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The Cardiff Grosvenor UK Poker Tour, in association with Blue Square Poker, is due to commence at 4pm.

Join our blonde/DTD live update team then.

Arrived in Cardiff Central, took a train to Cardiff Queen Street, another to Cardiff Bay, then walked back into town several miles just to be different.  I hate to think what Danafish, guest updater has to say about that...

But we're here now, and there are a lot of people thronging Grosvenor Cardiff - among them tikay himself, who can throng with the best of them, The Claimer, Pab, JP, Sunny Chattha, Lucy Rokach, Ian Herbert, Nick 'Vodkaredbull' Hicks, Chris Bruce, Jim Kerrigan, Paul King (playing tomorrow), Jeff Rogers, Trevor Reardon, Michael Greco, Carlo Citrone...

The list, as ever, goes on.  And will go up as soon as we receive the printout.

Start potentially in 20 mins - I bet between 15 and 20 minutes post that.

They're taking their seats, and it looks like a fairly timely start - more people spotted while we were staring with joy at the numbered tables:

Paul Jackson
Roberto Romanello
Dr. Aris
James Browning
Karl Mahrenholz

Apparently we're getting a wonderful spreadsheet (not my words, Mr. Raab's) within half an hour...

Table 9

1 - Andrew Feldman
2 - Alan Vinnicombe
3 - Mel Judah
4 - Jon Rathbone
5 - Robert Garfield
6 - Alan Davies
7 - Terrence Nelson
8 - Wai Choi
9 - Mike Downey
10 - Richard Rudling-Smith

Table 10

1 - Stuart Nash
2 - Huo Ngo
3 - Angela Rich
4 - Nick Hicks
5 - David Neville
6 - Steve Cordy
7 - Baruktal Mohammed
8 - Jim Reid
9 - Richard Cowley

Table 11

1 - Julian Thew
2 - Paul Jackson
3 - Jon Kalmar
4 - Jerome Bradpiece
5 - Gregory Howard
6 - Adrian Walshe
7 - Dewi James
8 - Ken Wong
9 - Des Jonas
10 - Daniel Bevan

Table 12

1 - Mike Lacey
2 - Michael Muldoon
3 - Richard Wilcox
4 - Will Mitchell
5 - Jac Arama
6 - Andrea Tommaso
7 - Bill Taylor
8 - Priyan De Mel
9 - Tony Kendall
10 - Glen Martin

Table 13

1 - Barney Boatman
2 - Simon Paul-James
3 - Efstathios Andreou
4 - Roy Brindley
5 - Andrew Georgiou
6 - Joshua Tyler
7 - Paul Hardwidge
8 - Andy O'Flaherty
9 - Mike Ellis

Table 14

1 - James Fisher
2 - Craig Williams
3 - Zahir Aslam
4 - Brian Johnston
5 - Mazhar Nawab
6 - Glenn Ashworth
7 - Yucel Eminoglu
8 - Robert Price
9 - Royce Law

Table 15

1 - T. Chen
2 - Trevor Reardon
3 - Tom Ridgewell
4 - David Mobbs
5 - Ian Frazer
6 - Albin Bankuti
7 - Jeff Duval
8 - Rana Gurnham
9 - Dan Carter

Table 16

1 - Jamie Gubb
2 - Martyn Reeve
3 - Alan Henson
4 - Van Le
5 - Albert Sapiano
6 - Robert Forsman
7 - Chris Bruce
8 - Dylan Herbert
9 - Thomas Craven

Table 1

1 - Miya Badat
2 - Ben Turnstill
3 - J McBride
4 - JP Kelly
5 - Mick Fletcher
6 - Lam Trinh
7 - Ian Fieldhouse
8 - Stephen Eccles
9 - Sunny Chattha
10 - Ouday Hikary


Table 2

1 - Michael Arnold
2 - Anthony Dunsford
3 - David Parker
4 - Ian Herbert
5 - Nicholas Stuart
6 - Carl Mahrenholz
7 - Dinh Le
8 - Matthew Mckinlay
9 - Graeme Warren
10 - Tom Ault


Table 3

1 - Fabio Loducca
2 - Paul Gardener
3 - R Bodha
4 - Alex Irving
5 - Kayshan Muthy
6 - Ashad Hussain
7 - Carlo Citrone
8 - Jeffery Rogers
9 - Ben Thomas
10 - Peter Bala


Table 4

1 - Matt Dale
2 - Stuart Rutter
3 - James Browning (who claims on the seating list that his nickname is "Hollywood")
4 - Daniel Mazzia
5 - Ben Callaghan
6 - John Hewston
7 - Stephen Basri
8 - Dr Aris
9 - John Tabatabai
10 - Mark Claire


Table 5

1 - James Gawen
2 - Grant Mercado
3 - James Welshe
4 - John Marles
5 - Roberto Romanello
6 - Stuart Fox
7 - Robert Biltcliffe
8 - Phillip Peters
9 - Martyn Wilson
10 - Billy Ngo


Table 6

1 - Jonathan Bancroft
2 - Peter Evans
3 - Andrea Buzzigoli
4 - Robert Taylor
5 - Nick Romanello
6 - Mike O'Neil
7 - Vinny Campbell
8 - Paul Foltym
9 - Paul Gourlay
10 - Jim Kerrigan


Table 7

1 - Richard Mackay
2 - Praz Bansi
3 - Nik Persaud
4 - Jim Bedson
5 - Martin Cavanagh
6 - Chris Huyton
7 - Alan Dean
8 - Daniel Oliver
9 - Phil Valentine
10 - Anthony Nicholls


Table 8

1 - Jeff Burke
2 - Simon Zach
3 - Niamh Peters
4 - Lucy Rokach
5 - Mark Blandford
6 - Paul Webb
7 - Barry Neville
8 - Aaron Elscombe
9 - Lukas Schwartz
10 - Damon D'Cruz

Praz Bansi managed to get it all in preflop in the first level.  I think it was a case of raise, re-raise, dwell-re-re-raise, pretend frown re-re-re-raise...

Anyway it was Ad Ac against Aspades Ahrt... chop chop.  And to think, so much drama and no one's out.  Actually, I don't know if anyone's out.  Better go down and check (we suffer from far-away-press-room-lag a bit here).

Early Leaders; Early Losers News Now -

Lucy Rokach was apparently the first to be eliminated, followed hotly by James Browning.  She had chips 15 minutes ago, so all of this is hot off the press...

Meanwhile, Mike Lacey (GO IRISH UPDATERS) "got away lightly, lost the minimum" with Qd Qc against Priyan's Aspades Ahrt.  The lowish board ended up with a river check, all in all Mike didn't get the chance to do the lot.
Mike:  7,650  ("I won a few before that")
Priyan:  18,000

Taking a coffee break at the bar (oh so easily confused for being out) was Brian Johnston, who wanted it noted that he, too, has 18k ("before it's gone.").

He won a tidy pot with Aspades Qd, seeing an Ahrt Qh 7h flop.  Any inhibitions he may have had about continuing to bet disappeared on the Qc turn, and he even managed to prise out another 1,600 on the river (his opponent had an Ace).

Then he got into a battle with the Mad Turk, with Kh Qh.  This time a more promising flop:  heart heart Kc.  The turn was the Aspades, however, and when he bet, Turk called sharpish.  The river brought an offsuit Ten, Brian checked and faced a 2,100 bet.  A long think which he said ended when he just considered to himself, "Well, it's him," and called with his King, which was good.  Turk showed a Nine, apparently, and mucked...

Good news for Nick Hicks fans - just saw him bet out 500 on a 8c 3c 2h flop, called.  Double check on the Jh turn; Aspades on the river and Nick took down a pot of over 2,000 with another 500 bet.

Meanwhile table tikay's action has all being raging without any actual participation from Mr. Kendall himself.  He told me he hadn't played a hand, but that Jac Arama had only sat out of two so that kind of evens things out.

Perhaps a few selected counts - before the veritable chip census which will happen in the break (bless the seat cards, what a clever idea that was ;whistle; )

On a flop of  6d Jc 9h, Angela Rich, whose name I like very much, bets 600; she finds a caller in Steve Cordy. A random 8s on the turn and she bets 1500; Cordy folds. Too Rich for him...  ;hide;

Here's a very chip-ful hand. The board is  Kd 6c 2c 9c, with about 10,000 in the pot. Turn comes  4d; Fabio Loducca checks, Ash Hussain bets 2000 and is called by both Carlo Citrone and Loducca. Loducca shows aces, but Ash has  7c 8c for a very nearly but not quite straight flush. Still, it's good, as Citrone mucks. Ashad Hussain now has considerably more chips than previously.

Barry Neville is down to just 3k or so after getting involved with Mark Blandford, who raised preflop and called a re-raise (I think it was that way round).  Anyway, a 6-high flop came, and Mark bet out, was re-raised heavily, and pushed in for his whole stack of nearly 10k.  Barry called, showing Ad 6s, but he was up against Aspades Ad, which stayed good.

Check out this photo, you can just imagine him saying, "Cardrack," which he did.
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=21722.msg440254#msg440254 (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=21722.msg440254#msg440254)

Other counts pre first break (in 15 mins).

Tikay              9,200
JP Kelly           4,500
Sunny Chattha  8,600
Ian Fieldhouse   13,850
Karl Mahrenholz  10,300
Billy Ngo           1,520
Ash Hussain      17,100
Carlo Citrone     2,475
Jonny Hewston   16,000
Matt Dale           9,300  ("I've been up to 12, down to 8, back to 10...")
Stuart Rutter     7,100  ("I've been down to 9, down to 8, down to 7...")
Jim Reid            14,000
Nick Hicks          6,575
Stuart Nash       8,450
Angela Rich        10,100
Des Jonas           8,100
Jerome Bradpiece  6,300
Jon 'Skalie' Kalmar  12,000
Paul Jackson          5,650
Julian Thew          9,500
Nik Persaud           7,000
Praz Bansi             7,500  (Up from 4k after a marvellous laydown after a K-T-T board with K-T: he was shown Kings...)
Martyn Cavanagh   9,600
Dewi                   16,175

This hand looked moderately juicy when I caught it towards the end. On a  2h Js 2d Td 6h board, Karl Mahrenholz checks and Graeme Warren bets 1600. Mahrenholz wells, and dwells, then he thinks about it for a while, and dwells some more. Finally he calls. Mahrenholz shows  2c 5c; Warren shows  2s 3s. Somehow the split pot seems a bit disappointing after all that impressive dwelling.

Nick Hicks re-raises from the big blind - to 1,500 over a 400 early position bet.  Call.  Flop:  4d Js 9h.  Nick bets out 1,500; dwell; call.
Turn:  Kc  quick check-check
River:  Aspades  Nick checks, faces a 2,600 bet and passes. 

With the flop  5c 3h 9c, Dinh Le bets 600 and gets himself called by the delightfully beardy Tom Ault, incidentally also another vague Vigo-lookalike contender. Turn comes  6d; Dinh bets 1100, and Tom calls again. River comes  5d and Dinh goes all in for about 5000. Our beardy friend quietly folds. If he'd been like Vigo he would have eaten Dinh's soul. But he didn't.

Chris Bruce comfortably doubled up first level, we hear, with pocket Kings vs. pocket Aces - all the way to the river it looked like the deck was coolish for him, but a King on the river came and it was the other guy wincing his way to the exit.

I think those hovering around this level (18-20k are the current chip leaders).  Full counts on their way after the 15 minute break.

Mike Lacey has fallen....and landed at the bar next to an impressively-early-intoxicated Claimer.  He was playing 7-8, and "made a move with a lot of outs."
What this boils down to is that the board came 2-5-6-7 noflush, and he got it checked to him on the turn, bet, then was min-re-raised.  "I don't like minimum raises," asserted Lacey, as a prelude to the story of him pushing in and being called by two pair (5-6).  "I hate min raises," he said again, while drinking beer.

Meanwhile Stuart Rutter is on around 2,000 after he got it all in with a flush vs. a set of Jacks.  Despite his neighbour having gotten out of the way with two pair (thus removing a few house outs), the board did pair, and he doubled up John Tabatabai (kunkuwap) - we think.

So, courtesy of Jon Raab's magic spreadsheet - full counts of all remaining players at the first break.  If they're not on the list they're not coming in they've been knocked out.

Badat, Miya -- 9050
Turnstill, Ben   -- 8875
Mcbride, J -- 3750
Kelly, Jp --   OUT just now, we think flush draw which missed
Fletcher, Mick   -- 7075
Trinh, Lam -- 25200
Fieldhouse, Ian   -- 2775   
Chattha, Sunny   -- 11225
Hikary, Ouday -- 7050
Arnold, Michael   -- 10700
Dunsford, Anthony -- 5575
Parker, David   -- 26850
Herbert, Ian -- 19150
Stuart, Nicholas -- 12725
Mahrenholz, Carl -- 15325
Le, Dinh -- 6800   
Price, Robert -- 10775
Ault, Tom -- 4550   
Gardener, Paul    -- 14200
Bodha, R -- 10575
Irving, Alex -- 8125
Muthy, Kayshan   -- 14850
Hussain, Ashad   -- 22500
Citrone, Carlo   -- 7350
Rogers, Jeffery   -- 7100
Thomas, Ben -- 7750
Bala, Peter -- 10000
Dale, Matt -- 11050
Rutter, Stuart   -- 2350
Aslam, Zahir -- 3850
Mazzia, Daniel   -- 12600
Callaghan, Ben   -- 7575
Hewston, John -- 17900
Basri, Stephen   -- 13600
Aris, Dr -- 9325
Tabatabai, John   -- 8450
Claire, Mark -- 14900
Gawen, James -- 9450
Boatman, Barny   -- 16900
Welshe, James   -- 5975
Marles, John   -- 11825
Romanello, Roberto -- 18875
Biltcliffe, Robert -- 11250
Peters, Phillip   -- 11650
Wilson, Martyn   -- 31425
Mobbs, David -- 9275
Bancroft, Jonathan -- 8450
Evans, Peter -- 13250
Buzzigoli, Andrea -- 3925
Taylor, Robert   -- 4750
Ashworth, Glenn   -- 7175
Oneil, Mike -- 14000
Campbell, Vinny   -- 7150
Foltym, Paul -- 13225
Gourlay, Paul -- 11650
Kerrigan, Kerry   -- 15600
Mackay, Richard   -- 11000
Bansi, Praz -- 3600
Persaud, Nik -- 4325
Bedson, Jim -- 9325
Cavanagh, Martin -- 11000
Huyton, Chris -- 6275
Dean, Alan -- 17425
Nawab, Mazhar -- 15250
Valentine, Phil   -- 10325
Nicholls, Anthony -- 10975
Burke, Jeff -- 17600
Zach, Simon -- 17500
Peters, Niiamh   -- 9425
Johnston, Brian   -- 16900
Blandford, Mark   -- 18050
Webb, Paul -- 7400
Neville, Barry   -- 6375
Elscombe, Aaron   -- 2775
Schwartz, Lukas   -- 12950
D cruz, Damon   -- 8300
Feldman, Andrew   -- 8600
Vinniconbe, Alan -- 13775
Judah, Melvyn   -- 13300
Rathbone, Jon   -- 4450
Garfield, Robert -- 7725
Davies, Alan -- 16225
Nelson, Terrence -- 8325
Choi, Wai -- 10225
Downey, Mike -- 8725
Rudling-Smith, Richard   -- 8650
Nash, Stuart -- 9650
Ngo, Huo -- 8825
Rich, Angela -- 11200
Hicks, Nick -- 6300
Neville, David   -- 9400
Cordy, Steve -- 8650
Mohammed, Baruktal -- 8500
Reid, Jim -- 13225
Cowley, Richard   -- 9275
Owen, Jack -- 15000
Thew, Julien -- 12200
Jackson, Paul -- 5775
Kalamar, Jon -- 17325
Bradpiece, Jerome -- 11350
Howard, Gregory   -- 13650
Walshe, Adrian   -- 4650
James, Dewi -- 16025
Wong, Ken -- 11275
Jonas, Des -- 7375
Muldoon, Michael -- 8150
Wilcox, Richard   -- 20150
Mitchel, Will -- 11400
Arama, Jac -- 875
Tommaso, Andrea   -- 10075
Taylor, Bill -- 11225
Denel, Triyam   -- 11550
Kendall, Tony -- 10075
Martin, Glen -- 16475
Paul-james, Simon -- 12725
Andreou, Efstathios -- 4425
Jeff Kimber -- 8250
Gergiou, Andrew   -- 11975
Tyler, Joshua   -- 3950
Hardwidge, Paul   -- 9625
Oflaherty, Andy   -- 15750
Ellis, Mike -- 5150
Eminoglu, Yucel   -- 13775
Chen, T   -- 15225
Reardon, Trevor   -- 13675
Ridgewell, Tom   -- 10575
Frazer, Ian -- 7100
Bankuti, Albin   -- 4200
Duval, Jeff -- 12475
Gurnham, Rana   -- 8200
Carter, Dan -- 8500
Williams, Craig   -- 10275
Romanello, Nick   -- 13425
Gubb, Jamie -- 10825
Reeve, Martyn -- 9450
Henson, Alan -- 8350
Le, Van   -- 6050
Sapiano, Albert   -- 7675
Forsman, Robert   -- 12175
Bruce, Chris -- 19575
Herbert, Dylan   -- 13500
Craven, Thomas   -- 950
Fisher, James   -- 8125

Tikay is in the press room.  This means one of two things - he's lost, or he's lost.  It's the former - he had a Scandinavian gent from BadBeat moved to his table, a certain Robert Forsman, who ran a series of effective bluffs on the table, and was generally pretty active.  So then, someone raises to 500, Mr. Forsman, muttering something like "I told you not to raise me.." etc. etc. made it 2,000 more, and tikay saw a golden opportunity to pick up 3k right there, with a dive all-in with his Ac Ks.

Actually, the opportunity was for Robert to catch him with Ahrt Ad - and we have a press railbird, an odd hybrid of journalist and player.

On a flop of  6h 6d 4h, there was fine checking action between Paul Hardwidge and the splendidly be-hoodied Mike Ellis. Hardwidge bet a big chunk of his stack on the random river, but Ellis was having none of it. Good thing too, Hardwidge showed a VAST  6c 4c.

With a moderate but not obscene amount of pre-flop raising, the flop comes  2d Qd Qs. Nick Romanello bets 500, only for Jonathan Bancroft to move all in from the button. There follows some lengthy and uneventful dwelling, before Romanello calls.

Bancroft - J Q

Romanello - K Q

Jerome Bradpiece performs the double knockout against two other short(er) stacks:

Paul 'ActionJack' Jackson moved in first, for his 2k or so, found neighbour Jon Kalmar on the cutoff pushing in over the top for around 6k, while button Jerome went into the tank for a good while before eventually calling (pretty much all-in himself) with 9d 9c.
Paul showed 8c 8s  (saying, "I have two outs" before he saw anyone's cards)
Skalie showed  Aspades Tc

The board came down Q-J-x giving a King as an extra out or four for Jon, but no further developments mean that Jerome now has a playable stack and the others are at the front of the queue for the buffet.

******************* 75 minute dinner break *******************

You'll be instantly posted with all remaining players' chip counts when they've been done during the break, so seeing as play is on pause at the moment, I think now would be the time to try to nip to the front and eat something. 

Oh, too late.  Never mind, Dana can create a distraction while I run and grab some of those ubiquitous chicken-on-a-stick things.

Full chip counts have been collected by a ruthlessly efficient Jon Raab and will be with you in mere minutes. 

Tales from the rail during the dinner break:

Pab has found his table "bizarre," with two players on it who are both totally unreadable and liable at any time to limp, call any raise, and then min-bet and min-raise their opponents into submission.  It's worked - Pab says, "at no time do I have any idea what they have.  And I can't raise them off preflop.  Or on the flop for that matter."  Bemused but persistent, I'm sure he'll work out some kind of strategy.

Meanwhile Stuart Rutter is out (did I already say that?) - after his flush was housed out, he got it all in with some kind of made hand against a flush draw and that didn't work either.  But he should share the secret of knocked-out good humour with the crowd - I've never seen someone rebound so fast.

****Breaking news****
Giant threeway coup gives Barney Boatman the chip lead, while taking a lot from early leader Marty Wilson...

Full counts as of start of dinner break, in table and seat order:

Badat, Miya -- 9625
Mackay, Richard   -- 11075
Henson, Alan -- 22725
Bruce, Chris -- 28125
Fletcher, Mick   -- 6150
Trinh, Lam -- 34125
Fieldhouse, Ian   -- 16050
Gubb, Jamie -- 8875
Thew, Julien -- 18250
Hikary, Ouday -- 4900

Arnold, Michael   -- 12950
Dunsford, Anthony -- 3525
Parker, David -- 30700
Herbert, Ian -- 8700
Stuart, Nicholas -- 12950
Le, Dinh -- 1250
Le, Van   -- 5050
Price, Robert -- 17700
Ault, Tom -- 3850

Dean, Alan -- 24175
Gardener, Paul   -- 13575
Bodha, R -- 5525
Irving, Alex -- 21975
Muthy, Kayshan   -- 11775
Hussain, Ashad   -- 20025
Citrone, Carlo   -- 13875
Nicholls, Anthony -- 26025
Thomas, Ben -- 11300
Bala, Peter -- 10200

Dale, Matt -- 1400
Andreou, Efstathios -- 9800
Aslam, Zahir -- 5500
Mazzia, Daniel   -- 16775
Callaghan, Ben   -- 9775
Bedson, Jim -- 10925
Basri, Stephen   -- 17600
Aris, Dr -- 7750
Tabatabai, John   -- 11200
Claire, Mark -- 24950

Gawen, James -- 16550
Boatman, Barny -- 12625  (not any more...more like triple that - update coming)
Welshe, James -- 26250
Marles, John -- 3475
Romanello, Roberto -- 33875
Eminoglu, Yucel   -- 14050
Biltcliffe, Robert -- 9775
Peters, Phillip   -- 11175
Wilson, Martyn   -- 20850
Huyton, Chris   -- 5150

Chattha, Sunny   -- 10875
Gurnham, Rana   -- 14625
Persaud, Nik -- 10925
Ashworth, Glenn   -- 6500
Oneil, Mike -- 27075
Campbell, Vinny   -- 725
Foltyn, Paul -- 11125
Gourlay, Paul -- 18250
Kerrigan, Jim   -- 19275

Burke, Jeff -- 7100
Zach, Simon -- 22300
Peters, Niiamh   -- 9250
Johnston, Brian   -- 29325
Blandford, Mark   -- 26050
Webb, Paul -- 3800
Ellis, Mike -- 4275
Elscombe, Aaron   -- 7675
Schwartz, Lukas   -- 8575
D cruz, Damon -- 3100

Feldman, Andrew   -- 12925
Vinniconbe, Alan -- 8225
Judah, Melvyn -- 9125
Valentine, Phil   -- 4400
Garfield, Robert -- 16575
Davies, Alan -- 25450
Nelson, Terrence -- 13100
Choi, Wai -- 21725
Gergiou, Andrew   -- 12350   

Nash, Stuart -- 11550
Ngo, Huo -- 13100
Oflaherty, Andy   -- 12625
Reeve, Martyn -- 2675
Neville, David   -- 12075
Cordy, Steve -- 9650
Mohammed, Baruktal -- 13925
Reid, Jim -- 10725
Cavanagh, Martin -- 8875
Owen, Jack -- 24875

Tyler, Joshua -- 16650
Mahrenholz, Carl -- 21975
Hardwidge, Paul   -- 12150
Bradpiece, Jerome -- 15650
Howard, Gregory   -- 15700
James, Dewi -- 13125
Wong, Ken -- 24500
Jonas, Des -- 4650
Craven, Thomas   -- 2700

Jeff Kimber -- 13125
Wilcox, Richard   -- 15675
Mitchel, Will -- 11950
Forsman, Robert   -- 28100
Tommaso, Andrea   -- 10575
Taylor, Bill -- 16675
Rich, Angela -- 27425
Martin, Glen -- 16500

Chen, T   -- 10400
Reardon, Trevor   -- 18900
Ridgewell, Tom   -- 9700
Frazer, Ian -- 9400
Paul-james, Simon -- 8800
Duval, Jeff -- 19675
Carter, Dan -- 1200
Williams, Craig   -- 8900
Romanello, Nick   -- 4450

I saw the very end of the Barney Boatman Triples Up hand - board was  4h Kd Ac Jd 9d. Barney was holding AK, Marty Wilson had AQ. Not sure who the other guy was or what he had, I'm afraid, but it wasn't as lovely looking as AK. Marty Wilson is sad now. Looks like Barney's on around 58,000 now.

With the flop  7s Aspades 7c, Andrea Tommaso bets 350 and Glenn Martyn calls.

Turn -  6h, and here it gets exciting. Tommaso bets 2500; Martyn raises to 7000. Actually let's call Tommaso Andrea because that's a girl's name and at this stage of the evening, I think that's funny.

So, then follows some considerable dwelling (pictured), before Andrea (ha!) reraises him all in for a few thousand more and is quickly called.

Andrea shows  Ac Kc, Glenn Martyn shows  5h 7h.

River  4h, which is no help to anyone, and Glenn has doubled up.

Des Jonas evens his stack with Karl Mahrenholz's by getting it all in preflop with Qd Qh.  Karl goes for it, asking, "Aces?" which he was probably relieved not to see with his Ad Kd.  However the board came down 5c 6c 5s Js 3s - and they are both on around 18k.
___________________________________________

And after helping stack up Boatman, Marty Wilson makes his last stand with about 1,500 with Ad Kd - he gets a call from pocket Sixes and despite praying to the dealer very vocally for help, she calmly deals the straight cards around the Six, knocking him out to take his wine to the bar.

Sorry sorry folks, it's time for another CORRECTION.

Matt Dale is in fact NOT out, he just moved table. He's clawed back a few chips, but he's still very short, with about 4000 chips.

A couple of mid-level counts:

Paul Foltyn        5,650
Sunny Chattha    OUT   (actually, pre-dinner-break, one wrong spreadsheet count - we're not perfect, OK?)
Chris Bruce        33,000 
Ash Hussain       9,300
Carlo Citrone     27,050  (hot contender for Climber of the Day having been down to just three chips in the first few levels)
Matt Dale          4,300
Stuart Nash       12,300
Barney Boatman  45,500
Kunkuwap           8,950
Roberto Romanello  43,000  (interesting table, that Boatman/Romanello one)
Julian Thew           19,200
Nik Persaud           9,000
Mike Tse              13,900
Jim Kerrigan          26,200
Anthony Nicholls    25,000

Trevor Reardon is OUT - his final hand being a straight short-stacked race 88 vs. AQ, but it was the previous one which did the damage:
He raised preflop with Ad Ahrt, one caller.  Flop:  Aspades Kd 5h  He bet something like 1,500 - call.
Turn:  Ts  Not sure what happened here but I think it went bet;call again.
River:  7c  Trevor checked, Matey (sorry, no excuse for this, but I deleted my last spreadsheet by mistake) bet - Trevor check-raised all-in and found Jc Qd for only-the-nuts knocking him right to the felt.

No sign of Martyn Cavanagh for a little while - I heard he was pacing the car park until he deemed it safe to come back to the bar.  It folded to his small blind (blinds 150/300 ante 25), he limped with 7h 8h.  The big blind autoraised (he judged, correctly) and Martyn pushed in for 5k.  Even though this was 30% of his caller's stack, call he did, with Th 4h.  Surprised was not the word; a Ten helped the already-ahead big blind to take the last of his chips.

Scandie Push-Off News Now:

A short stack was all in preflop, with two callers (both pictured below).  The gent with the unnaturally bright hair is Robert Forsman, not short stacked for a minute today, and he got into a real aggression war with his out-of-position neighbour.  There was a bet-raise-call on the 3h 9c Ac flop, another bet-raise-call on the 9d turn, and on the Jd river, the side pot by now absolutely dwarfing the main pot, there was another bet.  Forsman moved in.  A long think later, and his opponent passed.
Like the lid had just been taken off a highly pressurised canister of testosterone, Forsman leaped up, showed his board-irrelevant 8d Th, leaving the short stack to take the couple of thousand he was entitled to, and just bullying the side pot into his possession.  "F***! I am so good!" he commentated, wandering off for a minute before regaining composure and shaking his opponent's hand in apology.

Now he's got a stack to take on the other leaders, and I have a feeling he was the guy who took on (and out) tikay too...

A chip-alicious hand from Table Barney. Robert Romanello raises pre-flop, and short stack James Gawen re-raises all in. Table namesake Boatman calls, as does Romanello.

Flop  two spades - check, check.

Turn  - check, check.

River

Barney bets 4000, Robert calls.


They show...

Barney -

Robert -

James Gawen -

So Gawen is out, and Robert is a happy man.

Just inputting all the chip counts (in Leader Order) from the last break now... I think he's on the list:

Romanello, Roberto -- 74300
Forsman, Robert   -- 56950
Boatman, Barny --- 46300
Trinh, Lam -- 45225
Mackay, Richard   -- 41500
Parker, David -- 37075
Zach, Simon -- 36775
Owen, Jack -- 34550
Rich, Angela -- 33550
Claire, Mark -- 30550
Oneil, Mike -- 30125
Davies, Alan -- 30050
Mitchel, Will -- 29400
Citrone, Carlo -- 28850
Tyler, Joshua -- 28625
Wong, Ken -- 28425
Bruce, Chris -- 27575
Henson, Alan -- 27550
James, Dewi -- 27275
Kerrigan, Kerry   -- 26600
Mahrenholz, Carl -- 26025
Duval, Jeff -- 25675
Schwartz, Lukas   -- 23700
Fieldhouse, Ian   -- 23025
Blandford, Mark   -- 22700
Dean, Alan -- 22450
Oflaherty, Andy   -- 22350
Garfield, Robert -- 20975
Feldman, Andrew   -- 19500
Basri, Stephen -- 19450
Jonas, Des -- 18450
Thomas, Ben -- 17475
Bodha, R -- 16950
Valentine, Phil   -- 16825
Thew, Julien -- 16200
Hardwidge, Paul   -- 16150
Bancroft, Jonathan -- 16050
Nicholls, Anthony -- 15950
Gardener, Paul -- 15875
Price, Robert -- 15825
Muthy, Kayshan   -- 15400
Gurnham, Rana -- 15325
Johnston, Brian   -- 15075
Cordy, Steve -- 15050
Bala, Peter -- 14875
Neville, David   -- 14600
Peters, Niiamh -- 13925
Wilcox, Richard   -- 13825
Chen, T   -- 13300
Gourlay, Paul -- 13200
Badat, Miya -- 12950
Choi, Wai -- 12900
Judah, Melvyn -- 12650
Arnold, Michael   -- 12450
Gergiou, Andrew   -- 11950
Burke, Jeff -- 11900
Mohammed, Baruktal -- 11725
Jeff Kimber -- 11500
Stuart, Nicholas -- 11450
Nash, Stuart -- 11350
Hussain, Ashad   -- 11175
Biltcliffe, Robert -- 10800
Howard, Gregory   -- 10750
Bedson, Jim -- 10325
Nelson, Terrence -- 9800
Taylor, Bill -- 9550
Tabatabai, John   -- 9400
Herbert, Ian -- 9300
Ngo, Huo -- 9275
Huyton, Chris -- 9125
Dunsford, Anthony -- 9000
Marles, John -- 8400
Frazer, Ian -- 7450
Persaud, Nik -- 7400
Foltym, Paul -- 7050
Aris, Dr -- 5975
Andreou, Efstathios -- 4875
Reeve, Martyn -- 4125
Welshe, James -- 4100
Dale, Matt -- 3900
Gawen, James -- 3525
Elscombe, Aaron   -- 2850
Tommaso, Andrea   -- 2375

In response to Mike, who's had a lot of beer and hijacked Jen's laptop while we were slaving downstairs, Dewi is in on account of all the pots he's been a-stealing. I think. I saw him involved in a hand with a gentleman who was either Paul Foltym or Lukas Schwartz (I couldn't tell if his card said 608 or 809). Paullukas checks, and Dewi bets 5000. Fold. Dewi's on about 47k, I think.

Saw another fun hand involving the hairdo-tastic Rob Forsman. It folds around to him on the button and he raises. SB folds, as does our friend Andrea (ahh ha ha!) on the BB. Andrea must be the shortest stack left now with only 1700 or so. To Andrea's left, Mateyboy, a William H Macy lookalike in a BlueSquare shirt, reraises, and Forsman calls. "I have a hand," says the hair man.

Flop -  Kh 8d 3d

Macyboy now bets 5000. Says Hairsman, "Have you got a good hand?"

Dwell dwell dwell, then an unsurprising FOLD.

Says Rob Hairsman, "You've got a monster hand. Is this your first time playing poker?" And then he storms off, perhaps to mull over his attitude to life in general, or maybe to check his hair in the gents.

Sorry, it's not good - he just busted this second.  This is the second tourney we've seen some impressive short stack grindage from Pab - and he made his move at a good time here too.  In the small blind he re-raised all-in with 8s 8d - the late positioner had to call a further 4,050, looked pretty committed and called with an in-trouble-looking Ac 6s.
Flop:  6d 7c 6c
Turn and river: no help

Yes, Roberto has extended his ridiculous chip lead to over 120k.  It's hard to tell from his New York skyline of chips, but it's definitely in that region (120k, not North America).  Accumulating nonstop through the day, he shows no sign of slowing down in this, the last level of play.  I will definitely be making him one of my Day Two picks. 

His tablemates hotdog (11,350), Mike Tse (18,000) and even Barney Boatman (26,500) are finding him "a pain in the arse."

Blinds are ending tonight at 400/800 ante 75.  There are currently 54 players, and we'll probably be under 50 by the end of this hour.

And, unprecedentedly, a severe voice just came over the intercom saying that "the bar is closed, you have half an hour to finish alcoholic drinks.  Then get out."  (OK, they didn't say 'Get out.'  And then 5 minutes later, the voice came back saying, "Due to popular demand, the bar will stay open until 4am."  Paul Parker's recent arrival may have something to do with it.

We've just received the full counts from the last break (c.20 mins out of date, but give a good idea of how far the leaders are leading the pack...)

Romanello, Roberto -- 112875
Forsman, Robert   -- 84975
Zach, Simon -- 59725
Trinh, Lam -- 51900
Mackay, Richard   -- 47800
Parker, David -- 47375
Duval, Jeff -- 46475
Bruce, Chris -- 44300
Wong, Ken -- 43075
James, Dewi -- 42175
Feldman, Andrew   -- 38425
Rich, Angela -- 37525
Tyler, Joshua -- 36175
Owen, Jack -- 35975
Claire, Mark -- 34950
Davies, Alan -- 33100
Schwartz, Lukas   --29575
Oneil, Mike -- 28900
Boatman, Barny   -- 28875
Kerrigan, Jim -- 28425
Mahrenholz, Karl -- 25875
Thomas, Ben -- 25750
Henson, Alan -- 25325
Dean, Alan -- 25200
Citrone, Carlo   -- 24600
Muthy, Kayshan   -- 24450
Aris, Dr -- 23550
Oflaherty, Andy   -- 23125
Garfield, Robert -- 22200
Choi, Wai -- 22100
Wilcox, Richard   -- 21050
Jonas, Des -- 21025
Gurnham, Rana -- 19850
Bodha, R -- 18625
Price, Robert -- 18225
Elscombe, Aaron   -- 18200
Bancroft, Jonathan -- 17975
Persaud, Nik -- 17800
Chen, T   -- 16025
Gergiou, Andrew   -- 14875
Bala, Peter -- 14750
Welshe, James -- 13725
Bedson, Jim -- 13725
Fieldhouse, Ian   -- 13100
Judah, Melvyn -- 11950
Mohammed, Baruktal -- 11575
Andreou, Efstathios -- 11250
Nash, Stuart -- 11150
Taylor, Bill -- 11150
Hussain, Ashad   -- 10950
Arnold, Michael   -- 10850
Cordy, Steve -- 10650
Nelson, Terrence -- 10550
Ngo, Huo -- 10000
Tommaso, Andrea   -- 8425
Howard, Gregory   -- 8025
Biltcliffe, Robert -- 7650
Reeve, Martyn -- 7375
Valentine, Phil   -- 5725

Back to Table Barney -

Mateyboy (sorry, couldn't see the all-important ID card) raises 1500 to 2300 preflop; Barney is the sole caller.

Flop -  Qh 9s 9d; check, check.

Turn -  3s; MB bets 3100, Barney calls.

River -  7s; check, check.

Mateyboy shows  Ac 3c, Barney shows  2h 2c and looks pretty pleased with himself. As the dealer is pushing the chip mountain across to Mateyboy, Barney protests, "Oi, what are you doing?" Dealer - "uh, he's got a pair of threes". Barney looks a bit confused. It must be getting towards his bedtime...

Here's a relaxed Mel Judah, looking like his short stack worries him not in the slightest.  And Carlo Citrone, who has demonstrated the art of the short stack resurgence (Peace Out)...

Ash Hussain is OUT - not sure what happened exactly as I only caught the tail end of it, but somehow he got involved with  Jh 5c against pocket tens and failed to improve.

Ding Ding!  End of Day...

Meanwhile back on table Romanello he ended the day as he started it, raising non-stop, including under the gun, blind.  Two players on his table have managed to increase their stacks, however:  Ian 'hotdog' Fieldhouse (now on 37k or so) and Mike Tse (now on 42k).

We are going to be long gone by the time the final full counts come out (eta 6am) so I can just promise that they'll be sellotaped to the end of this update (and the beginning of the next one) tomorrow afternoon before start of Day 1B.

And a very silly hand to end the night, that involved everyone limping and shouting in a we-want-to-go-to-the-bar, or possibly a we-have-already-been-to-the-bar, kind of way.

Board -  Aspades Ks Kd Tc 3d

Dewi -  Jd 9c
Dr Aris -  8d 3h
Gregory Howard -  Ad Jc
MB -  Kc 2d
MB -  Qh 3c
MB -  6h 5c

... and so on. Totally ridiculous. The  Kc 2d won. But honestly.

And here are the chip counts after Day 1A:

136,025 Romanello, Roberto
121,800 Forsman, Robert
80,325 Zach, Simon
63,000 Duval, Jeff
62,850 Kerrigan, Kerry
62,100 Davies, Alan
52,825 Trinh, Lam
52,125 Bruce, Chris
49,125 Feldman, Andrew
43,475 Chen, T
42,325 Mackay, Richard
40,825 Tyler, Joshua
36,600 James, Dewi
36,475 Wong, Ken
36,050 Fieldhouse, Ian
31,650 Thomas, Ben
30,300 Mahrenholz, Carl
29,350 Dean, Alan
27,775 Citrone, Carlo
27,575 Rich, Angela
27,550 Parker, David
26,725 Schwartz, Lukas
26,600 Gurnham, Rana
24,250 Garfield, Robert
21,925 Persaud, Nik
21,625 Cordy, Steve
21,475 Choi, Wai
21,475 Oflaherty, Andy
21,400 Aris, Dr
21,400 Henson, Alan
21,275 Muthy, Kayshan
20,950 Nash, Stuart
18,825 Jonas, Des
17,475 Bodha, R
16,900 Owen, Jack
16,700 Oneil, Mike
16,525 Bancroft, Jonathan
16,050 Elscombe, Aaron
15,300 Wilcox, Richard
14,250 Biltcliffe, Robert
14,050 Howard, Gregory
12,200 Tommaso, Andrea
11,575 Georgiou, Andrew
10,950 Ngo, Huo
10,250 Nelson, Terrence
10,075 Bedson, Jim