds 200/400

But Fortune is smiling upon Simon 'set' Zach - First he has Ts Th on a Ten-high flop and with a King on the river gets a flat call from a guy with Ad Kh.  Ariston has noted, "Loads of needle" concerning this, and it must have convinced the same guy to play with Simon again on the very next hand -
He put in 600 (a raise?  not a raise?  Ruling!  Yes, he must make it 800).  Simon calls in the big blind with 2c 2h.
Flop is a nice 2 7 9.  Simon minimum check-raises 1,200 + 1,200.  Matey moves in, and gets the instacall.
Turn:  9, but the river is a blank and Zach has 35,000.

A quick note about the blinds:  There is no 75/150 level, nor 150/300... for a £1,000 tourney this seems a bit steep to me, but players aren't voting (against it) with their feet - the place is packed and it looks like no one but Tikay is prepared to whinge about it.  Personally I wouldn't be so keen on this, especially as elsewhere recently cardrooms have been modifying their structures to be more player-friendly, but everyone seems to be accepting of the inconsistencies from festival to festival.

Having said that, the new cardroom manager Steve has organised the dealers with a pre-comp pep talk into all acting in the same way, all very nice and professional.

Alan Armitage          OUT
Ouday Hickary           OUT
Ian Woodley           16,600
Matt Tyler             17,000
Joe Grech              11,100
Michael Greco        12,100
Mad Marty             4,100
Paul Moss              9,900
Stuart Rutter         36,000
Peter Evans           14,000
Sid Harris                19,300
Red-Dog                 OUT
Keith Hawkins        20,000
Howard Plant         9,700
Ryan Fronda            16,600
Michael Ellis             6,100
Burnley John          8,400
Roberto Romanello   14,000
Craig Wildman          4,000
Kevin O'Leary          2,500
Niamh Peters          12,600
Iwan Jones             13,000 
Martyn Cavanagh     11,000
Trevor Reardon        18,500
Paul Parker             16,300
Garry Bush               Missing, presumed OUT
Jon Kalmar              44,000
Simon Nowab           7,600
Jon Hewston           17,000
Mick McCloskey        Missing, presumed OUT
Andy Gomm             3,600
Bambos                   10,100
Ash Hussain             11,700
Tikay                      3,300
James Akenhead           OUT
Mickey Wernick        9,500
Barry Neville             OUT
Womble                  14,600
Booder                    18,400   
Simon Zach              19,500
Richard Wong            12,200
Stasia Xanthos          24,800

Clarification of a couple of things -

Garry Bush is indeed out - he flopped what he thought was the nut flush, but no, a straight flush outflopped him by a country mile and there was no escape...

JP just value bet Q 10 on a rivered Queen (the rest of the board rags with a paired six) and got a reluctant caller for 3k-ish.  Going very well, going to Pick him, along with Skalie and Paul Parker.  Whom I'd love to see make the final with 10,000.

Mad Marty, down to the felt, moves in from the small blind against Ian Woodley's big blind.  Ian calls after looking at one card - it ends up being Ad 5d.  Marty has 7h Tc.  And with the first card out the Ahrt, it's a seven-high four-flush which wins it for the Mad one.

I must now report the exit of Tikay - as is traditional he pushed his last 2.5k in on the button when it folded round to him with Td Qc.  Unfortunately, that was not such  a good time, as Booder in the big blind woke up with Ahrt Ad.  Bye, then...(unless I can rope him into updating, which I know from experience is the last thing one wants to do when newly busted).

The Blinds are now 300/600
Players remaining:  87
Chip leader:  Jon Kalmar, 82,000

And the hand which bumped him up by 30k... 5s 6s

Threeway action, flop Qh 3d 4s  First guy bets 1,200, call in the middle, Skalie calls.
Turn: 2c  and on that nice rainbow-completing card the first guy bets out 5k, call in the middle, Skalie makes it 15k and middle guy takes him on to the tune of 30k-odd with a set of Fours.

No pair on the river, and Jon's good form continues...

Roberto Romanello is OUT - he ran Kings into Aces, just calling down on all the streets, until he was out of chips.  Ariston said, "he knew..."  Hard to pass, though.

Martin Cavanagh - 17,000

Richard Wong    14,200
Lee Edwards      10,000

Lee's now on JP's table (Pab - he says Thanks, and he's missing you).  Sat with 27,000 right now.

Chip leader Jon Kalmar has consolidated his lead, by increasing his stack to 108,000.  Details escape me, but he's looking to clash with the Camel at some point soon...

Meanwhile Ian Woodley doubles up to 26,000, all in preflop with Ac Aspades against Ad Kh. 

Mad Marty is OUT  -

He limped in on the small blind, along with Woodley on the big blind and an under the gun limper.  Holding just 2k back, he bet out 800 on the Ac 3c 7s flop.  Ian thought for a little while, and Marty was talking about putting him on the clock.  "Mad Marty's back in the Party!" was another example of the in-hand commentary we all got.  Ian called after a while, and the utg limper passed. 
Turn:  2c, and Marty moved in for his last 1,200.  Call from Ian.  Marty says, showing 7c 4d, "I've got a pair of Sevens.  And a flush draw..."  To which Ian replied, "I thought you had a pair of Sevens, and you don't have a flush draw," as he showed 8c 8s.
River:  Th  And we're down to 78 players.

Right, back to work - if I start thinking about sleep, then that is what I inevitably do...

Chip Counts:

Carlo Citrone            24,000
Mark Greenwood         19,300
Mick Fletcher         20,500
Ian Woodley           16,500
Matt Tyler             42,000
Joe Grech              15,600
Michael Greco        9,800
Mad Marty               OUT
Paul Moss               OUT
Stuart Rutter         36,000
Peter Evans           43,000
Sid Harris                35,000
Keith Hawkins        34,000
Howard Plant         OUT
Ryan Fronda            6,300
Michael Ellis            OUT
Burnley John          4,600
Roberto Romanello      OUT
Craig Wildman          OUT
Kevin O'Leary          OUT
Niamh Peters          15,300
Iwan Jones             31,500 
Martyn Cavanagh       OUT
Trevor Reardon        13,000
Paul Parker             10,700
Chaz Chattha            43,400
Jon Kalmar              108,000
Simon Nowab           17,000
Jon Hewston           OUT
Bambos                   22,000  (just took out Martyn Cavanagh)
Ash Hussain             22,000
Tikay                     OUT
Mickey Wernick        23,200
Womble                  13,100
Booder                    14,200   
Simon Zach              16,000
Richard Wong            9,800

And Climber of The Day I think it's safe to award to Matt Tyler - down to just 3k right near the beginning, he's now sat with 42k which he's used to build a Rolf-Slotboomesque tower on a flower.  Is this the beginning of the end for counting his stack?

*************************Fruit Break***************************

Just before the end of the level, booder bit the dust - raising preflop with 9h 9d , Joe Grech sneakily called with his Qh Qc, and on a Jack-high flop, booder pushed in and received the inevitable call.  It's been a good week for him though....

Blinds now 500/1,000
Players remaining 70
Average stack  23,400

Aces wreak havoc (both ways) simultaneously on two tables now -

Simon Nowab doubles up with the Ad Aspades, called by Kh Qh
Board:  Jd 2c Qd 6c 7d  (I would guess the money went in on the flop) - he now has 30k+
Skalie says, "Aces must've been out on this table at least once a round."  So it looked like it was Simon's turn, then.

Meanwhile Ac Ad gets done over by Ks 9d - the board came 8h 9c 6c 9h Qh  and I think it was Tim Flanders who took the damage.  Interestingly, it seemed to aversely affect Simon Zach even more - he'd passed Ac 9c after dwelling over pushing in preflop.  Hindsight or prophecy only make that a good move, though.

JP Kelly adds to his chip hill (it's on to its second tier now) -
I caught this hand as JP was calling on the button what looked like his opponent's 4,500 on the turn:  Qc Tc 2s 5h.
The river came Ad.  Matey bet out 4,000 and pretty quickly JP raised a stack more (some of each colour) and they were barely past the line before he got a fold.


Tim Flanders is out - Eights against Chaz Chattha's Queens.

Yes, table ex-Tikay is still looking interesting with the arrival of Mick Fletcher.  Just now he saw a flop with Andy Gomm, and checked the Ks 4h 7d.  Andy bet 4,000 and there was a bit of a dwell as Mick looked at his remaining 10,400, and then eventually passed.  Ariston goes, "Jacks or something."  Not so sure...

Stop Press - -

New chip leader, none other than my Climber himself, Matt Tyler.  Made the universal wave signifying, "I don't know" when I requested a countdown, but we reckon 120k or thereabouts.

The players seem to be playing musical chairs - got a few counts though, before the Accurate End of Day one which should be forthcoming within the next twelve hours -

Firstly, just lost Womble, who moved his last 12,500 in with Nines but found a caller with Queens...

Elsewhere: 

Jon Kalmar         84,000
Simon Nowab    34,300
Ash Hussain       55,000
Simon Zach        24,500
Mark Greenwood  12,500
Graham Clarkson    78,500
Matt Tyler            100,000
Joe Grech            37,000
Michael Greco        3,000
Stuart Rutter        50,000
Peter Evans          38,300
Sid Harris              45,000
The Camel            20,500
Ryan Fronda         37,000
Niamh Peters        51,000
Chaz Chattha        46,000
JP Kelly               107,000   (new chip leader - he's switching this position with Matt and Skalie regularly...) 

Big hand for Matt (in the Not Good way):

Matt raises to 3,200, Sid on his immediate left makes it 8k, and an unexpected third party in the form of Matt Lowe moves in for 24k.  Matt now decides to isolate, putting in a big chunk of yellow chips, but he's not getting rid of Sid who has Ac Ad...
Matt Tyler shows  Ahrt Kh
Matt Lowe shows  Kc Ks

The board came raggy with Jack high, and that gives Sid another big stack, and knocks Matt Tyler right down, and Matt Lowe right out.

This is just a taster of the elimination whirlwind which has hit these last few tables -

There are now just 43 players, with the blinds at 600/1,200.  That's a table gone per 40 minutes in the last few hours.  To be honest, I can barely keep up now, but you'll get the full end of day standings if I receive them tonight, and if not, er, tomorrow.

END OF PLAY.........................

Rejoin us (and by us, I mean the Royal We) tomorrow for more of the same, all the way down to the End starting at 3pm.

I am going to stay for about half an hour and see if any End of Day counts float my way.  But just in case they don't, I'll suggest:
 ;stickaforkinme;