blonde poker forum

Welcome back to Walsall. Play restarts at 3pm.

We have 39 runners remaining and 30 minutes of the current level of 600/1200 remaining. 9 spots are paid as follows:

1st -- £39,200
2nd -- £20,580
3rd -- £11,270
4th -- £8,330
5th -- £5,390
6th -- £4,410
7th -- £3,430
8th -- £2,940
9th -- £2,450

The current chip leader is Alan McLean with 132.2k

This is the 'lite' or 'no frills' thread.

Phillip Green has doubled through Andy Johnson.

Ahrt Js Kd 4c

Johnson checked, Green bet 5k, Johnson made it 10k, Green moved in and Johnson called.

Green:

Aspades 7s

Johnson:

Kh 6c

River:

Ac

Red Dog has lost about 7k having to fold Nines to preflop limped Queens.

Well, they're off! There's a lot of yawning and ordering of cups of coffee going on, but there's some action too.

Early double-up for Ian Hotdog Fieldhouse, all-in with kings on a ten-high flop against Matt Porter's QT.

Incidentally, they've decided to play the whole 600/1200 level again today, so the players will have had 90 minutes at this level. Kind of easing them into the day. Oh, I want coffee now...

The short stacks are wasting no time in getting involved, maybe so they can go back to bed or something.

Tim Flanders raises it up to 4k preflop; Patrick Murray, resplendent in his Johnny Texas Branded Promotional Shirt, calls, as does Mickey Wernick over on the button.

Flop -  Ac 5h 3d

Tim Flanders bets 6k, and Patrick Murray immediately moves in for another 13.5k, which just about covers Tim too. This makes Tim Flanders tense and sad, and he spends about 5 minutes spinning a 100 chip and staring into some sad place inside his mind, before he calls.

Tim Flanders -  Ahrt Th

Patrick Murray -  Aspades Ks

It's not looking good for Tim Flanders. But

Turn -  4c and people are already shouting split pot, and then

River -  2s and split they do.

Incidentally, when people get themselves sponsored for an event in a kind of you-must-wear-my-corporate-shirt-all-the-way-through-the-comp sort of way? do they get more than one shirt? I mean, I guess a 2 day event's fine, but surely during longer events, the shirt must get gross over the course of 5 or more days of gruelling sitting around in it and sweating. Hotels do not always have quick laundry services.

Mark 'Mantis01' Allden has knocked out V Madan, he'd apparently come over the top of Madan's raises a couple of times forcing the latter to fold, but this time Madan elected to call with Ace King, except Allden had Kings this time.

Mick Fletcher has doubled up with Ad Th against Anthony Nicholls' Kh Kc

Board: Jd Ac 4d 3d 6h


Alan Mclean has knocked out A Smith with Qh Qc against Ad Ks, Queen on the flop.

Craig Owen is OUT, his Jh Jc fell to J Moult's Aspades Ks with the harmless 7c 9d 7h 4d board turning nasty with an Ac river.

Lots of moderately-sized bluffing on the river followed by swift folds when somebody calls going on. Saw Mr S Walms or Walmsley, no-one's actually very sure what his name is, quietly fold when Toni Dicesare called his river bet with ace high, and I saw Andy Johnson just walk off as soon as his opponent started picking chips up to call.

Meanwhile, Alan McClean has been increasing his chip lead - he took down a pot on an x-x-K-K-x board with KJ against some unfortunate gentleman's KT.

But the real excitement is that Paul Jackson is OUT - "I took a bad beat," said he, and indeed he did. Finding himself all-in with the mighty 7-4 "Full Wilson" against John Burke's pocket kings, he somehow failed to hit, and was last seen wandering across the casino floor telling anyone who would listen about his astounding failure to win with the magic hand.

Cavalcade of action for you now.

First a short-stack Shaf pushes with Ad 8c, only to find Simon Zach pushing behind him with Ac Ks, but the board comes 6s Qh Js 8d 2s. "Sorry kiddo," says a slightly quieter than usual Shaf.

Next Mark Allden puts Tom Nightingale all-in on a 9s 9d 6c flop with his Td Th only to find himself up against Ad Ahrt

Turn:

7c

"Eight is good."

River:

Tc

Ouch. Mantis adds to his stack.

Womble puts enough chips in the pot to put Micky Pearce all-in on a Jh 5s 2h Ks board. Micky folds his Jc 7d. Womble shows his boogielicious Jd 5h

Phillip Green bets 20k on the river of an 8d Ahrt Qh 6d 4c board, getting a caller in A Rasid who mucks when he's shown 8c 6c.

A Psaras doubled up when he rivered a flush against a rivered straight.
   
Finally Ash Hussain makes a 20k river bet on a Qc 4c 6c Td 6h and gets a quick call from Mark Allden who shows his Aspades Qd, Ash shows Ac Jc for the flopped nuts.

Blinds are 800/1600

Simon Zach is OUT, the AK vs A8 hand crippled him and he's departed since then.

Red Dog has 60k roughly having limp-called an Andy Johnson raise with Kd Jh and then, then when Johnson pushed the Kh Js 8d with 3d 3s, Red beat him into the pot and the turn and river were blanks.

Will check on Ash's stack in a sec.


Chip leader Alan Mclean with what looks like over 200k.

This is Brian Welby who just knocked out Ash Ahmed with Jacks against A-9. A Jack, an Ace and a Nine all hitting the board.

Jim Reid, looking effortlessly cool, that's despite having his hand glued to his face.

Finally N Hanmer has doubled up with Tens against N Hosell's Sevens.

3 tables left.

Some more chips for Alan McClean or possibly Mclean depending on which bit of paper I look at. He raises to 3700 and Abbassi calls him. The flop is a pleasing raiser's  Aspades Qh Ad so they both check.

Turn -  3d - Abbassi bets and Mclean calls.

River -  3h - Abbassi bets 13k and Mclean calls - he shows his nice  Ahrt Jc full house and Abbassi mucks.

Ash Hussain -- 80k

26 left. Average stack 56.5k

V Rasid is out, Andy Johnson's K-T beat his pocket Eights.

Red Dog bets 6.5k on a  9h 3h Td flop, only for Jim Reid to raise to 13k. Red Dog asks how many Jim has left - it's about 35k. "I'm either passing this or I'm setting you in," he says. Eventually he opts to pass, showing  Ts. Jim Reid shows  Tc. Says Ash Hussain, "oh no, you both have trip tens. Dealer, check the pack."

Mr S Walms moves in, and it folds around to Tim Flanders. He folds too, showing T-2. "That's the third time in a row I've had T-2 and someone's raised every time." It's true as well, I'd been peeking all the while. "It was probably the winning hand," someone else pipes up.

Paul Gourlay has 35k and is wearing glasses whilst keeping his Rocket Man glasses on his cap.

Ian 'hotdog' Fieldhouse and Anthony Nicholls are both OUT, they pushed with K-Q and Q-Q respectively but ran into the Aces of Andrew Psaras.

Double-up for Ben Callinan just before the break - all in on a  4h Ts 3s 6h board, Matt Porter called him with  4s 3h, no match for Ben's  6s 6c. River irrelevantly  Kd.

Rough Chip Counts:

Table Big Stacks

Andy Louca -- 45k
Andrew Psaras -- 205k
Phillip Green -- 40k
Brian Welby -- 100k
N Hamner? -- OUT
Ramazanali Abbassi -- 50k
Alan Mclean -- 240k

Table Blondes

Mark Allden -- 90k
Red Dog -- 40k
Ash Hussain -- 93k
Andy Johnson -- 145k
Ben Callinan -- 140.5k
Jim Reid -- 62k
J Burke -- 13.5k

Table Shorties

Micky Wernick -- 44k
Seat 2 -- OUT
J Moult -- 21k
Paul Gourlay -- 27k
Tim Flanders -- 17k (Just had to chop a pot with A-J vs K-J despite flopping two aces!)
Womble -- 26k
Micky Pearce -- 18k
H Mohammed -- 32k

Off to try and find those missing names.

It's an exodus of probably not quite biblical proportions.

Matt Porter is OUT - he raised it up with AJ, Andy Johnson called with 78. Flop came 7-8-J and the chips went in. Another 7 on the turn.

N Hanmer, who said his name was Joe, is also OUT - chips went in on a  9c 7h 8s flop but his  Js Jh was no match for Abbassi's  8d 8h with useless  3s 4s turn and river.

And also Toni Dicesare has BITTEN THE DUST -  6d 6s against H Mohammed's  Ac Kc - board  Js 8h Tc Aspades 9s.

19 left now.

Toni Dicesare was lucky to make it to that last hand - a few hands earlier, he raised to 6k, only for Tim Flanders to move in for 8.5k more, covering Dicesare. After much dwelling and some fairly restrained cussing, he announced that he knew he was behind but he had to gamble. He turned over  Ks Jh and he was right about the behind bit - Flanders showed  Aspades Jd.

But the board came down  Ad Ac Qc Kh Tc for an extremely unlikely split pot. Tim Flanders screwed up his eyes and turned his face skywards, as if to spit in God's face.

Red Dog is OUT, Andy Louca limped on the cut-off, Red pushed in the small blind with Ts 9s and Ash Hussain woke up in the big blind with Queens.

Mark Allden just lost a big 100k pot or so, he had 2s 6d on a Tc 2c 2h board against Phillip Green's 9c 8c, the river was a club.

Micky Pearce is OUT, his Kd Jc was no match for Alan Mclean's Aspades 4c which hit both hole cards in a blind vs blind battle.

Ben Callinan limps, Andy Louca makes up and Mark Allden checks.

Flop:

2h 9s 3s

Andy bets 5k, Mark passes, and Ben raises for a whole stack of gold 5k chips. Andy passes, showing the 9d.

Jim Reid is OUT. He raised to 10k under the gun only for Brian Welby to go massively over the top of him from the small blind. After some considerable dwelling, during which time I lost interest and went to look at the other table, he called, at which I scurried back.

Jim Reid -  Ad Qs

Brain Welby -  Ac Kh

Board -  Th 6d Td 4s 3s

Apparently that was the first time in a couple of hours that Brian Welby had raised, so not sure about that call there, he wasn't obviously committed after the 10k bet I don't think... Anyways, he's gone now.

Another split pot for Tim Flanders - all in on a  7d Th 5s board, Alan Mclean calls. They both turn over 9-T off, and the  4s Jh turn and river are no help for anyone.

Mohammed Hassan is OUT in 15th place, he felt he couldn't pass his 9d 9h to the re-raise from Andrew Psaras who was holding Qc Qd. And after an unthreatening board, it was handshakes and exits.

I don't know, and now have no way of finding out as he went OUT a few minutes ago. Not sure exactly what happened, but he ended up all in with JT against Paul Gourlay's AJ, the board reading Q-Q-Q-A-A.

By the way, blinds are currently 1500/3000, 13 left in, average stack 113,100. Blinds will be going up to 2k/4k in around 10 minutes.

Andrew Psaras and Ramazanali Abbassi both check a  Qs Th Jh flop, and then the  7d turn. Psaras checks the  8d river, and Abbassi bets, but Psaras doesn't take the bait. Abbassi shows his Q-J - Psaras says he has an ace, which shows some restraint there.

Incidentally, Mickey Wernick doubled up off of Psaras a little while back - KK against T9. Psaras is nowhere near short though - he has an absolute bunch of chips.

He's just doubled through Paul Gourlay with Nines against Fives. Up to 40k.

10 minute break. Blinds then 2k/4k

Jim 'BookieBasher' Moult has just doubled up again, in an unraised pot, he was small blind vs Abbassi's big blind.

He bet out 6k on a Ts 7h 4s board and Abbassi moved in. Jim began to think, to the point that Micky Wernick and Paul Gourlay rushed off to outside the cardroom for a quick fag like a pair of schoolboys. I got a quick glance at Jim's cards, Th 6h. He dwelt for a while. Abbassi asked him what he had and, when Jim replied, "Top pair," Abbassi went quiet, but it looked as though Jim was too deep in concentration looking at the table to notice Abbassi's reaction to him saying, "Top pair."

Jim then stood up, and said, "I think I'm going to call...I'm going to gamble."

Abbassi turned over 9h 7c and Jim was rewarded by his call with blanks on the turn and river, he's on about 80k now.


Andy Louca on the other table is OUT. His uber-short stack Ad Jc fell to Brian Welby's Tc 9c. Ten on the flop.

Brian Welby raises to 14k, and Ash Hussain reraises all-in for about the rest of Welby's stack. Eventually Welby passes, saying he had AK. "I thought you didn't play AK," says Ash. "Not against you," says Welby.

Meanwhile there's some raising over on the other table, and suddenly Andy Johnson announces all-in. Then he gets up and wanders off. "Andy!" somebody shouts, "Stay at the table! Oh, it's ok, he's passed."

Paul Gourlay is OUT.

It folds around to his button and he pushes. Jim Moult and Engineer Abbassi fold their blinds.

Next hand it folds around to him on the cutoff and he pushes again - this time Mclean and his super-stack make the call.

Gourlay -  5s 5h

Mclean -  Ac 3c

Board  -  Ks Ad ("F***!!!!" shouts Gourlay and slams his fist on the table)  Kh ("Five! FIVE!" squeals Gourlay)  8d Jc

And he is gone.

Ramazanali Abbassi is OUT, pushed from the small blind with 9h 8h, ran into Alan Mclean's Aspades Qd in the big blind.

Board:

Qc Jc 3c 5h 6c


Meaning!!!


STOP!

;mc;

BUBBLETIME!

Well, no messing around here. The bubble has burst already - in fact it burst before we could get back ot the card room. All I know is that our unfortunate bubble boy was Phillip Green, and I believe he went out with a pair of fours against Ben Callinan's AK. Floppy will bring you the full story shortly.

Phillip Green decided to push with a pair of fours from the button for 75k(!) and Ben Callinan called with Ace King in the big blind hitting an Ace on the river. According to Ash Hussain, Phillip was overbetting far too much and could've easily raised and got away from the hand.

Dana has the full final table chip counts, there's a 30 minute break and then we'll restart.

FINAL TABLE
in seating planny order.

Andy Johnson -- 290k
Mark Allden -- 28k
Mickey Wernick -- 148.5k
Brian Welby -- 98k
Ben Callinan -- 207.5k
Andrew Psaras -- 220.5k
Ash Hussain -- 102.5k
Alan Mclean -- 364k
Jim Moult -- 61k

Yes to what Snoopy just said, you are so right. And Psaras is Greek, too, which makes me happy for no particular reason.

Anyways, Chris and I are attempting to get every single final table hand. Probably we won't keep it up, but here it is so far.

Fairly cagey early play here. First hand it folds around to super-shortstack Mark Allden on the small blind - he moves all in and Mickey Wernick folds. Allden shows A7.

Next hand it folds around to Mickey on the small blind; he bets and Brian Welby gives up his big blind without a fuss.

Hand Three and It folds around to Mark Allden on the cutoff and he pushes again. Ben Callinan on the big blind considers it for some time, but eventually folds. "Oh. I'd like it if you called," laments Allden.

Then a bit of good old-fashioned big raising.

Mclean calls the blind only for Mickey to raise to 20k. With barely a pause, Mclean reraises 100k in blue 10,000 chips.

"Bloody hell," says Mickey.

"I thought they were ones," says Mclean, pointing to the blue chips. Mickey is not fooled and folds.

Perhaps this makes Mickey aggressive, as the next hand he raises to 16k, and he takes the pot unchallenged.

Brian Welby, whose name I mistype as Brain each and every damn time, calls, and Mclean checks.

 7d 6c 3d and they both check.

Turn -  Qd and they check again.

River -  5s and Mclean bets 10k. Welby dwells up most theatrically before raiisng to 30k. Mclean calls, and is most disappointed to see that Welby has made the flush with Kd Jd. He says he made the straight.

Little had happened on my watch. Jim Moult raised three hands in a row, the third time showing Tc Th.

Andy Johnson bet 30k in a three way pot against Micky Wernick and Jim Moult on a 8s 4c Kd to take it down.

Then...

Andrew Psaras makes it 16k to go. Ash Hussain moves in for 100k next to him, more passing then in the Brazilian 70's football team. Back on to Andrew, who Ash has moved in on before before saying, "Yeah, I'll call you." and he does for the majority of his stack.

Ash:

Ad Kd

Andrew:

Ahrt Qc

Board:

3s 9s Td 6c 9d

Ash doubles through and Andrew is left as a shell of a stack, with only slightly more than Mark Allden.

Well, we've givne up on the hand-by-hand thing already, onthe grounds that virtually nothing happens for ages and then loads of stuff tends to happen at once. Not much going on right this second, though. I saw Mickey Wernick button-nick some blinds (which incidentally are now 3k/6k). Plenty of folding. Some folds-around-to-Ash-on-the-small-blind stealing, which turns out not to be a steal when Mclean gives up his blind and Ash shows AQ.

Also a fairly big pot, largely by virtue of the number of people in it. Mclean calls utg, and then Welby calls in late-ish position, Psaras calls from the SB and Ash checks the BB.

Flop -  3c 3d Td - Ash checks, Mclean bets 10k, andWelby calls.

Turn - 2d - Mclean checks. Welby bets 20k, and Mclean folds.

Mark 'Mantis01' Allden is OUT in 9th place winning £2,450

Mark:

6s 6c

Brian Welby:

Aspades Ad

Board:

Ac 7s Qh Jc Jh

Sadly Snoopy's looky-likey is already out of date - Andrew Psaras now looks like a much sadder kind of Bob Hoskins as

Andrew Psaras is OUT in 8th place winning £2,940.

What happened, y'see, is that Jim Moult raised up a hand preflop to 16k and everyone folded. Then the next hand he raised preflop to 18k. This time, Psaras moved in for another 37k. Moult had maybe 50 or 60k left at this point. He munched on his lower lip for a bit before calling.

Jim Moult -  Qh Qc

Andrew Psaras -   Aspades Js

Board -  5s Ahrt 6c then oh the pain in Psaras' eyes  Qs and  5h

How cruel the deck can be.

Play has slowed down a little, no-one is dangerously short anymore, even with the blinds at 3k/6k.

Mickey just had his 22k raise re-raised to 60k by Ash and mucked his Ahrt Jd face up. Ash showed Qd Qs.

Bizarreness now.

Folded round to Jim Moult on the button who min-raises to 16k. Small blind Andy Johnson re-raises another 50k. Micky Wernick folds. At this point Andy Johnson is staring at the chips like he misses them already and Jim Moult looks like he totally hates him, before announcing all-in for another 68k. Then Andy dwells so long, the final table buffet appears, it looks much nicer than the other one.

Andy Johnson says, "You've got Aces but I can outdraw you....I'm in too deep..." He looks like's he's going to throw the 68k in, but doesn't. At this point Alan Mclean is so bored he's inspecting the buffet, (which has a fruit buffet).

Jim Moult says, "You've got to let go..." Andy Johnson keeps picking up the stack of 68k and Mickey Wernick points out it's still 68k. And amazingly, given the odds, he folds.

Ash shouts, "3-1, you're getting young man!"

Short Break:

Chip Counts, thanks to Chris the Dealer.

Andy Johnson -- 290k
Micky Wernick -- 39k
Brian Welby -- 169k
Ben Callinan -- 151k
Ash Hussain -- 241k
Alan Mclean -- 375k
Jim Moult -- 206k

Hello, Dana here, using Chris' laptop because my connection has gone mad.

A moderately-sized pot. Mclean, Johnson, Wernick and Welby all call; Ash checks.

Flop -  5s 6c 6d - they all check.

Turn -  Jc - and again they check.

River -  2c - Johnson bets 15k, but it is clear that he is trying it on. Mclean calls, and his  Ahrt Kh is miles ahead of Johnson's  Qd Th.

Micky Wernick has doubled up twice.

Having dwindled down to 19k, he pushed and got an automatic call from Alan Mclean in the big blind. (Blinds 4k/8k)

Micky:

Ks 8c

Alan:

9h 8d

Board:

7h 5h Ac 8h (Nice turn!) 2d

Then he pushes again from early position and Andy Johnson calls pretty quickly considering he has only Qh 4h. Micky shows Ts Tc

Board:

Ad Th 7h 2d 7d

Micky now up over 80k.

Dana here again.

Ash makes it 38k from the button; Andy Johnson calls.

Flop -  7s 4s 5h

Andy checks, and Ash asks the dealer for Andy's chip count - Ash covers him by 7k. He announces all in, and Andy passes.

Andy seems to have dropped some more chips since his disastrous and bizarre pass a few hands back. Could be he's gonna be in some serious trouble soon...

He's not a short stack anymore.

Alan Mclean limps UTG. Micky makes it 30k from mid position. Blinds pass, Alan moves all-in, Micky beats him in the pot.

Alan:

Aspades Kc

Micky:

Kd Ks

Board:

3d Jd 9s 3c Qd

Micky doubles his stack, he's on about 228k now. And we still have 7 left. It's going to be a late one...

Dana again.

Ben Callinan calls from the button, Ash makes up the blind and Alan Mclean checks.

Flop comes  8s 7h Jc  and it checks around to Callinan, who moves in. The others both fold.

Next hand, Mickey makes it 25k and Callinan calls.

Flop -  Kc Ts 6h - and Mickey checks. Ben puts in 20k and Mickey folds, showing AQ. Ben shows AK.

Beyond that, not much has been happening interesting-hand-wise. However, things should hopefully speed up a bit now, as I believe A Deal Has Been Done. Looks like it's going to be 10k each and the remaining 22k extra for the winner.

Meanwhile, Red Dog's not having much fun in the £100 freezeout. He's tired, but refuses to have coffee unless he gets some chips first, otherwise he says there's no point and he'd rather sleep. Tough one, that. I told him to have half a coffee.

Alan Mclean limps for 10k. Andy Johnson makes it 50k total in the small blind. Micky Wernick moves in for 170k more. Alan and Andy pass. Micky shows Kh Kd.

Dana again. We have lost one!

On a flop of  Ks 5d 8c Ben Callinan checks and Alan Mclean bets 25k; Ben calls.

Turn -  7s - Ben checks and Mclean bets 40k; this time Ben announces all in.

Ben Callinan -  7d Kc

Alan Mclean -  5c 5h

River -   Aspades

Which means that Ben Callinan finishes in 7th place, officially winning £3,430 but I think probably actually winning £10,000. Nice.

Jim Moult makes it 45k in the small blind. Andy Johnson raises 86k more, enough to put Jim all in.

Jim gets his cup of tea out and begins to drink and think. He drinks (and thinks) for a while, to the point where he finishes his cup of tea. He announces, "I'm going to gamble, I call."

Jim:

5h 5s

Andy:

Kd Js

Board:

8h 3c Ac 7h 7d

Jim doubles up, Andy now short.

Another one down! Andy Johnson did indeed get himself in some trouble.

He raised preflop, and Jim Moult reraised all in. Looks like he sort of gave up, because he called with  Aspades 7h against Jim Moult's  Jc Jh.

Board -  Qh Kd 3h 5s 9h

Andy Johnson finishes in 6th place officially winning £4,410 but actually in reality winning £10,000 post-deal.

Micky Wernick lost some chips check/raising a 20k bet by Brian Welby on a Ahrt 2d Th board to 80k. Brian insta-pushed and Micky insta-mucked his Qd 7c hand. Brian showed Kh 7h

Shortly afterwards Micky pushed with Td Tc but found Ash Hussain pushing behind him on the button with Kh Kd

Board:

Jh Qd 5h Js Kc


Meaning Micky Wernick is OUT in 5th place winning £10,000

Ash in the small blind calls and Alan Mclean raises 20k; Ash calls.

Flop - 6d 2d 8c and they both check.

Turn - 8s - check, check.

River - Td - check check.

Mclean shows  Ahrt 9h and Ash mucks. "You got me."

Play is still very cagey. What they need is to do another deal to liven things up a bit.

Our final four are on a break now. CHris will be back with some counts shortly. Meanwhile in the £100 event, Red Dog has made back a few chips, but the blinds have gone up too and he's still looking exhausted. He assures me that he's ordered drinks, but this could mean anything.

Chip counts thanks to Jim the dealer:

Brian Welby -- 128k
Ash Hussain -- 500k
Alan Mclean -- 588k
Jim Moult -- 245k

10 minute break. Blinds 6k/12k when we return.

The reason Ash is up to 500k, is the last hand before the break.

Brian raised to 30k in the small blind. Ash called.

They both checked the Jh 8s 6d flop

Brian check/called the 5s turn for 25k before betting out 50k on the dangerous 9h river.

Ash eventually made the call and Brian showed Kd 6c, and Ash's Ad 8c was good.

Jim 'Bookiebasher' Moult is OUT in 4th place winning £10,000

Jim:

Jh Js

Alan:

Ad Qh

Board:

Qd 7s 8h Qs 7d


3 left.

Alan Mclean calls from the button. Brian Welby on the small blind announces all in. Ash folds, and Mclean calls without a moment's hesitation. As you do.

Alan Mclean -  Ad Ahrt

Brian Welby -  9h 9c

Board -  8c 6d 7d Kh 3c

Which means that Brian Welby is OUT in 3rd place officially winning £11,270 but I guess he's only getting £10,000 of that.

A deal has been done - the remaining £22k after everyone's had their £10k is being split £9k to Ash Hussain and £13.6k to Alan Mclean, who had roughly a 2:1 chiplead over Ash last I checked. The pointy glass trophy has been put on the table now, and the comedy giant cheque is waiting by the coffee machine.

On a  7s 2c Jd flop, Ash checks and Alan bets 40k; Ash calls.

Turn -  Tc and again Ash checks. Alan bets 80k, and, after some hesitation, Ash calls.

River -  9d - they both check, and Alan shows  Qd Jc - Ash mucks.

And after that chunkyish pot. Alan Mclean has really blitzed into top gear, anytime Ash has bet, Alan has either shown him a better hand or re-raised him off the pot. The end is near, Ash is down to his last few chips...

...And then it's over.

Ash moves in almost immediately, and Alan calls just as fast.

Ash -  2d 7s

Alan -  6d 6s

Board -  Qh 5d 4d 4c Qd

So Ash Hussain is OUT in 2nd place officially winning £20,580 but actually winning £12,500...

which leads me to the obvious conclusion that the WINNER of the 2007 Midlands Meltdown Main Event is ALAN MCLEAN, officially winning £39,200 but actually winning £29,600. Many congratulations, that man.

Floppy should have some giant-cheque-and-handshake photos shortly.

To clarify, this deal was discussed but wasn't actually done. In the end, Alan when chipped up and Ash down to just 60k offered the latter £2.5k and took the remaining £19.6k.