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"SHUFFLE UP AND DEAL!"

A few names spotted:

Dan Harrington
Scotty Nguyen
Andy Black
Barry Greenstein
Amir Vahedi
Juha Helppi
Andrew Bloch
Bruce Atkinson
Joe Bartholdi
Hoyt Corkins
William Chen
Tony G
Tony Chessa
David Pham
Kristie Gazes
Mimi Tran
Clonie Gowan

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=13021.msg270717#msg270717
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=13021.msg270719#msg270719
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=13021.msg270721#msg270721

A few early photos

More names:

John Shipley
John 'Decider' Hansmeyer
Alex Jacob
dpommo
John Hewston
Dave Penley
Gala Ash
Tex Barch

And we have our first English casualty...

Accompanied to the room by Paul Parker, is the rather devestated face of Tony Cartwright.

Tony raised preflop with sevens, MB called.

Flop = 7-rag-rag

MB bet, Tony called.

Turn = another rag

MB bet, Tony reraised, MB called.

River = 9

MB moves all-in, Tony calls.

MB wins with pocket nines.

Crikey! More names...

Thomas Wahlroos
Lee Watkinson
Minh Li (sp?)
Donna from 'That 70's Show'
Layne Flack
John Duthie
Steve 'The Nugget' Davis

There are 15 Noregian players here today, three of which are:

Andreas Hagen
Thomas Middelthon
Jan Sjavik

1st Prize is in excess of 10 million dollars!!!

And with players braced for the first break, here are a few chip counts:

Brian Haverson -- 8,700
Thomas Wahlroos -- 11,500
Andrew Bloch -- 13,600
Mark Vos -- 7,525
Roland De Wolfe
Thomas Middelthon -- 13,050
Andreas Hagen -- 14,925
Jan Boubli --14,800
Rob Sherwood -- 18,500
Lee Watkinson -- 6,525
Phil Peters -- 9,800

David Pham -- 10,800
Barry Greenstein -- 12,475
Jim Betchel -- 10,400
Brett Jungblud -- 8,500
Martin Wendt -- 11,400
Mickey Wernick -- 7,700
William Chen -- 10,700
Dan Harrington -- 8,750

'Swimming With The Devilfish' author, Des Wilson, is currently on 10,300

He's played and won about 5 hands, and lost one with pocket tens. Preflop action, Des knew he was in trouble when MB smoothcalled his flop bet on a board of A-J-rag.

David Pomroy -- 14,200

And Des Wilson is OUT -

I just happened to be passing Table 149(!) when I saw a pot with about 2,500 in it and a flop being dealt.  That was:  Kc Kd 8h.
Matey checked to Des (it was heads up) who bet 2,000, finding a pretty quick check-raise to 4,000 coming back at him.  He called.
Turn:  Jd   Now Matey fired out 3,000, leaving himself about that much behind.  Again, call from Des.
River:  7h   The rest of Matey's chips are bet out, and it appears Mr. Wilson was covered, for when he called and was shown Ks Js to his Ahrt Aspades, he was walking to the corridor.

"I'm very disappointed," the pokerographer remarked while heading past the popcorn stand with me in tow like the update-vulture I am.

Rob Sherwood bets around 1.5k onto a board of 5s 9d 4d 7c 9s

MB calls with 6s 7s, Rob mucks

Some chip counts from between the staggered break -

Gus Hansen   5,450
Juha Helppi   8,600
Thomas Wahlroos  1,575
Dan Alspach    13,300
Martin Wendt   12,500
Mickey Wernick  8,000
Henrik Olander   12,400
Andy Black        12,600
Paul Testud      9,000
Barry Greenstein  11,700

Gary Bush -- 19,500
Mickey Wernick -- 7,425
Dan Harrington -- 11,800
Rob Sherwood -- 19,800
Tony G -- 6,000

With the blinds at 50/100, you probably wouldn't expect the numbers to be falling so rapidly, but they are - at least ten tables have been renumbered as alternates fill in the spaces left by their unfortunate early counterparts. 

Thomas Wahlroos is down to under 2k after a non-believer moment:

I saw the river come on a board of Qc Qd 7c Tc Ahrt.  Matey bet out (it looked like 1,500 or so) and got a quick raise to 4,500 from Wahlroos on that rather intimidating board.  But it was a fairly quick call with the Ac Jc, and Thomas' Qs Kd was shown to be no good, and not a full house after all, as he may have been conveying...

John 'Big Armo' Armstrong -- 15,175

Meanwhile, the guy in Seat 1 (right next door to Big Armo) moves all-in with pocket fours on a K-A-4-3-T. MB with A-J doubles him up.

Dave Clayton -- 29,000

Dave called a raise with T-3, flop = T-3-rag and cleaned out MB with Pocket Aces.

David 'dpommo' Pomroy is OUT.

K-J vs Q-J

Jack on the flop, Queen on the turn.

Fellow Virgin player, Julian Gardner, is still battling away with 12,525

Ben Roberts -- 11,750
Michael Mizrachi (seated opposite) -- 10,100

Gala Ash -- 10,025
Clonie Gowan -- 5,200
Tex Barch -- 13,800
Julian Gardner -- 15,300
Dave Penley -- 14,300

John Hewston -- 7,500
Tony G -- 2,850
Barry Greenstein -- 11,900
Dan Harrington -- 8,475
Mickey Wernick -- 7,225
Gary Bush -- 13,050
Rob Sherwood -- 28,050
William Chen -- 7,100
Ian McDonald -- 8,600
Martin Wendt -- 16,625
David Sklansky -- 12,100
Mike Sexton -- 9,250
Juan Carlos Mortensen -- 12,800

We've been informed that play will continue for 6 levels (so until 1:30am Vegas Time roughly) unless they haven't managed to play down to 800 (possibly 900).  So we've got a timescale for these Day Ones.  It's definitely not for the patience-challenged.

Big Armo -- 14,400
Benwoo -- 13,350
Richard Berridge -- 25,000
Ash Abdullah -- 9,150

Rob Sherwood is up to 31k, a decent proportion of which came from a 5-3 button raise.

MB though about raising, but just called, so ROb reckoned he had something like pocket tens.

Flop came 9-7-3 and both players checked.

Turn = 3

River = rag

Rob bet both streets and MB called both times.

MB mucked on the river.

Tony G raises to 600 under the gun (blinds = 100/200), 4 callers including cut-off and both blinds.

Big Blind bets 2k on the 5s Th Kd flop. Everyone folds, including Tony G who is now down to just 3.1k.

Tony G is OUT

It appears as though our chip leader is bracelet winner Mark Vos, who has around the 80k mark.

He just doubled up with Q-J versus A-A on a Q-J-rag flop.

Event 39: $10,000 NLH F/O - MAIN EVENT - Day 1a

Level 3

Blinds = 100/200

15 minutes left

Brits and fellow Midlanders John Shipley and Phil Peters are both OUT.

Minh Ly -- 9,400
John Duthie -- 29,225

Lee Watkinson is down to 8,700 after losing a big pot and doubling up Mateyboy.

K-K v T-T

Board = 9h 8h 4h 6h Th

Unfortunately for the bracelet winner, Mateyboy had the Kh

Roland De Wolfe raises 700 from the button, Mateyboy cubed call from the small blind, big blind, and trap 2 (limper).

Flop = Kd 8h 6h

MB bets 1.2k, fold, fold, Roland raises to 4k.

MB dwells for a while before finally making a call, leaving himself just a few thousand behind.

Turn = 2h

check check

River = 6d

check check

MB shows A-K, Roland mucks

The former WPT winner is now on 18,200

The players are now on a tea break, which I believe is 90 minutes long.

Clonie Gowan is OUT

an accident with Pocket Queens

Mark Vos is still your current chip leader, and by quite a way too.

The young Aussie has 80k, his nearest rival being recent WPT winner Joe Tehan, who has just over 40,000

100/200(25)

John Hewston -- 13,000
Tex Barch -- 13,725
Thomas Wahlroos -- 9,900
Lee Watkinson -- 8,425
Big Armo -- 22,000
Jon Hennighan -- 10,400
Roland De Wolfe -- 17,800
Thomas Middelthon -- 5,225
Layne Flack -- 4,35

Paul Clark, Tobey Maguire, and David Benyamine are all OUT.

Andrew Bloch -- 11,600
Jeremy Bates -- 7,500
Andrew Leonard -- 25,000
Kirill Gerasimov -- 4,875
Andy Black -- 18,500
Layne Flack -- 11,100
Joe Bartholdi -- 5,350
Hoyt Corkins -- 13,325

Dan Harrington is OUT.

The veteran and former Main Event winner who made two consecutive finals in 2003 and 2004 (a feat which is often greeted as one of poker's greatest complishments) was finally eliminated by another veteran of the game.

Mike Sexton's Pocket Queens were more than enough to fend off Harrington's flush draw, which never arrived.

Harrington received a much deserved round of applause.

Rob Sherwood -- 29,500
Jim Betchel -- 18,550
Steve Davis -- 13,825
Roland De Wolfe -- 3,675
Dutch Boyd -- 17,675
Scotty Nguyen -- 25,250
Michael Mizrachi -- 6,200
David Sklansky -- 7,225
William Chen -- 6,850
Mike Sexton -- 22,000
John Hewston -- 7,700

Might I interject my Climber of the Day at this point?

Drumroll please....it's Thomas Wahlroos.

Down to 1,500 after two levels, I highly expected him to have made a slight recovery or busted (no detriment to him as a player - in several European events he's shown himself to be top calibre) but finding him with 21,000 now it appears that his evening has gone much better than his afternoon.  Having worked his way back to his starting stack, he got in a battle of the blinds, eventually making a big all-in with Qd Td.  As for his opponent: "He called my all-in with pocket Sevens, so he deserved it" when he hit the flop and made his stack comfortable.

It's not easy catching a good hand, but sometimes you hear a slight ruffle, a few raised voices perhaps, or the pushing aside of chairs.

One of these occasions just happened on one of the very back tables.

After some preflop action, the three Mateyboys see a flop of Ts Js Kc

Seat 5 and 7 check, Seat 10 bets 500

Seat 5 calls, Seat 7 raises to 3,000

Seat 10 makes it 10,600 leaving Seat 5 to move all-in for a total of 9,600.

Are you still with me?

Seat 7 dwells for ages, giving it a lot of talk... predominatly due to the cameras being present.

Anyhow, he eventually folds, proudly slamming down Ks Js.

Seat 5 shows Ahrt Qs

Seat 10 has Tc Th

Turn = 5h

River = 8s

The all-in man survives.

"Best hand I've ever played!" comments Seat 7 adamantly

The Screens tell us that there are still a huge 1,280 players remaining (although I saw two go broke just while walking through the room just now).
Blinds 100/200 ante 25.

Some of your current chip leaders...

Mike Erstling
Mark Vos
David Pham
Cong Do
Julian Gardner

Dutchman Marc Naalden, who final tabled in Copenhagen at the start of the year, has just eliminated Mateyboy with T-T vs K-J on a 6-A-3-Q-2 flop.

He's still only on 7.5k though.

Rob Sherwood is currently on 22,050

Roland De Wolfe, who has joined the former TV table, is now two seats away from Scotty Nguyen and playing with exactly 6,000

Chip Counts!

Bushy (pictured)  14,500
Thomas Wahlroos  24,000
Roland de Wolfe   9,800
Dan Alspach         11,700
Martin Wendt       23,000
Mickey Wernick     23,000
Henrik Olander      32,000
Andreas Hagen     45,000  (just always seems to get chips and hold on to them, while looking the whole time as if he might be "licking pee off a nettle" as Tom 'DeVore' 'Looking for bitter revenge' Murphy says)
Andy Black           35,000
Barry Greenstein   15,800
Kristy Gazes          20,000
Ade Bayo             20,425
Julian Gardner       43,000
John Duthie          30,400
Scotty Nguyen      27,500

Jon Hennighan -- 32,000
John Armstrong -- 24,025
John Duthie -- 38,000
Gus Hansen -- 4,675
Jeremy Bates -- 7,425
Hoyt Corkins -- 42,700
Andrew Bloch -- 7,200

The rather aesthetically pleasing Jennifer Leigh has been eliminated from the comp after running pocket ladies into a set of ducks.

Narrowly missing out on Climber of the Day is Noah Boeken - whose 20k or so in mostly low-denomination chips have come back from just 2,000.  "Next time I see you I'll have 200,000...." prophesies Noah.  Nothing like PMA eh, Snoops?

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=13021.msg271101#msg271101
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=13021.msg271104#msg271104
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=13021.msg271105#msg271105
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http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=13021.msg271110#msg271110
http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=13021.msg271113#msg271113

Pics from the latter stages of Day 1a

Rob Sherwood -- 42,000
David Penley -- 14,375
Dutch Boyd -- 8,300
John Hewston -- 6,750
Jeremy Bates -- 6,625
Gary Bush -- 17,500
Hoyt Corkins -- 38,800
Ian McDonald -- 9,450
Tony Chessa -- 4,000
Brian Haverson -- 16,325
Mickey Wernick -- 25,000
Ash Abdullah -- 22,300
Andy Black -- 33,000
Barry Greenstein -- 33,400

990 players left

We've just gone into the final 20 minute break before the last 2 hour left of the day.

With just 950 players remaining, they're guaranteed pretty much to hit their target of 900 or fewer by the end of this level, but with multiple start days they've got to play through til the bitter end.  12pm tomorrow and it all starts all over again.

One of your chip leaders is Australian Mark Vos (now residing in Paris I believe)

He's currently on 95k after value betting a Kh 8d Jd 2h 2s board with Qh Js. MB called the extra 1.4k

He's now on 93k

Quick report on Rob Sherwood - he's currently running well on 43,700, not much change since the break, he's won a couple of blinds - "done enough to stay even"

Tony Chessa is OUT

Juan Carlos Mortensen -- 6,500
Steve Davis -- 9,575
Dutch Boyd -- 6,075
As Abdullah -- 29,300
Dave Penley -- 14,000

According to Mr Raab, the screen is behind and we are actually down to 860

Martin Wendt is stacking up around 60k after taking down a huge pot with 5-5 vs J-3 on a J-5-3 board.

Bit of a roar at Ash's table, and I managed to get a ringside view.

Three people went all-in, but one fellow was lambasting another for influencing another man's decision. "You have pot odds, you have to call" I believe was the phrase spoken, and, from what I understand, it wasn't the first time he'd made such comments.

Anyhow, the guy did call (Seat 2), and he had Jc Jd

MB in Seat 4 (who was the unhappy chappy) had Kh Ks, whilst MB#3 in Seat 9 held Qs Qh

Board = 5s 3c 9s Js Tc

Big roar from the crowd and many onlooking players.

Andrew Leaonard -- 25,500
Tony Bloom -- 30,500
John Armstrong -- 25,000
Gus Hansen -- 2,850
Noah Boeken -- 24,400
Richard Berridge -- 8,500

Steve Davis -- 17,150
Andy Black -- 25,000
Tom McEvoy (sp?) -- 7,150
Tex Barch -- 7,800
Mike Sexton -- 34,800
Gary Bush -- 15,925

Mickey Wernick has just taken a big hit and is now down to just 9,300

Flop = 7d 4c Th

MB is all in with Jh Td against the Worm's 7s 7h

Turn = 9h

River = 8h

According to the board...

82 tables

820 players

Shortstack Gus Hansen has been eliminated. From what I was told, it was a coinflip situation.

An Irishman (would you Adam and Eve it!!!) looks like being the chip leader at the end of today's play.

Barring a disaster, young bracelet winner Mark Vos will be in second with the likes David Pham, Hoyt Corkins, Martin Wendt, Rob Sherwood, Joe Tehan, Julian Gardner and Layne Flack not too far behind.

One second, I hear clapping and cheering, Day 1a is complete!

And, on that note, I shall bid you farewell as I must dash for the taxi before the stampede.

Nighty night, folks.  ;sleep;