blonde poker forum

See the announcement under our "General Discussion" section about blonde Live Updates for the WPT.

The actual Live Update will, of course, be in THIS section, starting Mionday afternoon.

Until then, please post any comments in the OTHER section.

Thanks.

shouldn't this be in the general section?

Yes.

But I put it in here as well to make sure we caught everybody's attention.

maybe we need a new section ;D

Don't start. It's 0420 & tikay is in his tetchy time-window.

midday to proper poker players

I rest my case.

ouch

please name it "Rookie beats DC and Surrinder" because that will be the final 3, and you know, that I know, That they know, that they rally know, that I WILL WIN because I know I WILL :)

Sorry,

I'm sick in the head

Hello All!  Welcome to Sunny Paris, a lovely change from Baking Vegas...

We have just climbed the winding mirrored staircase to the hallway of the Aviation Club de Paris, which doubles as part of the tournament area with 5 tables set up out here.  The club is divided into a series of small refined rooms leading off said hallway, with a wonderful view over the Champs Elysees out of one side's windows...  It couldn't be more different from the MegaConventionCentre arena of Vegas. 

Everyone is still milling around - I've sent Tikay off to investigate who's turned up today (there are two Day Ones here as well).

While we wait for everyone to check where they're sitting on some bits of paper stuck to the wall conveniently right in the middle of the hall, I will just remark on the efficiency of Eurostar.  Waterloo a few hours ago, then via a short unpleasant tube ride - straight here... There were a handful of poker players sharing our train, whom we immediately lost sight of and are having to rediscover in the crowd here.  No longer convinced it's going to kick off exactly on time...

Still no Tikay, although I saw El Blondie roaming around a minute ago and nearly tripped him up with my laptop bag.  Not so smooth.  Some people have started shouting which I am nearly sure signifies a start in a moment. 

I actually have a press pass for this event which I have proudly clipped to my shirt.  There is not the extraordinary tussle for space here, unless you count the folding table in the hallway which I am happily sharing with three other updaters.  How refreshing.

With understatement never dreamed of Stateside, the tournament has started without our really noticing.  The list of players has become uncluttered by players trying to read it and so some names follow shortly.  However the most astonishing thing is the number of players - it looks like there are 140 TOTAL players over both start days.  This strikes me as extraordinary, and not just because the last tournament I followed had 6000 runners. 

SO - listed, but not necessarily playing today -

Paul Magriel (X22)
Roland de Wolfe
Howard Lederer
Ross and Barny Boatman
John Kabbaj
Harry Demetriou
Martin de Kniff
Tony Bloom
Gilles Haddad
Paul Testud
Ayhan Alsancak
Marcel Luske
Carlos Mortensen
Noah Boeken
Tony G
John Gale
Isabelle Mercier
Willie Tann
Rob Hollink
Peter Roche
Devilfish
Juha Helppi
El Blondie
Andrew Black
Freddy Deeb
Simon Trumper
Antonio Esfandiari

I am sure I speak for Jon Rabb too when I say good luck Harry D and our small %. All the best

Their starting stack here is a fabulous 15,000, with a 90 minute clock.  How great is that?  I can't believe more people didn't give the WSOP main event a miss and head over here.  It's almost a pleasant temperature in here too, with (more scene setting) these big black and white paintings of planes everywhere and funny glass tube chandelier things.

Also spotted by Tikay playing today are Frank Callahan, Jani Santoula, Rory Liffey, Ram Vaswani, and Betfair qualifier Peter Heighway.

Hi Jen ... are you saying that you are not missing sitting on a bench in the hallway of a bland convention center and paying over the odds for soggy hot dogs, and having to realise that you need the loo 10 minutes before you actually do because of the long walk lol ....  wish i was there, but to be honest im still getting over Vegas ... that trip has really drained me more than i ever imagined.

I hope you enjoy your trip and we will all be watching for the excellent updates

Take care
Kev.

Roland de Wolfe is in the nearest of les chambres to me and keeps popping out to tell me what's going on, already.  How helpful.  Apparently he flopped the nut flush a minute ago vs someone's second nut flush.  He has 23,000 within the first blind level, and looks confident.  As usual.

Good luck to all playing in it, but obviously more luck to Harry than to others  ;)

Hi there Kev 'n' AJ, glad to hear that it' not just me that found Vegas a bit draining... but back to the present and the end of the first blind level.  From the miniscule 25 - 50, it rises to 50 - 100 in a minute.  They are playing a total of 5 blind levels today, with 3 pre-dinner-break and 2 post. 

While relaxing and waiting the necessary half hour to pay 4 Euros for a coke at the bar, Tikay was ambushed by two lovely ladies from EverestPoker who have two online qualifiers here, by the names of Thomas Lopez (French) and Alejandro Acevedo (Argentinian).  With no resistance he agreed to have them pointed out and we spotted one with an impressive ponytail and one next to Marcel Luske and will keep an eye on them.  Extraordinarily, both got here via freerolls and one of them (I think it's Thomas) has only played for a month.  Should be interesting.

Alright, going to let Tikay do some updating while I provide some information with which to update.  It's only fair as we only have one chair

Afternoon all, what a life eh, Vegas, now Paris, but hey, I'.m not complaining.

And it was NOT 2 young girls from Everest Poker that ambushed me, it was 3. Dangerous job this, you know.

OK, lets gett o the comp.....

Tikay , i trust you are managing to mention the "olympics" at least twice every half hour ....

Rolf Slottboomis is sat with us, and as ever, he is being so helpful, giving us names & that of the more obscure players, many of them French.

Had a hug & a kiss from Isabelle Mercier, she is on Hellpi's tabe, she claims she always ends up on his table.

First chip counts here:

Paul Magriel   15,200
Roland de Wolfe    23,800
Ross Boatman    12,100
Paul Testud    15,025
Isabelle Mercier  12,100
Juha Helppi    23,500
Jani Santoula   16,550
Bruce Atkinson  26,400
Rory Liffey   20,600
Ram Vaswani   15,500
Thomas Lopez   14,050
Alejandro Acevedo  14,250
Lee Nelson   7,250

and Harry Demetriou  54,000!  Story in just a second, and it's a good one...

I was just passing (I kid you not) and saw John Kabbaj going all-in with 2 other players to act on a board of 5c 7d 3h Jd 10d.  Harry Demetriou (already sitting on about 34,000) called and against the pocket AA showed the 6 9 of diamonds for the flush!

Tikay has just gone to get The Players' Reaction, presumably from the bar area as we are now on break for 15 minutes.

He tells me that Harry previously removed some of John's chips holding 4 5 when the flop came a 4 5 4, and then finished his Aces off so John Kabbaj OUT.

One or two more counts - Noah Boeken  23,000
Ram Vaswani now 13,000

Marcel Luske, 13,000. No flowery prose, this is tikay......

Harry D appears to have moved tables, taking his wheelbarrow full of chips with him. 

At least one, probably just one table has been broken.  The most recent figures are:

Frank Callahan  20,400
Jani Sointoula  18,700
Rory Liffey      27,000
Ram Vaswani  11,600
Peter Heighway (from Betfair)  10,800
Thomas Lopez       17,000
Chris Bigler     14,500
Paul Magriel   11,100
Roland de Wolfe   23,800
Ross Boatman   8,750
Harry Demetriou   45,400
Marcel Luske   13,000
Noah Boeken   24,000
Isabelle Mercier  11,000
Jan Boubli    14,500

Tikay told me an interesting story of how Ross Boatman went right down to about 7000 (although he says he's back around 11k now):

Holding 66 Ross raised with a caller.  The flop came 6 2 K, with one diamond.  Ross bet, the other guy raised, and he just flat called.  The turn brought a second diamond and a check from Ross (hoping to raise) but a check from Guy.  Then the third diamond hit the river and he called the raise to find the runner runner-ed flush.  He is sitting on Rolandinho's right and doesn't look overly fazed by this beat. 

They are running satellites for tomorrow in the hallway while the main event is going on, as well as cash games in the Salon Prive.  There is a wonderful rumour that one can receive sandwiches from the red-coated guys whizzing around.  I am going to see if this is true, before heading back out for some more counting.

Totally by the by, some players make the whole chip counting thing more easy than others - Marcel Luske helpfully piled them all up in countable stacks when I came by to see how he was doing, while Frank Callahan did that hide-stack-behind-hands thing.  If any blondeites in future are playing these updateable events, I urge you to help us poor reporters out.

Roland De Wolfe is motoring big time.

He has  a whopping 40k! He just slow played AA a treat.

Ross Boatman 12,650

Paul Testud 5,000

Marcel Luske 10,700

Juha`Helppi 29,600

Frank Callaghan (moved his`hand to allow me to see his chips....) 16,550

Jani Sointula 18,000

Rory Liffey 24,800

Ram Vaswani 17,000

Peter Heighway, the  betfair Qualifier, 11,700

Thomas  Lopez, the Everest Poker man, 19,300

His Everest Poker team mate, from Argentina, has 16,700

Isabelle Mercier 11,000 

15 minute break now, after Level 2.

keep up the good work team - oh, & you could you let me know what tk has for dinner
x

Careful Thewy, I'm watching......

Had a GREAT journey across - 7 different trains!

Bizarre here - only 140 runners. WTF?

get yourself entered man, you could make the money with 15,000
i'll have 5%, now do what you're told

good stuff jen+tikay... i'm a little jealous as i'm off to 10 comp in teesside tonight!!!

its not vegas and its not paris, but it'll be good fun! maybe i could work on some new moves for the next time i play the pro's (luton or vic if i qualify on bluesq for vic main!) it should go i'm allin, hang on i reraise allin... i call! this is my standard tactic with no chips in the rebuys... thank god there not rebuys at luton lol

he sure can get some chips that roland! nearly as dangerous as yoyo!

Go for it Tony ... the form you have been on recently!!

Great updates guys and hope you get time to take the hi lo game apart Jen :)

J
x

OK, they have restarted.

Jen has spotted Estofnia whatever his bloody name is - the daft magician Guy - & has gone to check his chips. She says he talks a lot. He's American ffs...

Paul  Magriel - quack quack - is`sat just a few feet from here, in the comp, hes "busy", but he's not in good shape. not mny chips either. He's a sort of Mad Pofessor character.

El Blondie - he plays tomorrow - is in the Salon Prive playing the cash game.

Brian Wilson - tomorrow also - is wandering round like a lost soul.  We chatted during th break - he has a weird game plan for tomorrow, but we'd better not go into that right now, but I cant wait to see him implement it. Temperatures, & tempers, will rise for sure.... 

I didn't know that the mouthy guy in loud red hat was Antonio Esfandiari, but it all falls into place now... he has just this moment GONE OUT falling to Rory Liffey...

Harry Demetriou still the chip leader with 44,350, and when I got to his table just now he was taking a pot off a guy who he said had been slowly whittling his chips down over the past hour.  Not sure how much actual damage anyone can do him at this point, but he told the guy "thanks for letting me win one" as I walked off.

Noah Boeken doing well with, in his own words, "33,000 and change."

Ram Vaswani   18,000
Roland de Wolfe  43,000
Isabelle Mercier (now moved to two from Roland's right)  10,000
Alejandro Acevedo  15,000

he gonna wait for aces?

Go on Harry!

The hand that busted the Magician:

Rory had KK vs Esfandiari's QQ. There was the expected preflop raising action, then the flop 9 4 4; Rory bet, was called, and it all went in on the turn with no improvement for either.

Other chip counts:
Ross Boatman    10,000
Paul Testud        4,000

They are on the same table as Roland and Isabelle, incidentally, together with Frank Callahan and Jani Sointoula.  Going back to watch that one now.

Hows NabThaAce who qualified off GetMinted doing?  Not sure of his real name..

Edit: Nabil Nabtheace Ayoubi I believe

Hi guys, just caught up, wow! 15,000, starting chips, 90 minute clock, 140 runners,....multiple organisam

This is the final level before the dinner break. They have broken another 2 tables and it looks like the wednesday will be fairly brief (they play down to 27) and then the plan is to play thursday to the final 6, and then have the traditional WPT 6-handed Final. 

Despite allowing registration for the first level, there doesn't appear to have been much advance on the 140 players written on the wall.  Rory Liffey has joined the top handful after taking out Antonio with about 44,000 in chips.  NO - Update on the update - something has happened and he's not at the table and his stack is around 26,000.  Oh it all happens so fast.

Some Irish people have turned up suspiciously late.... in time to live update the dinner break.

I will have a look for NabtheAce although I have no idea who he is as yet.

If you dont know the difference between an Orgasm and an organism, its no wonder mrs red dog is feigning a cold ;)

That must be my glamourous assistant then Jen, make sure he feeds himself well  ;D

I didnt want to say that word on here, trust you to lower the tone






rif raf

Whats an orgasm?

if harry wins, you'll prob experience one...

Phew 24 hours away and these threads mount up!!!

It sounds fun in Paris. Thanks Jen and tikay, keep up the good work.

The latest news from the Runner Wall:

Another sheet of players has been added, including the following:

Carlo Citrone
Thomas Dunwoody
Alex Kravchenko

We were confused by the presence of what look like single table satellites, as it would surely be unfair if an extra bunch of players qualified for tomorrow thus making it noticeably busier than today.  However, it has been reported that 5 or so seats had been prereserved for satellite players to fight over, which does resolve that difficulty.  Brian Wilson heading on over to the (very) slowly filling table.

Peter Roche has managed to find out more accurately than we could the number of entrants (total) - 160 ish, now.

So can you still enter this tomorrow?

Tempted RED-DOG?

Frank Callahan just won a HUGE pot - looks like Tom might have collared the guy who just went out...

Yep, the story goes that Frank (who now has a monstrous 68,000) held pocket 8s and when the flop came 8 high, he found the other guy on Queens and ready to bet his whole, considerable, stack.  Looks like he's the new chip leader, then.

Maybe he starts tommorow  ;D

Dinner break now, back in just over an hour. We are off to a pavement cafe on the Champs Elysses. A nice omelette is in prospect. (This is - WAS - tikay).

This IS Jen - we are back and so are the players for their final two levels.  I am off to get the latest counts.

We had dinner in the most amazing Chinese restaurant with glass floors beneath which swam koi and little turtles.  Extraordinary.

We left DC playing 200 400 dealers' cash in the private room, might go see how he's getting on too...

So, after a few more moves we have tracked down these counts (a velvet rope has materialised around the players but unlike in the States we are not having any problems stepping over it):

Juha Helppi        21,500
Frank Callahan     66,000
Jani Sointoula     18,000
Rory Liffey         25,000
Ram Vaswani     18,800
Peter Heighway  19,000  (the betfair qualifier looks totally intense)
Thomas Lopez    11,800  (having only played a month the Everestpoker team look very excited that he's still in and doing all right)
Chris Bigler         9,800 (he gave me a thumb down sign as I walked by)
Michael Thuritz   25,000
Paul Magriel        8,500
Roland de Wolfe  45,000
Ross Boatman    13,800
Harry Demetriou  36,000
Marcel Luske       8,800
Noah Boeken     41,000
Isabelle Mercier   8,300

There are 56 left out of day 1's  starting field of 79.  Another table has broken... Ram Vaswani has taken a couple of hits and is down to 10,000.  Bruce Atkinson on 11,300 which Tikay says should last until 'about next Tuesday.'

Some changes in chip stacks, as discovered by Tikay -
Marcel Luske       11,500
Ross Boatman     14,000
Rory Liffey          15,000
Roland de Wolfe  40,000

Ram Vaswani OUT -

Down to 5000  Moves all-in on a flop of J 4 2 holding A3, after he raised 700 pre-flop and received a caller.   His opponent, holding 88, called after a dwell, and it came J 10 to send Ram out.

Betfair's Peter Heighway just took out the short-stacked Paul Magriel (quack quack).

Marcel Luske  11,500
Juha Helppi    23,000
Bruce Atkinson  30,000
Rory Liffey    15,000
Michael Thuritz   20,000
Ross Boatman   15,000
Harry Demetriou  36,000
Noah Boeken    30,000
Frank Callahan    70,000
Jani Sointoula   20,000

GL chaps out there :)

Keep it up Jen :)

much appreciated guys, hope you get some time to enjoy a lovely city!

Chris Bigler out too.  Starting to fall more rapidly now - the blinds are still just 100, 200 with a 25 ante.  Any second now they are up to 200, 400 with 25 ante, however, which is a fair jump per round.  'Level' just for interest's sake, is 'niveau' in French.  We are currently at the 4eme niveau.

All this poker AND an education as well!

Noah Boeken takes a 52,000 pot (at least) after a 3-way coup involving Harry Demetriou (AA) guy who is now out (88) while Noah has 10, J of hearts.

Flop: A 8 2 of hearts

Check Check so  Noah bets out  2000.  Call, call.

Turn: 3d

The sets both check again, so  Noah bets 9000.  Call, call.

Blank on the river, Noah bets 7000, Harry calls, and the other guy goes for it too and is now out.  Wow.

Coo-ee, I have MSN messenger newly installed on my elderly laptop, why don't we give it a spin? I ate too much.

no thanks mate, i swing the other way

Oops, meant to specify that that was for the eyes of my friend Djinn but I guess she's off hobnobbing with the Poker Stars. I'm actually a lady, if that makes you feel better, I'm not actually Bruce Campbell

in that case, ok then ;D

Break over, last level (or should I say niveau....) of the day just beginning. So it's the 5eme niveau ooh la le evening. I wont let that girl out do me.

Jen has skipped off to get some chip counts for you guys - I do hope you are paying attentiion. (psst, she does frighteningly good updates, eh?....)

Thanks Dana.  Delighted you are frequenting the forum.  How about these new chip counts, eh?

Roland de Wolfe   51,000
Harry Demetriou   14,500
Noah Boeken       75,000
Isabelle Mercier     12,000
Juha Helppi          51,000
Frank Callahan      70,000
Jani Sointoula      20,000
Bruce Atkinson    32,000
Rory Liffey          22,000
Peter Heighway   23,500
Thomas Lopez       5,350
Michael Thuritz     42,000

Marcel Luske is OUT - had KK  and a flop of  Q 9 7.  Player 1 bet into him with Q J. He went all-in, but a third player had 9 9 and, of course, called and took him out.  Fewer than 50 left in now, for sure.  Accurate count in a minute (quite refreshing to be able to do this!)

brilliant stuff people!

i'll do big brother live updates from here if u want lol... sounds like a brilliant comp, wish i was there!

jen does put your vocabulary to shame tikay, yet i understand ur broken english betterer!

 ;)

There are now exactly 44 players remaining.  Not approximately, exactly.  There is less than half an hour to go before the end of the day, but there are some very short stacks scattered amongst the leaders (who are still Frank Callahan and Noah Boeken)

Harry Demetriou OUT - Just managed to miss his raising under the gun with AJ, receiving a call and somehow getting it all in on an A 4 4 flop against a player who ended up showing AK and taking his remaining 15k.  Ten minutes to go now...

Can I get a Brian Wilson update?  Thanks!

Ah I think Mr. Wilson might have taken the opportunity for a relatively early night seeing as he is playing tomorrow, 4pm.

Gamblor. "tikay's....broken English..."....? Coming from a Geordie (or is it a Mackem?) , that's a bit rich!

They are distributing the little post-its for players to mark their end-of-day chip counts on.  Just caught a final hand on Juha Helppi's table where he re-raised Noah Boeken and a late position caller (of 1300) a further 5000 from the cutoff, only to find a quiet small blind going all-in for just 3000 more on top!  Unable to fold he had to show J3 offsuit which doubled up the other guy.  He obviously hadn't read the part where they all folded to the reraise....

So the remaining 43 will be back in two days to play with the remainder of tomorrow.

One accurate chip count from the ever-informative Roland - 46,675 which puts him definitely in the top 20%.  Chip leaders otherwise much as they were a half hour ago, and everyone looks quite pleased to be off at a reasonable time today. 

Catch up with you all tomorrow when a fresh batch of blondeites and others give it a shot.

why are they playing 2 day 1s i thought they could hold 200 players in paris

Hi, this is my first posting so I'll crack open the champagne, been keeping track of the WPT in Paris, in between getting very bad beats at the tables, must say, very impressed with the quality of the reporting makes you feel as if your actually there, Keep up the good work, look forward to the next episode.


Cheers,

Dewi

welcome to blonde dewi

Thanks for the welcome Ironside,

Dewi

P.S Thats 2 postings in less than an hour

makes up for the 2 months you never made 1 post lol

i'm a smoggy! i've told you this before tikay, mackems are between us and the geordies... teesside is a whole accent in itself! ;)

great reporting tho, ur to opposite styles compliment each other, like 'rice n pea'

Ian

OOps, 1.15pm Paris & just out of bed, so better be brief, lots to do.

Why, Ironside asks, two Day ones?

They had 220 runners last year. The expectation this year, given Poker's booming growth, had to be 300-400. A WPT with 150 runners? Not possible.

So we had the oddity of a WPT Day One with 70 runners. All very strange.

Any clues as to why?

We will start a new Thread for today, the second Day One.

Before we do, though, a big thanks to Bruno Fituoissi for his help yesterday. He was magnifique. Merci le Bruno.

And I know I am not supposed to say this - but that Jen really does have a lovely way with words, eh?, she makes my Updates look positively pedestrian. I think I will leave her to do all the Updates today - so sit back & enjoy.

Can you still enter the tourney Tikay ?

If so get in there !

A chance to win a WPT tourney with 150 runners.

Only wsop in06 to beat too.

 ;D

Don't tempt me Karabiner - I really am aching to play it. Julian made it worse too, he called this morning & offered to buy a piece of me, there's a good mate, eh?.

But I have decided to play the big one at The Vic next week, I cant really afford to do both, & I have "things to do" this week - I have committed myself to some things I cannot reasonably get out of, so that's that. But thanks for the comment, I appreciate it.

Here are the Close of Play Chip counts from Day One. Rolf Slotboom, sat right next to me, kindly said we could take these off his blog. which can be found at www.pokerpages.com. Thanks Rolf!

Didier Leroy, 3/5, 32,725
Vladimir Troyanovsky, 23/5, 5,775
Jean-Louis Perez, 6/4, 24,950
Ilya Buliechev, 21/5, 18,125
J.J. Liu, 24/1, 39,800
Dan Alspach, 21/3, 40,350
Peter Heighway, 5/6, 19,325
Tor Gammelgard, 24/2, 51,150
Oskar Hornell, 2/9, 22,100
Isabelle Mercier, 3/7, 9,975
Francis Cagney, 4/8, 17,475
Narciso Baldo, 4/1, 10,425
Rick Chase, 3/6, 35,650
Jani Sointula, 24/5, 17,850
Imraan Ladak, 23/3, 29,150
Sergey Altbregin, 21/6, 5,625
Peter Fischer, 21/8, 42,700
Tim Anders, 4/7, 5,025
Carl Buckland, 22/7, 37,425
Dan Pedersen, 3/2, 19,075
Casey Kastle, 23/6, 37,500
Rory Liffey, 4/9, 25,725
Frank Callaghan, 21/7, 92,325 (chipleader)
Jason Strasser, 2/5, 83,825 (2nd chipleader)
Juha Helppi, 2/6, 20,250
Roland De Wolfe, 6/2, 46,675
J. Yves Chicheportiche, 23/8, 21,950
Rahal, 5/4, 24,050
Noah Boeken, 5/5, 61,425
David Tavernier, 2/7, 27,975
Mikael Thuritz, 22/8, 59,000
Eugene Todd, 5/7, 20,550
Alexander Kravchenko, 4/6, 8,875
Jean-Francois Guay, 22/1, 11,175
Nicolae Simcelescu, 23/4, 60,650
Ray Sanchez, 3/8, 24,925
Bruce Atkinson, 6/5, 20,825
Alan Goehring, 21/9, 37,500
Chad Hicks, 6/1, 24,975