blonde poker forum

Play of the Walsall Grosvenor UK Poker Tour in association with Blue Square Poker is due to commence at 4pm.

Aggarwal, Om
Aslam, Zahir
Arama, Jac
Arees, Tariq
Arnold, Michael
Ashby, Richard
Ayeglin, Olabode
Baine, Darren
Bates, A
Bebb, S
Beevers, Joe
Blake, Tim
Blood, T
Bolous, Michael
Bond, Kevin
Booth, Andrew
Bradshaw, Andy
Bright, Robert
Brown, Ray
Burberry, John
Burke, Geoff
Cadd, Graham
Callinan, Ben
Carter, Dan
Cartwright, Anthony
Cawley, Russ
Channing, Neil
Chapman, T
Chattha, Sunny
Cheetah, S
Choy-Sing, T
Clark, K
Colclough, Dave
Conroy, John
Craven, Thomas    
Dale, M
Davies, A
Davies, Alan
Debealox, Ronnie
Demaine, Paul
Demetriou, Maria
Denton, C
Donn, A
Donnelly, Brian
Donoghy, Ivan
Eastwood, S
Eccles, Stephan
Enley, D
Evans, Damien
Evans, P
Fletcher, Michael
Fletcher, T
Folkes, M
Ford, Zachary
Fronda, Ryan
Gale, John
Glanville, Chris
Gourley, Paul
Granstad, Henning
Grech, Joe
Greco, Micharl
Green, Stephen
Hales, A
Harris, Sidney
Harrison, S
Heath, M
Henson, Alan
Herbert, I
Herron, M
Hervert, R
Hibbert, J
Hikary, Ouday
Hilton, G
Howard, Greg
Howard, S
Huckle, Jon
Hudson, J
Hudson, Tom
Hussain, M Z
Huyton, C
Isackou, M
Iverson, Tor
Jackson, Paul
Jenkins, Nick
Johnson, A
Jonas, Des
Jones, D
Jones, Iwan
Jordan, Athena
Kalmar, Jonathan
Khayat, H
King, Ben
Lane, Barry
Larse, K
Law, Royce
Libertini, H
Little, Brian
Lynch, R
Mackay, A
Mah, A    Thursday
Mahrenholz, Karl
Marles, John
Mason, G
McArthur, Gordon
McCloskey, Mick
McCool, Mick
McCreedy, Tom
McHugh, R
McKenna, Brendan
Mckinley, M
McLean, Alan
McLean, M
Miles, A
Millar, J
Mobbs, David
Moore, M
Morgan, J
Muldoon, Michael
Mulla, Reyaaz
Mustanglu, Osman
Muthy, Kaysham    
Nelson, Ian    
O'Reilly, S    
Orlowski, M
Page, T
Parker, D
Parker, Paul
Passantino, B
Perry, Ian
Persuad, Nick
Peters, Niamh
Peters, Phil
Plant, Howard
Plummer, Paul
Prew, Richard
Probyn andrew
Purewal, J
Rao, G    Thursday
Rayner, Paul
Reardon, Trevor
Rokach, Lucy
Romanello, Roberto
Ruehle, J
Sami, Darshan
Sandhu, Satnam
Schwartz, Luke
Shaw, G
Shipley, John
Singleton, Peter
Slade, Nick
Smith, D
Somaiya, Rumit
Stevens, M
Suckling, G
Szisak, L
Tabatabzi, John
Tann, Willie
Taylor, Kerry
Thew, Julian
Tse, C
Tyler, Matt
Vaccarella, G
Vinncombe, A
Vinson, Ben
Walls, Brendon    
Walmsley, Steve
Watkiss, Rob
Wernick, Mickey
Wilkinson, Adam
Wong, K
Wong, R
Woodley, Ian
Workman, A        
Wyre, Ray         
Xanthos, Charalambous         
Yusif, Sami         
Zarandi, F

***Delayed***

I have emerged from the traffic, which is as bad as the players harassing reception say it is, and joined Snoopy in the Press Area which is actually pleasingly close to the tourney room, and comes with a fridge, although no wifi, as yet.

Looking forward to covering the second of these events, good structure, attracting the interesting players, yatta yatta yatta.

Going for a wander and a cup of coffee.

We've encountered our first exit of the day, and it's NOT Ariston.
"Why does it always happen to me?" cries Rumit Somaiya.
"Aces?" I ask.
"No, Kings. I flopped a set, Lucy (Rokach) moved in with a flush draw and hit. She called my pre-flop raise with A-6."

------------------------

Another early exit, this time Welshman Alan Davies.

With a Flop of Qh Kh 8d, Philip Dorington called a 1.5k bet from Alan before re-raising the 2.5k bet on the Td Turn to 6.5k.

Alan moved all-in with his seemingly formidable Qc Qd and Philip made what was, by then, an obligatory call with Ad Kd.

Dorrington sighed and shrugged his shoulders before holding his hands up when the River dealt a cruel blow to the Welshman with a nasty 3d.

-----------------------

Word on the grapevine is that another Welshman has departed, this time a celeb in Matthew Stevens.

Here's a small list of those not even making it to the at-table stage due to the traffic:

S. Howard
Antony Mackay
Osman Mustanoglu
Giovanni Vaccarella

Reserves are now in in their place, according to Jon Raab - And Jules Adamson got in there just at the last possible second, along with Phil Dorrington and, er, two other guys.

Ryan Fronda has doubled up with Aces, all the chips going in on a 3d 2c Qd 9c board (last bet was 3.7k by Ryan) with Mateyboy (I think it's Sudling)  holding A-Q. Blank on the River leaves Sudling down to the felt.

----------

Across the other side of the room Welsh lad has doubled through Richard Ashby after catching a nice Turn.

All the chips went in on a 6d Qd 7h 8s with Ouday's 4-5 crushing Richard's Pocket Queens, no Full House arriving on the River.

As a result, Ashby is down to approximately 2k.

Early eliminations are few and far between - but action is definitely taking place on Lucy Rokach's table.  That first hand double upping flush draw hit hasn't stayed put in her stack, and she's back down to a smallish 6,900.  There is now someone else with a big early stack there, going to find his name if the trend continues.

Other stacks looking healthy:  Ray Brown  16,000 (glad he introduced himself right at the start)
Maria 'Chili' Demetriou  15,800

On Chili's table we have a certain Mick McCool, whom I didn't notice on first pass because he's totally quiet.  He's got one of those mini-movie players and appears to be engrossed in some kind of sword-fighting thing with Templars in it (I had a brief over-the-shoulder peek).  He's on 11k so must have played a hand, however.

Some seat neighbours, adding interest to a few tough tables:

Paul Jackson + Willie Tann
Joe Grech + Mick McCloskey  (Julian and Mr. Burke on there too)
Dave Colclough + Roberto Romanello  (Torstein Iversen and Karl Mahrenholz on there too)
Ryan Fronda + John Gale  (Paul Vicary and Iwan Jones there too).  I arrived at that table when Ryan was saying something like, "Next time I'll be raising with that," to Iwan.  Looks like that could be interesting.

Nick was apparently down to just 4,800 after the first few hands but is now back to a safer 9k.  No detail yet as to what inspired this quick loss and recovery, although heard something about his betting (with some spanners) on an A-A-8-8-x board and getting called by "the nuts," which I think wasn't actually the nuts, but an Ace wary of the often-present Quads....

I overhear someone telling Nik Persaud off for "calling off 500 on the river with King high," and am all prepared to report that he's started the tournament without his, er, characteristic focus...but no, he gets a chance to explain himself:  He's in the big blind with Ks 2d.  Under the gun flat calls preflop, and it folds round, including the small blind.  So, flop 3s 6s 5s.  Nik bets out 100; call.
Turn:  Ad  Check-check
River:  6c  Nik checks, limper bets 500.  Call.  Nik mucks (but tells everyone he had King high) when the limper shows the mighty Ts 6h.

Two things about this story - firstly, surely he should just show that King high to discourage later, more pricey bluff attempts (especially if he's going to tell everyone anyway)?

Secondly, I don't know about the sole preflop limper with T-6 being Under the Gun, for that would make it Paul Parker, legendary "I might play a hand when it gets heads up" player.  If it's true, we're going to have to start to disregard his own highly successful mythology...

And after losing that big pot to Ouday Hickary, Richard Ashby has now bitten the dust.

---------------------

Zahir Aslam = 6.5k
Nick Slade = 12k

----------------------

Andy Johnson eliminated Ray Wyre with A-T vs J-J (a rather unfortunate four Fives hit the board) before winning a big pot off Michael Bolous, his 4k bet into a pot of 3k and a board of 4d 5c 5s Kd 8h being enough to force the youngster into a reluctant fold.

----------------------

Sami Yusif is OUT. All-in preflop against Edwad Phipps, K-Q vs A-K, 2-6-J-A-Q board.

----------------------

Lukas Schwarz and Don Jones are also OUT.

Big hand for Dave Colclough (although it could have been bigger, in a good or bad way) -

Torstein Iversen raises to 225 (something tells me this is not a rare occurrence) and he gets four callers, including Adam Wilkinson in the cutoff, small blind Roberto Romanello and big blind El Blondie.

Flop:  Kh Jh 3c.  Check to Adam, who bets around 1k (I was momentarily distracted by a story from Karl which I will also relate momentarily).  Back around, passed by Roberto who said, "I should bet this," when he found himself first to act but didn't like it any more by this point, while Dave check-raised a substantial 3k when it got back to him.
Now heads up, and Adam thinks about it for a while, before pushing all-in, for around 8k more, a stack which just about covers Mr. C.  He understandably takes his time thinking about this one, and after a long couple of minutes of that, frankly, intimidating staring thing he does, he passes face up Kc Jc.

Another Kings fold, if you can believe what poker players say... this time from equally lairy Romanello.  He raised pre-flop and got the standard re-raise from Karl Mahrenholz.  The flop came Ten-high and Roberto bet out something like 1,600.  Raise from Karl to 4,000, and a reluctant pass.  No-one showed anything, and even when directly asked, by me, a respectable member of the press with a watertight secret-keeping record, Karl wouldn't say if he had Aces. 

Ken Wong is OUT.

OK, there's been a break, and a restart, and a scour for some Level Three Counts (this isn't everybody, but it's a start)...

Mickey Wernick      7,800
Peter Evans           9,300
Womble               12,100
Dan Carter            13,400
Mick McCool           8,900
Maria Demetriou     14,000
Des Jonas             10,600
S Sandhu             16,000
Jules Adamson       5,500  (Saying he's played worse than Phil Peters so far, but wins Chancer of the Day award for showing up tonight and sneaking in)
John Gale             22,000
Ryan Fronda          11,300
Skalie                    5,000
John Shipley          19,000
Matt Dale               5,000  (Said, at the bar, "I'm a calling station.  I can't stop calling.  I call every hand."  Rigorous self-analysis there...)
Trevor Reardon       8,500
Henning Granstad   4,050
Laura Szisak           13,600
Kunkuwap             18,000
Jac Arama               2,000
Lucy Rokach           21,000  (The chips are back, all of them)
Paul Jackson           5,200
Bambos                 2,300
Woodley               14,000
Neil Channing         15,800
Ariston                  3,125
Nick Slade              10,200
Niamh Peters          5,050
Scott O'Reilly         15,000   (Blonde watcher, will have to post if I get a picture of him up here in the next half hour)
Richard Redmond    10,000
Ronnie Debeaulox    8,275
Richard Prew          10,500
Paul Parker              4,350
Nik Persaud            17,200
Barney Boatman      14,200  (who's preflop re-raise of Nik's 475 to 1,325 prompted an instafold faceup of Ac Tc)
Sid Harris                7,525
Geoff Burke            6,000  (Having a time of the 'torrid' variety, as described by Shelley)
Mick McCloskey        6,525
Joe Grech               8,150
Julian Thew            5,125
Torstein Iversen      9,400
Karl Mahrenholz       10,500
Dave Colclough        7,000
Adam Wilkinson       16,000
Roberto Romanello   8,900

Andy Johnson and Willie Tann are OUT.

-------------

Meanwhile...

Nieve Peters has doubled up after getting all-in with Queens vs the Nines of Richard Herbet.

Board = 6-8-7-J-3

-------------

and...

Ian Herbert is up to 22,300.

Ian, Paul Gourlay ad Mick Heron all saw a cheap A-5-7 Flop. Mick checked, so did Ian only for Paul to bet 1k.

With both players smooth calling, all players then checked the rag Turn.

3 on the River and Mick came out betting, 900. Ian made it 2.5k, Paul pushed all-in, Mick folded and Ian called.

Mick had 7-5, Paul had A-3 and Ian had A-5, leaving everybody with two pair, but it was the Welshman who picked up the pot.

----------------

AND...

On another table, Matt Tyler has doubled up to 10k with Queens vs. Deuces, all-in preflop.

Dave Penley -- 18,225
Richard Prew -- 3,100
Dick Lynch -- 9,900
Zahir Aslam -- 6,425

Blinds are currently 100/200, 164 players, 11k av stack.

Niamh (odd spelling, but the truth) is now, suddenly and unequivocally OUT - down to 100 chips after moving all in on a 9-3-2 flop with her Ts Td, and finding Ad Ac in the hand of Richard Wong.

Yes, Richard Wong is now the owner of a near 38k stack, and not out, as previously thought.  There is another Wong playing, and he's the casualty, as it turns out.

Meanwhile, it looks like Nik Persaud might be the level-before-dinner-break leader with something like 42k.  And here's how it happened...

Sunny Chattha raised preflop with Qc Js, called by Nik on the button, as is to be expected...
Flop:  Qh Qs Kh  Sunny bets out the pot, gets called.
Turn:  2c  Sunny checks, Nik bets 2,500, gets called.
River:  Jh  Now Sunny checks his house (sneaky, or so he thinks), gets the expected 5k bet and moves in for 12,000.  He's instacalled by Nik holding Qd Kd... Down to just 1,000 but laughing about it.

Now with his table monster lead, Nik is being a self-confessed wuss.  He raised on the button, and got re-raised 3,500 out of the blinds (THIS is the guy who had the T-6 under the gun limp trips earlier, not Paul as I couldn't bring myself to believe...)  Anyway, Nik thinks out loud, "He's got the A-K for sure.  Maybe A-Q suited."  He throws his 8d 8c face-up anyway, and is shown a smirky Kh 6c. 

John Tabatabai -- 18,225
Johnny Hudson -- 16,600
Russ Cawley -- 4,300
Stefan Eccles -- 13,925
Jac Arama -- 11,650
Phil Peters -- 19,100
James Morgan -- 10,450
Neil Channing -- 19,300
Lauren Szisak -- 15,425
Ian Woodley -- 9,600
Giovanni Vaccarella -- 10,375
Bambos -- 7,300
Stephen Au Yeung -- 4,125
E Phipps -- 9,950
John Gale -- 20,650
Paul Jackson -- 4,325
Lucy Rokach -- 21,100
Dave Smith -- 13,725
S Sandhu -- 14,450
Paul Goulay -- 9,450
Des Jonas -- 10,875
Ray Brown -- 18,400
Ash Pervais -- 8,100
Richard Herbert -- 24,600
Mick Herron -- 2,700
Martini Libertini -- 9,275
Brendan Walls -- 9,200
DaMatrix -- 5,750
Reyaaz Mulla -- 8,750
Tony Cartwright -- 1,850
Henning Granstad -- 6,425
Iwan Jones -- 12,450
John Shipley -- 12,375
Tina Jordan -- 13,200
Paul Parker -- 3,450
Racing Ronnie -- 10,150
Tony Choy-Sing -- 18,400

Barny Boatman is chip leader after winning a massive 4 way pot. Bit of an odd one really, retold by Tighty.

Sunny Chattha had moved in under the gun with As-Qh, and Nik (9s-7s), Barny (sb, Js-xs) and Sid Harris (bb, Ks-Qh) all called.

Flop = Tc Qs 4d

Sid bet and both players called.

Turn = 6s

Sid all-in, Barny made the call (must have been pot odds or a chance for the chip lead) and Nik folded.

River came another spade and Barny took a massive pot.

Howard Plant and Ryan Fronda have been clashing in small but frequent battles.  They check it all the way down on a board which comes:  6s Qs Qd Qh (here Howard announces, "I have a full house") and finally Tc.  Ryan shows Ad Jc, and Howard throws his hand, saying, "I thought I had a full house..."

Then, Howard Plant early min raises and gets called by Michael Greco and Ryan Fronda (and perhaps another, couldn't tell, not relevant). 
The flop comes Qh 4c 3s, Howard checks, Michael bets and gets one caller in Mr. VC.
Turn:  5d  check-check
River:  Tc  check, and Ryan shows Ahrt Qd which is good enough.  Slowly but surely Mr. Fronda is building a stack with which to terrorise his table by calling with high-kickered Aces.

As the players drift into their 75 min dinner break, a mini saga from RED-DOG - he's on a slightly low but not desperate 8k.  For starters he ran JJ into Howard Plant's KK - a low flop got a call from RED, and even a Queen following, but after the check on the river he found that he'd actually done well not to lose any more than half his stack.  Then he raced a short-stack's JJ with overs and won that one - so instead of severely shortened he's still breathing fairly easily.

Not so Mick McCool, whose bowl of rice 2k was all in with Ac 4c against Aspades Ks, but a two pair on the board kept him in over the break.  "I wish you'd had Sevens, now," he said (the double pair was Nines and something Overs)...

Most definitely sold out, with a waiting list of vultures waiting for the traffic-stuck to fail to show... :)

I think the prize structure is listed here (percentage wise):  http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/events_prize.shtml (http://www.grosvenorukpokertour.com/events_prize.shtml)

Andy Donn -- 11,000
Nick Slade -- 8,300
Matt Dale -- 10,275
James Dempsey -- 10,000
Dan Carter -- 13,225
Pete Singleton -- 2,700
Ben Vinson -- 5,200
Michael Muldoon -- out
Brian Little -- 9,900
Dick Lynch -- 16,575
Dave Penley -- 16,550
Ryan Fronda -- 19,375
Trevor Reardon -- 7,875
T Choy Sing -- 19,400
Greg Howard -- 7,925
Mick Fletcher -- 13,900
Racing Ronnie -- 8,400
Maria Demetriou -- 19,725
Nick Jenkins -- 24,300

Russell Cawley is OUT. Down to 1,600, made his move with 9-7 but was taken out by K-Q.
Zippy Aslam -- 4,300
Henning Granstad -- 5,850
Barny Boatman -- 35,475
Michael Greco -- 5,400

Richard 'Strummer' Herbert is OUT. Fives vs A-K.
Ian Woodley -- 25k
Ash Pervais -- 13k
Scott O'Reilley -- 6.7k
Mick McCool - 4.5k

The following players have all exited stage left:

Alan Vinicombe
Gordon McArthur
Karl Mahrenholz
Ben King
Tom Hudson
Terry Fletcher
Tony Cartright
Surinder Sunar
Jonny Hudson
Tony Blood
M Isackov
Andrew Booth
Brian Donnelly
Terry Fletcher

The end of the Requests:

Dave Colclough     10,600
TightEnd              NIS  (not in seat - OUT)
Paul Parker            OUT  (having dwindled too far)
John Gale             27,500
Des Jonas             14,000
Maria Demetriou    18,000
Mickey Wernick     14,000

Richard Redmond is also out, after losing with his 5c 5s to Ad Kd - but from the consolation frowning of his table mates, I reckon something more sinister than a straight preflop race happened to him (just caught the very end).

-------------------

Ben Vinson is OUT. K-K vs A-Q, Ace first card.

Two hot contenders for Climber of the Day:

Will it be Mick McCool (top), down to just 800 chips at one point, who's clawed his way back to 4k?  In the process he avoided losing his hard-won gains in a hand against Ray Brown (also pictured).  He held 9-T, and flopped 5-8-9, betting from the button, and getting called.  The turn brought an Ace, and now Ray bet out 800, called by Mick.  The rivered Ten brought both the McCool two pair, and a 2,300 bet out from Ray, which he avoided calling (it would have left him back under 1,000) and was shown A-5 for his laydown.

Or will it be his table mate Henning Granstad?  The smiling Norwegian has pulled 1,400 back to 8,000 over three long levels.  Let's see who's in at the end of the day, and whose stack has grown the most.  That's how I usually determine Climber of the Day, for anyone technically minded out there...

Andy Miles is OUT. Called a re-raise v Slade with J-K on a 6-J-3 Flop. Up against Aces, Turn A, River J.

Some chip counts for Slade's table.

Miles -- out
Nick Slade -- 14k
Andy Donn -- 11.1k
Racing Ronnie -- 10.6k
Ashley Hayles -- 13.8k
Scott O'Reilley -- 8.1k

Chris Lipris -- 6,100
Dave Smith -- 15,600
Stefan Eccles -- 22,450
Phil Peters -- 8,275
James Morgan -- 14,200
Neil Channing -- 10,225
Stephen AuYeung -- 5,475
Bambos -- 8,500
Ian Woodley -- 21,800
Greg Howard -- 12,300
John Gale -- 30,025
Dan Carter -- 12,100
Paul Jackson -- 9,425
Lucy Rokach -- 27,650
Mark Orlowski -- 2,350
Kayshan Muthy -- 17,200
Jac Arama -- 9,425
Giovanni Vaccorella -- 16,700
Des Jonas -- 14,200
John Tabatabai -- 9,425
Paul Goulay -- 17,125
Ray Brown -- 16,375
Ash Pervais -- 18,700
Darshan Sami -- 6,050
Peter Evans -- 16,275
Henning Granstad -- 7,650
Martino Libertini -- 12,700
DaMatrix -- 10,450
Mick Fletcher -- 13,450
Martin Folkes -- 6,125
John Shipley -- 11,000
Iwan Jones -- 11,500
Tina Jordan -- 11,225
Reyaaz Mulla -- 16,250
Ian Herbert -- 20,100

Chris Lipris has doubled up. Gale limped, Lipris raised and Howard and Gale both called. Flop = Kh Jd Ahrt Lipris bets 2k, Howard folds and Gale calls. Lipris then moves in on the 3d Turn and, after a lenghty dwell, Gale calls with the speculative holding of Jh 6h. The set holds up and Lipris is up to 15k.

--------------

Also, Henning Granstad got up to that figure by doubling up with Aces vs. K-Q.

Well, it's not Mick McCool's day to be Climber - he eventually got into that AK vs QQ race and lost the lot.  So ruthlessly quick, this game, sometimes.  But Michael Greco is finding it slow - "Pair of fives my best hand all day."  His boredom threshold might be in danger of being crossed soon, although he assures us he will be, "Grinding to the end..."

Elsewhere, serial caller Matt Dale has pulled his socks up and regained some chips (11k) while RED-DOG gets a narrow escape:

He'd raised in mid position with Ad Kc, receiving two callers.  The Ahrt 3h 4s flop brought a bet out from the blinds caller of 2,500.  Awkward, considering Red's stack only totalled around 9,000... so he decided to push, but found 4h 4c against him... luckily he was saved by the running 2-5 for the split-creating straight, and admits that he's been given a reprieve from the cards.  Currently trying to forget about the problems that hand caused him ("Should I have pushed?  Could I ever fold? etc.) and building up a more playable stack before the larger antes kick in.

Olabode Ayegun -- 5,750
Red-Dog -- 8,800
Philip Dorrington -- 24,500
Matt Tyler -- 12,800
Trevor Reardon -- 9,300
Matt Dale -- 9,200
Jamie Prices -- 7,300
Howard Plant -- 9,400
Michael Greco -- 9,150
Alan McLean -- 9,450
Mike Tse -- 16,375
Robert Bright -- 8,300
Dick Lynch -- 2,800
Benwoo -- 10,300
John Huckle -- 19,825
Nick Jenkins -- 19,000

Bright was on less but doubled up with A-K vs Mike Tse's 9-9 and a board of 3-A-3-5-2.

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Meanwhile, on another table and with 2,800, buddy love (Olabode Ayegun) sticks it in with Q-Js, but lost to A-Q.

S Sandu is OUT. 5h 2h vs 4d 2d on a Kh Jh 6c Flop. Ian Herbert hits a black Four on the River.

Chip second or third Nik Persaud has been moved to Ryan Fronda's immediate left.  He's therefore the big blind RED will be attempting to steal... he's still having to explain that he's a luckbox for that early House vs. House double through, but I notice at least a few more chips have been added since then.  He said his Aces (card rack, too) nearly took a chunk off him, when someone with T-7 saw a T-7-2 flop with him...

And Dave Colclough, still pondering that (much) earlier pass of two pair re-raises an under-the-gun raiser to steal another thousand, all the time surmising that far from a dominating hand or even a nut draw, the guy he gave so much respect at the beginning was purely on the steal himself.  No one tortures players about their play like themselves.

And another table has been broken; we're down to 120.  My guess for finishing number is: 75.  Apart from, "Who's the chip leader?" the question I get asked most often on a Day One is, "How many d'you think we'll get down to tonight."  I honestly have no idea why this should be, but I always pretend to think for a while before stabbing in the dark.

Roberto Romanello  12,000
Richard Wong       15,000
Ronnie Debeaulox   13,600
Chili                      13,000
Bambos                 6,300
Ian Woodley          30,000
Neil Channing         11,500
Phil Peters             13,700
Barney Boatman     50,000
Dan Carter             25,500
John Gale              14,500
ActionJack              4,400
Lucy Rokach          19,000
Greg Howard         18,200
Kunkuwap              6,300
Des Jonas              17,000
Lauren Szisak          4,500
Jac Arama              13,200
Iwan Jones             11,100
Nik Persaud            42,000
Ryan Fronda           19,000
RED-DOG                8,400
Michael Greco          11,000

Zippy Aslam -- 3,025
Racing Ronnie -- 11,750
Choy-Sing -- 21,650
Maria Demetriou -- 13,350

And a couple of new ones:

Andrew Bradshaw -- 25,425
Alan Henson (Who finalled in Bolton) -- 15,250

Blinds are at 200/400, 115 left, 15,700 av stack.

Just saw Lucy split a pot, and this time she had her man dominated. She raised, MB called, and a chap who I believe to be Michael McLean makes a move witj K-2. Lucy calls with her A-K but the board comes 8-5-K-8-8 saving McLean.

Red-Dog -- 8,900
Michael Greco -- 13,825
Phil Dorrington -- 18,500
Charlie Denton -- 14,225
Jatinder Purewal -- 12,400
Peter Singleton -- out
Matt Tyler -- 19,800
John Huckle -- 19,650
Trevor Reardon -- 3,600
Matt Dale -- 11,525
Mickey Wernick -- 13,700
Tony Choy-Sing -- 21,050
MZ Hussain -- 18,800
Nik Persuad -- 39,900
DaMatrix -- out
Jamie Price -- 17,500
Womble -- 5,200

Bambos has played almost no hands, it looks like, today, and hasn't had over 10k at any point.  Just now he raised to 3,300 after Ian Woodley limped in under the gun (which could mean almost anything).  "I can beat A-K," sighs Woodley as he releases his 2s 2c.
"I could beat A-K as well," remarks Bambos, stoical in his small pot "first winning hand" Ad Aspades...
Barney Boatman pipes up, telling Ian, "You should've played it the Jac Arama way - stop the bluff..." 

---------------

Charlie Denton is OUT. Queens verus Kings, all-in pre-flop, 9-7-T-T-4.

Bad news for Denton, but good news for Matt Tyler who jumpst up to 35k as a result.

--------------

Neil Channing is OUT.

Bonkers Hand Crowns New Leader News Now -

I was drawn over by an excited Martyn Cavanagh to get some muttered commentary courtesy of Paul Jackson on this crazy hand - There was a standard raise, called by Edward Phipps on the button.  According to Paul, this guy has been playing 80% of hands, calling with any two and winning enough of them to have a stack of around 30k by the time this hand happened.  Anyway, the big blind then makes it 5,200 to go (a re-raise of 4k) losing the original guy, but not the tenacious Mr. Phipps.

Flop came Ten high.  Now, bear in mind that the pot gets to over 60k here - it goes, bet out, raise all in, instacall.
Big blind, Mr. Greg Howard showed Aspades Kd
Button, Mr. Edward Phipps showed Ts Jh
The rest came low, and the rest of the table was speechless.  "What planet are they on, and why do I not have any chips?" grumbles ActionJack, or words to that effect, as his 8k or so looks even less powerful...

A couple more counts:

Joe Grech     7,600
Ray Brown    27,000
Peter Evans  26,800 (although this might be before the raise 'controversy')
Mickey Wernick  15,500
Henning Granstad  8,100  (each check he's down to 2k, then up to 8k, then down to 2k again - like a scaled-down YoYo...)

Iwan Jones -- 11,300
John Huckle -- 20,000
Andy Bradshaw -- 30,500
Dave Penley -- 15,500
Alan Henson -- 8,825
John Gale -- 11,525
Paul Gourlay -- 22,900
Stefan Eccles -- 23,050
Stephen Auyeung -- 14,725
Chris Lipsi -- 14,600
Dick Lynch -- 23,225
Jac Arama -- 18,050
Dave Smith -- 31,325
Michael McLean -- 17,825
Lucy Rokach -- 31,850
Alan McLean -- 11,050
Dan Carter -- 15,550
Ian Woodley -- 24,800
Barny Boatman -- 47,325
James Morgan -- 17,225
Kayshan Muthy -- 26,625

Matt Tyler has got the cake after his Aces were raised by Matt Dale and then all-in by Philip Dorrington. Matt also moved all-in forcing to Matt Dale to fold, only to find out that Dorrington was making a move with 4c 2c. Anyhow, although the Flop came an 'I've got an out at least' 2-Q-Q Flop, the 6 on the Turn and the 2 on the River meant that a relieved Tyler was allowed to rake in the chips.

Only a couple of outer tables remaining, one of which is made up of the following:

Maria Demetriou -- 11,350
Tony Choy-Sing -- 16,050
Mickey Wernick -- 7,350
Ouday Hickary -- 22,350
Tim Blake -- 17,150
Adam Wilkinson -- 30,550
Nick Jenkins -- 16,050

Incidentally, Wilkinson just made a smart fold with Queens to A-K on a King high flop.

-----------------

After being eliminated by Chris Gavriel in the Broadway Main Event, Tim Blake has sought revenge and defeated his opponent with Q-T vs. A-T (Gavriel was short), Queen arriving for the grateful blondeite.

Ryan Fronda puts himself through the wringer over a 6k call on the river with the board standing:  4s 4h 5d Qs 5c.  He checked, and found this bet into the 9k or so in the pot.  Going through all the options of what he puts his opponent on, from Queens through to pure bluff, he eventually calls, only to see the 4c 4d in his opponent's hand...

So Ryan Fronda, after pressing the 'Time' button quite vigorously (with a real decision, to be fair) has 12,700.
Neighbour Tom McCready has just 6,125, and presumably would like the whole thing to move at a brisker pace.  But he's still awake, which is more than I can say for some of the players.

Someone who is definitely out is one of my picks, Joe Grech, who made his swan song with Pocket Nines v the K-Q of Martino Libertini.

On the same table, Damien Evans takes out a player when his Kings hold up against Tens, all-in by the Queen high Flop.

---------------------

Matt Dale is also a gonna, finding his J-Ts in deep deep toruble against Jatinder Purewal's Pocket Tens.

4c 9c 4s Aspades gave him some outs, but even though he asked nicely for a spade or a jack, the dealer failed to oblige.

After the current break, we'll be up to 400/800 ante 75, and that level will be all for today's play.

Matt Tyler -- 60,200
Paul Gourlay -- 54,975
Edward Phipps -- 49,950
Barny Boatman -- 48,550
Nik Persaud -- 41,950
Michael Bolous -- 40,800

-------------

Zippy Aslam is OUT.

Pushed all-in from the small blind with K-J but was looked up by the A-6 of Christian Laarsen.

It's short stack double up outdraw hour here!

Firstly, RED-DOG found his moment, and got it all in with J-9.  He was called by J-Q.  Eek.  First card out: 9, Turn card: Q, River card: 9.  11,000 for Tom.

Then, Chili got it all in with Qs Qc preflop (more of a Genuine hand this one) but was called by Mickey Wernick with the genuiner Ad Ahrt.
The board came out:  Qh 9d 5s 9s Ts and so Chili approaches the 20k mark, while Mickey is left with around half that.  All good humoured, though, if anything, Maria was wincing - I only ran over to the table because I saw her head bowed down over her arms in an "Oh no" kind of way...

Mick Flecther is OUT.

Moved all-in on a 9c Ahrt 2c Flop with Kc 8c.

Roberto Romanello made a very good call with Ad 3d, which deservedly stood up.

Turn = 8d

River = Js


-----------------------

Paul Jackson exited earlier. His assassin was John Huckle who's A-J outdid Actionjack's Pocket Threes.

Paul Gourlay -- 62,700
Roberto   Romanello -- 60,000
Andrew Bradshaw -- 53,300
Peter Evans -- 50,900
Reyaaz Mulla -- 49,500
Ganesh Rao -- 49,300
Matt Tyler -- 49,200
David Parker -- 47,400
Barny Boatman -- 46,100
Michael Bolous -- 46,100
Lucy Rokach -- 44,900
Damian Evans -- 44,500
Nick Persaud -- 44,500
Samuel Harrison -- 44,100
Alan Vinncombe -- 43,900
Barry Lane -- 43,400
M Arnesen -- 42,700
Kayshan   Muthy -- 42,500
Kirshan   Larsen -- 37,900
R Lynch -- 35,400
John Gale -- 34,900
Zachery Ford -- 31,200
Ben Callinan -- 31,000
John Marles -- 30,000
Richard Wong -- 30,000
Ash Pervaiz -- 29,900
Alan Mclean -- 29,000
Martino Libertini -- 28,000
Ian Herbert -- 27,700
Ouday Hikary -- 27,700
Nicholas Jenkins -- 26,500
Dave Smith -- 25,600
Iwan Jones -- 24,100
Edward Phipps -- 23,500
Adam Wilkinson -- 23,000
Chris Liperis -- 22,600
Ian Woodley -- 22,100
MZ Hussain -- 21,700
Paul Rayner -- 21,600
Des Jonas -- 21,100
Jatinder Purewal -- 20,300
Mike Moore -- 18,300
Raymond   Brown -- 18,000
Graham Cadd -- 18,000
Stefan Eccles -- 18,000
James Morgan -- 18,000
Ryan Fronda -- 16,800
Nick Slade -- 16,800
Amanda Birney -- 15,200
Mathaw Mckinlay -- 15,000
Ronnie Debealox -- 14,900
John Huckle   14,800
Giovanni Vaccarella -- 14,300
Maria Demetriou -- 13,800
Rory Mchugh -- 13,700
Stephen AuYeung -- 13,300
Dan Carter -- 13,200
T Choy-Sing -- 11,600
J Ruehle -- 11,600
Jac Arama -- 11,200
Rob Watkiss -- 11,000
Darren Baine -- 10,600
Mick Wernick -- 10,300
Tim Blake -- 9,100
Darshan   Sami -- 7,300
Paul Plimmer -- 5,400
Alan Henson -- 4,000
Ian Parry -- 3,600