blonde poker forum

We're back and play is about to start.

Plenty of stars, including a handful of Brits, still in, so this one should be a hoot!

 :hello:

If you were reading last night, you'll remember the funny story of Thomas Wahlroos coming along to knock Roland De Wolfe's chips and then deciding to knock over all Hellmuth's chips too sending the Poker Brat into a frenzy wanting Wahlroos banned from the tournaments...

Wahlroos seems slightly unrepentant..

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=vqGENkVpHV0

:hello:

Dutch Boyd   285900
Keith Lehr   252300
Nick Van Newkirk   240700
Mikko Pispala   239000
Phil Hellmuth   209400
Joe Beevers   207400
Mark Vos   205400
Raj Sawant   197200
Phil Galfond   189600
Gioi Luong   171000
Erik Friberg   166600
Lance Allred   163300
Michael Hewitt   159100
Ram Vaswani   158300
Justin "ZeeJustin" Bonomo   150200
Joe McGowan   148100
Francois Balmigere   146500
Alex Bolotin   128600
Roland de Wolfe   128500
Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf   123200
Sam Grizzle   120000
Nick Schulman   112600
Danny Noam   104900
Mike Guttmann   103600
Raja Kattamuri   102200
Eugene Katchatov   97600
Greg Pohler   94600
David Daneshear   94400
Kush Patel   93100
Allen Cunningham   86600
Vandy Krouch   85600
Robert Bright   84700
Jamie Gold   84000
Levi Nicolas   83600
Kyle Bowker   80200
Bill Edler   78200
Stephen Deetz   76400
Axel Holm   73900
Frank Bluemlein   73600
Bill Gazes   73300
Nestor Martinez   73300
Michael Eriksen   72600
Doug Timmer   72200
Thierry Van Den Berg   71800
Robert Glenn   71600
Aaron Been   71000
Matt Brady   70600
Gary Philipchuk   68900
Alex Prendes Jr.   68800
Tony G   67900
Morgan Machina   67200
Dan Santoro   66400
Ted McCollom Jr.   64900
Christian Oman   62200
Men "The Master" Nguyen   60600
Greg Pierson   56800
John Racener   54900
Tony Hachem   54600
Mark Muchnik   53800
Emil Patel   51200
Rene Mouritsen   49300
Tobey Maguire   46900
Jeff Madsen   42100
Scott Clements   40200
Jonas Flug-Entin   40100
Jordan Smith   38700
James Pittman   32300
Victoria Coren   29200
Carboni Emanuele   27200
Ezra Teitelbaum   22700
Jim Rumptz   21900
Mark Bartlog   20200
Gary Horn   19700
Jeff Aiani   16600
Chris McCormack   14000
William McMahan   12100
Johan Storakers   4500

They're down to 13 (or is it 14?) tables, which means officially, we're not allowed passed the rails, but we're going to our best to charm our way in and collate all the action for your viewing pleasure.

If not, I'll set Floppy on em.

Keep an eye on Robert Bright please chaps.

We've lost two men (well, one woman) already, the first of which was Spiderman star Tobey Maguire, whose all-in with Pocket Nines ran into the Pocket Cowboys of Frenchman come Londoner Nicolas Levi.

A painfully mischievous  x-9-x-K-x board later, Maguire was gone leaving the superhero count at zero.

Also joining us on the rail in Vicky Coren, who decided to limp with Jd Td after two other players limped. "Perhaps I should have pushed," she later pondered.

Anyhow, the Flop came with two diamonds, but, unfortunately for the London EPT winner, the blind had Kd 9d and both players made a flush.

We've been here at the Rio for around a week now, and this is by far the busiest I've seen it thus far. The corridors are filling up and the rail watching the $5k Short-Handed Event is jam-packed. This makes viewing from the rail doubly difficult because as soon as you depart back to the media room to input a hand, your spot at the front of the crowd has gone.

As a result, it looks like I'm just going to have to sneak through to the other side of the rail and look like I belong.

Wish me luck!  ;boltpp;

This is the best shot I can currently obtain of our chip leader, Dutch Boyd, but it's definitely him, the extra weight and the bandanna a tell tale sign.

And Levi is OUT now too.
)
Aussie Mark Vos (pic 1, the ginger one in the middle) raised the button, Nicolas pushed all-in with Ks Jd and Mark insta-called with Kd Kc and although he completely winced at the turn of the 3c 9s 2s Ts board, the river was an 8c to send Levi home.
Shortly afterwards we lose the next guy to sit in Levi's seat,he pushed with Qc Tc against the big blinds Kc 7h, the latter holding on the Ac 9d 5s 4h 7c board.

Phil Hellmuth, who, in all honestly, I rarely see make a bad move, is back in the thick of things, betting 20k on a board of Kc 8h Tc 3c Js. The man with the apparently tricky decision was Nick Schulman, who eventually made the fold after a lengthy dwell.

Rising from his renowned hands on face, collar up posture, Phil Hellmuth refuses to win quietly, adding, "So you had nothing then" and mumbling under his breath.

There are currently 57 players left on 13 tables with an average stack of 125,517.

Not too far away, one of last year's bracelet winner, Hit Squad member Praz Bansi, is participating in the recently started $2k Freezeout which is jam-packed to the rafters and a probable cause of all the bedlam in the corridors this morning (well, afternoon to most).

This chap's still in, a dapper than yesterday (he released the pale trunks last night) Tony G.

Me: "You're looking smart today, Tony."
Tony G: "Yeah, I dressed up for you guys."
Me: "Oh, that's odd, because I dressed down for you."

Although a far cry from his dominating run throughout the duration of yesterday's play, infamous coffee spitter Men 'The Master' Nguyen is still battling away, the foreboding image of Tony G seated across the other side of the table.

Two empty seats have emerged, one belonged to Jordan Smith, the other Eugene Katchatov, both of whom I can only assume are OUT.

With the Convention Centre being so full for the $2k NL event, I was at jam-packed rail watching the $5k next to Neil Channing who was railing for Vicky Coren (before she got knocked out).

I jokingly said, "Hey Neil. God, it's like a Convention Centre in here!"

Neil didn't pick up on this I think, because he said, "That's because it is a Convention Centre."

I didn't want to say that that was my joke so I just said something along the lines of, "Ahhh...yes, so it is."

Roland and Ram now sharing a table.

The uber-rail in the distance is for Phil Hellmuth.

The-usually-hatted-but-not-today Nicolas Levi (is he French or English?) is OUT, in rather disappointing circumstances.

He was running well with 90k, but claimed that Aussie hotshot Mark Vos was raised his blind every round, and thus, opted to make a stand with K-J. Unfortunately for Nicolas, this was the time Vos had the goods, and the worst possible kind in Pocket Kings.

No miracle arrived and Levi was sent packing and left to ponder his all-in overbet.

"I had to make a stance at some point. The raise was only 10k, so I haven't got a great ratio to push for 90k, but I can't let him push me around," he suggested. "If he'd have folded, it would have been great for my table image, but it wasn't to be."

Edit: Just realised Floppy reported this - damn, does this mean I'm going to have to read what Floppy writes in future?  ;hide;

10 minute break

Leaning over the rail like an out-of-control Take That fan, I grab a quick analysis of Ram Vaswani's stack, which has now inexplicably jumped up to 235k. I say inexplicably because Ram was involved in no huge pot.

Aware that the reserved Hendon Mobber isn't a massive fan of gibbering on about hands and revealing all his secrets through blogs, I tried to prise some info out of him or maybe, at the very least, a quote or two.

"You don't give away much, Ram," I poked. "Come on, give us a scoop, how did you get them chips?"

"No major pots really, a few medium sized ones," he replied. "Put it this way, I didn't have to show any cards, just the way I like it."

As he left to enjoy his brief break, the TD coloured up his chips so that he now possessed some sparkling orange ones worth 5k, he added, "The future's bright..."

"The futures blonde?" said I.

Can we get a chip count for Robert Bright please.

He's French but lives in London.

 :hello: Snoops & Flops

How many get paid? Go on rab take her down!!

Multi accounter Justin 'ZeeJustin' Bonomo is OUT, pushing in pre-flop with J-3, but getting looked up by the rather dominating A-J of Danny Noam. No help.

Moments before that, Noam was involved in a relatively chunky hand with table neighbour with Matt Brady (assuming he hasn't moved tables), the former raising to 20k pre-flop with which was Pocket Deuces (I sneaked an accidental peak), only for Brady to call from the button and fold to a solid 40k bet on the Kh Kc Jc Flop. Strong play from Noam.

For a moment, I thought Tony G had departed this $5k Short-Handed event, but on second glance, he'd merely moved tables, joining the equally infamous Dutch Boyd over in the middle table. Curiously, both are keeping a relatively low profile, barely a murmur between the pair of them.

Mike, I've had a look all around the tables, but I don't think it's THAT Robert Bright. We checked with the bustee's who made the money and he's not out. So we're assuming it's someone else with the same name.

Men the Master and last year's winner Jeff Madsen are both OUT.

Roland De Wolfe just lost a huge chunk of chips I think running into an overpair. He's short now.

9 tables
50 players
145,600 av stack

Is de wolfe playin 2 events?

Pauly of taopoker (pokernews for this event), has informed me that in keeping with American blogging tradition, he won't be collating any British counts, and that includes anyone from the colonies (or former) such as Australia, Singapore, Mozambique, Argentina - fortunately, that only includes Mark Vos.

So, in order to fly the flag with pride, I have attempted the impossible and counted Joe Beevers' bizarrley piled mountain of chips, which, according to my calculations, came to the approximate sum of 175k.

Thanks as always for the nice updates guys keep me entertained during my online donk sessions :).

I don't think so. Have you heard differently?

He may have bought a seat in the other one, but he certainly isn't giving it any attention.

Hes on the leaderboard of the 2k event... strange

Roland De Wolfe is OUT, he pushed his short stack in and was called by both blinds.

Flop:

Aspades 3d Qc

The small blind moves in. The big blind folds.

Roland:

8h 6h

Small blind:

Ad 7d

Blanks on the turn and river send him out.

Also gone is Jamie Gold, I've never seen him live before, but the guy swears all the time, f-ing and blinding whenever he's behind or loses a pot. Certainly not a classy WSOP ME champion. He went out with Aspades Tc to Ahrt Jh.

The current top 10 according to worldseriesofpoker.com

1st  Mark Vos -- $380,000
2nd  Danny Noam -- $340,000
3rd  Raja Kattamuri -- $315,000
4th  Dutch Boyd -- $300,000
5th  Keith Lehr -- $270,000
6th  Mikko Pispala -- $250,000
7th  Bill Edler -- $245,000
8th  Nick Van Newkirk -- $240,700
9th  Ram Vaswani -- $240,000
10th  Erik Friberg -- $235,000

43 left.

Sam Grizzle is OUT, all-in with K-9 vs. 5-5 on a 2-7-J-J, 5 on the River sealing the deal.

Phil Galford (pictured below) was the assassin.

There are 43 players remaining on 7 tables with the average stack being 182,000.

Gebonz

 :hello: Sloppy and Floppy,

Greetings from a very wet and windy UK, in fact I'm considering building an ark.......

An intriguing hand developed between Dutch Boyd, and his unnamed mystery opponent pictured below.

Mateyboy raised it up pre-flop from the small blind and Dutch called from the big.

Casually munching on his choccy bar, the sometimes-in-the-zone-sometimes-out-of-it Boyd looked on as his opponent bet 17k on the Kh 2s 3s Flop. A brief hesitation, and Dutch calls.

The Turn came a 6h, and, following a quick out of the corner glance at the former bracelet winner, Mateyboy opts to check. Dutch swiftly responds by sliding one column of yellow chips (worth 20k) over the line. Mateyboy echoes the gesture like lightening.

River = Aspades

Dutch's eyes seem to widen as if pleased with the card whilst Mateyboy, meanwhile, looks slightly indifferent, briskly checking in the process. Dutch pauses for a moment before once again shoving a stack of yellows across the line, this time accompanied by a second column to make the total bet worth 40k.

At this stage, Mateyboy sunk into the think tank and decided to take a vacation there, leaving us eager beaver (or should that be beagle) bloogers waiting in anticipation. After what felt like a lifetime, which included a frightening stare down as captured in the picture below, Mateyboy counted out his chips, took a deep breath and made the call.

Boyd flipped over Ad 3d and Mateyboy was furious with himself (and maybe even Dutch), hesitantly slamming his fist down in frustration. He tutted, folded his arms and tried to recuperate himself for the next hand.

Prior to the hand, Boy was on 310k, but he's now back up there fighting for the chip lead.

Latest chip leaders courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com

1st  Raja Kattamuri -- $405,000
2nd  Mark Vos -- $390,000
3rd  Dutch Boyd -- $380,000
4th  Raj Sawant -- $380,000
5th  Danny Noam -- $340,000
6th  Nick Van Newkirk -- $300,000
7th  Keith Lehr -- $270,000
8th  Bill Edler -- $250,000
9th  Mikko Pispala -- $250,000
10th  Erik Friberg -- $235,000

 :hello:

Should watch Evan Almighty first for some tips.

Joe Beevers is OUT

Kh Kd on a Jc 9s 8d board vs 9h 8s

Turn:

Th

So, any King, Queen, Jack or Ten will double him through.

River:

5d


Meanwhile Ram, whose stack was going the other way and dwindled down to 45k, pushed all-in from the big blind after utg, the button and the small blind all limped in. UTG insta-called whilst the other two insta-folded.

Ram:

9d 8s

UTG:

5h 5d (I think even Ram raised an eyebrow that that was shown after the speed of the all-in call)

Board:

Qd 6c Qc 4h 6s

Nine high plays, Ram doubles through but he still has less than half the average stack.

That's a shame.
Still, I hope she enjoys her $US6159.

When does/did the payout start? How many entrants were there?

This event paid to the top 78, and day 2 started with 77 players.
728 players started this event.

Francois Balmigere -- 85,000

David Daneshgar -- 130,000

Keith Lehr -- 305,000 (although straight after he doubled up a shortstack with A-K vs. 7-7 and a Q-9-Q-3-J board).

We have action!!!

;as;

and lots of...

(http://static.flickr.com/25/97551172_f64c08e645.jpg)

accompanied by an inevitable tinge of...

(http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-images/Arts/Arts_/gallery/2006/07/26/ShockJillGgallery.jpg)

The first players to experience these motions were Mark Vos and Erik Friberg, the Swede all-in on a Flop of 5s 8s Jd with Aspades Js vs. the Aussie's 8c 8d.

The Turn was an inconsequential Th, but the River caused an eruption as the Qs hit the felt, Mark Vos being forced to leave his table in dismay and search for consolidation in a friend.

Double up for Friberg.

Next up is Phil Hellmuth, who is now down to the felt after his Pocket Threes on a 8-2-3 Flop were cracked by his neighbour's Pocket Queens, Jack Turn, Queen River.

As you can imagine, the Poker Brat was beside himself and leapt from his seat shouting, "Noooooooooo! This is unbelievable!"

Searching for someone blame, most of Hellmuth's complaints were made under his breath, although I do recall him moaning to the dealer about the cards being dealt.

Either way, Hellmuth has taken a big and unfortunate knock, and was left with the consolation prize of Tony G's company, which probably didn't help matters.

And that monster monster pot has put Erik Friberg top of the pile. Thanks to worldseriesofpoker.com for the counts:

1st  Erik Friberg -- $450,000
2nd  Dutch Boyd -- $380,000
3rd  Raj Sawant -- $380,000
4th  Raja Kattamuri -- $370,000
5th  Bill Gazes -- $345,000
6th  Gioi Luong -- $335,000
7th  Danny Noam -- $320,000
8th  Keith Lehr -- $270,000
9th  Bill Edler -- $250,000
10th Lance Allred -- $240,000

Hellmuth has doubled up twice since then, he's now back over 100k.

Meanwhile Ram Vaswani has managed a remarkable comeback. He's now got over 400k(!) including busting the guy who had the Fives against his 9-8

Ram:

Aspades Kd

Matey:

8h 8s

Board (with various shouts of "Eight!" from Matey in between every street):

9h Qh 4c Tc Ad

Ram then took down another big pot with a 50k bet on the turn of a 4s 2d Ahrt 2c board.

On the bright side, if Thomas Wahlroos comes by to knock over his stack, Hellmuth will be able to re-stack fairly quickly.

Francois Balmigere is OUT in testicle crunching circumstances, looking good with Ahrt Ks all-in versus Kd Qc.

However, it all turned to brown excrement as the board brought a soul destroying Kh 6d Jd 2d Ad, the runner runner runner runner sending the Frenchman to the rail.

7 tables
36 players
202,222 av stack

The players are now enjoying a well deserved break.

Players are on a 15 minute break whilst the 500 chips are coloured up.

When we come back, it'll be 5k/10k with a 1k ante.

Mark Vos -- 250,000

Matt Brady -- 140,000

Bill Edler -- 350,000

Speaking of Bill Edler, he prised a few chips out of table neighbour Phil Galford in a Seat 1 v Seat 2 battle. The pot had gotten pretty meaty, but a 40 bet from Edler on a 5d 6c Qd 3s 3d board being enough to get the youngster to fold, and pretty swiftly too.

Eugene Katchalov is OUT.

Didn't spot his hand, but his terminator held A-T on a 3-K-A-4-T which did the job.

Phil Hellmuth is OUT.

Tc Th vs Ad 8c

Ace on the turn.

This led to a typical moan followed by calling the guy who had been sitting to his right, 'the worst player I've ever seen.'

It must be so tough for Phil, every time the 'worst player ever' comes along, Phil ends up out... He's really jinxed.

Matt Brady, a young player, who Pauly says, "Doesn't really play online but travels the tournament circuit like an old school pro..." just lost most of his stack to Dutch Boyd.

Brady bet 55k on the river of a 6d 7h Js Kc 5c board. Boyd made the call with Kd Aspades and Brady mucked his 8h 5h.

Nick Schulman is OUT, ran Kc Ks into Aspades Ahrt, although was teased with a Kh 8c 4h 7h 6h board.

Looks like Matt Brady is also pushing up the daisies, he was spotted collecting his spondoolies just prior to the aforementioned Schulman.

Crucial double up for Tony G, which has subsequtnly lured out with force the Tony G we all know and love/hate.

All-in with A-9 vs. J-T (on the flop, I think, which was K-Q-Q), Tony G jumped up into the like a salmon when the Turn brought and Ace, followed by a Queen River.

"Yeah, baby!" he exclaimed. "Now we're playing! You wanna gamble with J-T?"

Antonius is now on 110k.

A few chippy counts accrued by my own fair hands:

Bill Edler -- 505,000
David Daneshgar -- 145,000
Erik Friberg -- 415,000
Mark Vos -- 225,000
Tony G -- 145,000
Phil Galfond -- 260,000
Bill Gazes -- 310,000
Dany Noam -- 145,000

and your current chip leader... Dutch Boyd -- 810,000

Our remaining 26 players scattered on five tables. The first featuring an uberdwell from Bill Gazes after Ram Vaswani had called his 45k bet on the turn of a Jh Ahrt 8s 6h board then bet out 60k on the 3d river when Bill checked. He eventually made the call and Ram showed Qh 8h to scoop.

Still fast and furious here, but they'll be forced to slow down soon as the dinner break will commence in around 10 minutes.

Keith Lehr first doubles up off Emil Patel (pictured) with Ad 9h vs. Ac Qs on a 9d 6d Aspades 7d 6c board before Patel semi-returns the favour splitting a pot with the same player holding Ad Jc vs. Ac Qs and a Ks 2d Ahrt 9d 2c board.

Noam didn't realise at first as he shook his opponent's hand, but when the light bulb went ping, he said, "Oh, well, you deserved a split pot anyway."

Current pick of the bunch courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com

1st  Dutch Boyd -- $825,000
2nd  Bill Edler -- $625,000
3rd  Gioi Luong -- $500,000
4th  Erik Friberg -- $485,000
5th  Raj Sawant -- $450,000
6th  Danny Noam -- $420,000
7th  Ram Vaswani -- $375,000
8th  Greg Pohler -- $360,000
9th  Keith Lehr -- $340,000
10th  Alex Bolotin -- $320,000

Greg Pierson and Newkirk Van are both out.

Tony G has doubled his short stack up with 7s 3s against Kc Qd on a 7d 9c Ts 4d 9d board.

David Daneshgar has doubled through too, with Ahrt Kh vs Ks Qc all-in preflop, on the flop of Aspades 2c 2h, Mark Vos jokingly shouted, "Deuce, deuce!" but although the turn was a slightly winceful Jd, the river was only the 7s.

I spoke to Ram as well, "You've been up and down all day."

"I know, not very good for the old ticker. It's been a mad, mad day."

He up at the moment, on what looks like 500k at the last count.

Chip leader Dutch Boyd.

Tony G.

Mark Vos can't contain the laughter as Tony G's 7s 3s beats Kc Qd.

Ram bets 80k on a 9d 3d 8d flop to take a player off the flop.

**********Dinner Break***************

Play restarts at 9.30pm (5.30am UK time)

good stuff guys, jus read through all the pages.

Ps Im starving theres nowt in the house and all takeaways are shut...could do wit ainsley working his magic.

Got the munchies?

aye, and im waiting for my newsagents to open so i can get some food. Cannot sleep with an empty stomach and am having to watch countdown to pass the time!

Ram just took a hit all in pre with with 88 vs A8

Ace on flop :(

Mark Vos is OUT.

Face bright red with rage, adrenalin pumped and somewhat teary eyed, a devastated Mark Vos swiftly exited his seat and departed the cardroom just moments after the River card was dealt.

Excluding the big 'chip leader' hand with Erik Friberg, his demise began a hand or two earlier when his button raise to 16k was pushed off by a small blind re-raise to 40k from Dutch Boyd.

Then, after a fierce re-raising war with Seat 1's Greg Pohler, Vos was all-in pre-flop with a decent amount of chips piled in the middle, around 3 or 400k in fact.

On their backs, and the young Aussie was delighted to find himself well ahead with Jacks v Tens, but while silently awaiting, and praying for, the raggy board to arrive, the dealer got into bed with the Poker Gods to deliver a cruel blow on the River, a sneaky ten popping out on the Turn of a Qs Qc 5d Td 5c board.

We're a Vos down.

Tony G has doubled through Dutch Boyd with 4d 4s vs Ac Qh

"I'll have all your chips and you'll be out in ten minutes!" shouts Tony.

"You're the loudest, luckiest donkey here," replies the the man in the headscarf.

"Better than being the loudest, unluckiest donkey though."

Wow, there's some consolation for not being able to sleep at all, I can follow the action!

That's a sick exit for Mark Vos, two massive pots with set against a flush draw and then jacks vs tens. Knowing him, he'll be devastated, he takes everything to heart which I really like.

The winner of this tournament  has sneaked in quietly, and has always been shortstacked. Tony G has no fear and is my pick to take this thing down.

Great updates guys, as ever.

Does Tony G ever lose a 50/50, the guy is incredible?

How many are left guys?

Interesting moral dilemna actually. I was set upon by a midget tonight in a club, kicking and punching with all his might. What is the correct thing to do in this rather bizarre situation?

Young enough to be JP Kelly's grandson, this is Alex Bolutin, your current chip leader with 1,160,000.

This is most likely your chip leader, we think it's Alex Bolotin but we've been kicked out of the tournament area by one of those ambitious interns who love to wield authority like a giant club. The tournament director types are top people and really help us out, but these young guys seem desperate to make a name for themselves.

Anyway, he flopped a flush with Ahrt 7h against Bill Edler's Ks Jh on a Kh Th 3h board to double up, before knocking out Rene Mouritsen with 7c 7h vs Aspades Kd on a 8d Qh 3c Ts 9c board. Dustin "Neverwin" Woolf passed Ace Queen in this hand.

The pics are before the 7-7 vs A-K and after. :D

Bill Edler has since doubled up with Ac Jh against the 8c 8h of Bill Gazes, the Js being the first card out with the rest of the board coming 3h 5s Kh Qh

At one point, Dutch Boyd made the point that Tony had doubled up with 7-3 not too long ago, which elicited vocal agreement from Greg Pohler in Seat 1.

"Ahahahah," shouts Tony G, "I see you have a friend. You two can hold hands underneath the table."

4 tables
19 players
383k average stack

We think it's 19 or 20 left now.

Fight back Stu!

Bill Gazes is OUT. No hand details. Has been going deep in tournaments recently, could be due a final.

Dutch Boyd makes it 16k, Tony G re-raises to 65k, Dutch announces all-in, Tony G folds.

"Wooohooo," celebrates Dutch mimicking his foe.

"Two wrongs don't make a right," I point out to the Gutshot chappy next to me.

"Yes, but two Wrights make a plane," he replies.

This is Danny Noam, poker player by night, mechanic by day, or so I'd guess judging by the outfit. I can imagine him working on Pimp My Ride.

Anyhow, I wasn't able to get his chip count due to the eerie, foreboding footsteps of a 'green media pass' owner who was making his presence felt with orders of "Please leave now", so I scarpered quick time to avoid that crucial 1st warning.

Dutch Boyd has been seeing a lot of action (of the poker kind). He seems to play a lot of hands, although in quiet fashion as opposed to Mr G, and has witnessed his stack rollercoaster in true yoyo fashion. His latest three hands involved being pushed off a Qc-Qh-3s Flop with a 30k to 80k re-raise, having his blinds nicked by Emil Patel and finally, winning a nice little pot pushing all-in to Raj Sawant's 40k to 100k re-raise. Raj quickly folded leaving Dutch on around 800k.

Latest chip counts courtesy of worldseriesofpoker.com, although Dutch has sightly more following the aforementioned hand.

1st  Alex Bolotin -- $1,200,000
2nd  Dutch Boyd -- $680,000
3rd  Greg Pohler -- $676,000
4th  Phil Galfond -- $510,000
5th  Gioi Luong -- $480,000
6th  Raj Sawant -- $460,000
7th  Emil Patel -- $350,000
8th  Thierry van den Berg -- $340,000
9th  Ram Vaswani -- $335,000
10th Erik Friberg -- $335,000

Incidentally, there are 300 of around 2,200 left in the 2k NLH F/O, one of whom is Roland de Wolfe.

While Alex Bolatin continues to stretch his lead, Dutch Boyd is ensuring remains in touching distance, Lance Allred being the player to suffer.

Raising pre-flop to 60k, Allred was called one set along by Boyd.

Flop = Jh Js Th

All the chips fly in.

Lance = Kd Qh

Dutch = 8h 8d

Turn = 8s

River = 3d

Lance Allred OUT.

Tony G has doubled through Keith Lehr with Td Ts against Aspades 6s on a 2s Kh 4h 7d 8d board. No major histrionics this time, just a quiet "Yessssssssssssss" like a 5-year old imagining scoring the winning FA cup final goal.

Alex Bolotin has increased his chip stack to over 1.6 million having taken out Phil Galfond with Ac Kd against Ks Qs. The board coming Qd Ahrt 8d Ad Qc.

Here's the remaining tables, just prior to the Galfond exit.

Keith Lehr is OUT.

Shortstacked, he made his move for 130k but, to his surprise was picked off by the Ks 4h of Erik Friberg in the big blind.

Seemingly aware of his fate, Lehr flipped over Qh 4c and watched helplessly as the dealer threw down a Ts Th 2s 3s Th board.

Ram Vaswani has 360k.

As we enter these very latter stages, one can easily notice a considerable change in the behaviour of Tony G. As witnessed earlier, he is clearly feeling the pressure knowing that the big money is approaching, releasing his emotions in that formidable way that only Tony G knows. As I spoke to him, he was bouncing up and down like a child on Christmas Eve and visibly restless. "Are you excited, Tony?" I asked. "Of course I'm excited. I'm having a good time. It's what I live for." what his expected response. "This is where I come into my realm. I'm having fun. When I played Surinder, I put the pressure on, I made a game of it and gave the people a show, that's what I'm about."

Keith Lehr's exit in 15th was hot on the heels of Dustin 'Neverwin' Woolf who departed in 16th place.

Sadly Ram Vaswani is also OUT. His A-5 failing to hit against the Jacks of the catching megastack of Alex Bolotin, I'm not sure the $27k for 14th place will be much consolation.

And with the exit of Raja Katamuri in 13th, we are down to two tables.

"There are 12 players left," announces the TD. "When we are down to 7, we'll move to one table, at which point, we'll be after just one more exit for the end of play"

Then came a series of tight plays, before someone eventually cracked, lowly chipped Danny Noam pushing with 2s 2h, but being called down by Thierry Van Den Berg and his Pocket Tens.

Board = 8d 9d Qs 7s 8d

As we approached the mini-break, play locked up a bit, the only sign of action being a 100k bet from Dutch Boyd on a 6c 3d 8s Ts board that went uncontested.

Play will resume in 20 minutes.

We are down to nine, due to a seemingly inexplicable push from Rajendrakuma Sawat who moved in from the small blind for 500k with Td 4c against Alex Bolotin who called quickly with Jc Js in the big blind.

Board:

Ad Jd 8d Jh 3c

All players now guaranteed $58k.

We've reached somewhat of a deadlock on t'other table; no one wants to go out and each and every decision is being well thought out with delays galore as players give each other the staredown. The latest example of this was between Bill Edler and Thierry Van Der Berg, the former raising to 80k only to be faced with a 200k re-raise from the the Dutchman in the small blind. A long spell in the think tank ensued, Van Der Berg looked twitchy, but Edler folded.

Showing an friend the audience what looked like a Deuce, Van Der Berg announces, "Wow, I've got balls. I didn't have much of a hand there."

Edler down to 305k.

David Daneshgar is the current shortstack with around 130k. Twice he's been faced with tough decisions in the blinds, one with Q-T when the small blind made an expected push (he actually had A-K) and secondly when he had A-5 to an under the gun raiser. He parted with this hand surprisingly sharpish adding, "I definitely know I'm behind there."

Tony G is OUT.

All-in with A-J v A-8.

8 on Turn.

Said well done and left quietly.

Amusingly, a TD from the other competition, which is perhaps not moving along as quickly as he might have liked, just said, "Don't forget people, this is No Limit, you can move all-in at any time."

A bit of gentle prodding never did anyone any harm.

Current chip counts courtesy of the good people at worldseriesofpoker.com

1st  Alex Bolotin -- $2,830,000
2nd  Dutch Boyd -- $800,000
3rd  Emil Patel -- $750,000
4th  Gioi Luong -- $740,000
5th  Thierry van den Berg -- $660,000
6th  Erik Friberg -- $550,000
7th  Greg Pohler -- $370,000
8th  Bill Edler -- $330,000

Snoopy a small request..................for all us Woody Deck fans ................any chance of you getting a piccy of the great man currently going well in the stud hi lo tourney please.

Two more down, first David Daneshear's Sevens fell to Bill Edler's Aces, leaving eight left. Then the one man wrecking crew that is Alex Bolotin (who has played the big stack really well, plus has the added bonus of showing a hand every time it's needed) took out Emil Patel with Jacks against Nines, Patel having lost a fair amount previously when he doubled up a shortish Dutch Boyd with A-4 against Tens. Alex has an absolutely huge chip lead now, his stack is roughly 3.5 million

We are now on 1 table, playing seven handed with one exit required for the night to end.

No major action as of yet and so no sign of that final man dropping.

There was an all-in and a dwell (Pohler and Friberg), but that's about it.

I'm afraid that's a bit of a jaunt with the 5k being down to 7, but we did take this snap of him the other day and you can always check out his blondepedia page.

http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=781 (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=781)

Gio Luong -- 830,000

Thierry Van Den Berg -- 470,000

Alex Bolotin -- 3,200,000

15 minute, but when we come back, the blinds will be 20k/40k with a 5k ante, meaning 95k in preflop, some of these guys only have 600k - 700k so we'll be done in the next level I reckon.

Thank you Snoopy.................

 ;kneelsucker; ;kneelsucker; ;kneelsucker;

Gooooooooooooooooooooooo Woodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy

Erik Friberg has doubled through Alex Bolotin, his Qc Jc held against the Kc Td on a Ahrt Qh 7s board with the turn and river coming 4d and 4s.

Eerily, Erik Friberg has doubled up yet again, and it's courtesy of the young American... yet again.

This time Friberg raised from the cut-off, American re-raised, Friberg pushed all-in and Bolotin crowd.

"Yes," cheer the Scandinavian onlookers as Friberg shows Aces, the American is deep doggy doo wiith A-K.

Harmless T-2-6-7-J Flop and it was done and dusted, Bolotin knocked down to around 2 million in just two hands.

Erik Friberg raises in the small blind, Thierry Van Den Berg pushes in the big. Erik calls.

Erik:

Kc Kh

Thierry:

5d 5c

A look of horror and disgust on Thierry's face as he begins to plead with the dealer for a five.

Board:

6h Ts 8d Aspades Ad

So Thierry Van Den Berg is OUT in 7th place winning $83,145

The final six are bagging up now. The final starts at 2pm tomorrow (10pm UK) but we aren't sure if they'll show it live or on a feed here with a 1 hour delay. Either way, tomorrow's team will be Jen and myself with the beagle getting a well-deserved nap.

Until then.  ;stickaforkinme;

Thanks again guys, great work as usual.

Geo

Day off for me!  ;yippee;

Double forks!!! ;sark;

 ;stickaforkinme; ;stickaforkinme;