blonde poker forum

Welcome to the live updates for the Grosvenor UK Poker Tour's first stop - Bolton.

Play will commence at 9pm.

If you wish to post, please visit our 'Interactive' Live updeat thread by clicking the link below.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=19014.0 (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=19014.0)


Online Qualifiers:

Michael Fletcher
Simon Zach
Matt Tyler
Dewi James
Charles Denton
Paul Vicary
Anthony Brady
Alfie Baldwin
Stanley James
Trevor Bowers
Paul Moss
Johnny Hudson
Nick Wright
Gregory Howard
Mark Eccleshare
John Exley
Adrain Bates
Reyaaz Mulla
Matthew Cartwright
Alan Henson
James Atkin
David Parker
Gary Chatterton
Jonathan Farrer
Alistair Woods
Stephen Holden
Peter Daniels
Paul Gary Warburton
Gordon McArthur
Andrew Cunningham-B
James Dempsey
Andrew Stratford

Play should commence within ten minutes - the initial announcements are being made, among them the idea that seeing as this is all televised and "going to make you stars" there's a kind of filmed 'Bad Beat Box' which you can go over to and presumably tell your tales of woe to a camera which doesn't get bored.


Blind Levels

25/50
50/100
100/200
75/150
150/300
150/300 (25)
200/400 (50)
300/600 (75)
400/800 (75)
600/1,200 (100)
800/1,600 (100)
1,000/2,000 (200)
1,500/3,000 (300)
2,000/4,000 (400)
3,000/6,000 (600)

And here is the prize structure for this inagural event.

1st -- £65,601 (33.3%)
2nd -- £35,460 (18%)
3rd -- £23,640 (12%)
4th -- £17,730 (9%)
5th -- £13,790 (7%)
6th -- £10,835 (5.5%)
7th -- £7,880 (4%)
8th -- £5,910 (3%)
9th -- £4,925 (2.5%)
10th -- £2,955 (1.5%)
11th -- £1,970 (1%)
12th -- £1,576 (0.8%)
13th -- £1,576 (0.8%)
14th -- £1,576 (0.8%)
15th -- £1,576 (0.8%)

197 players...

Tony Adderely
Richard Ade
Paula Agnew
Greg Amolis
Matt Arnott
Simon Aspinall
Lee Atherton
James Atkin
Olabode Ayegun
Alfie Baldwin
Praz Bansi
Alan Barnacle
Adrian Bates
Ronnie DeBaulox
Vincent Birt
David Birtles
Tim Blake
Trevor Bowers
Oliver Boyce
Andy Bradshaw
Tony Brady
Robert Bright
James Browning
Chris Burke
Kenny Burke
A Buzzigoli
James Byrne
Vincent Campbell
Dan Carter
Matt Cartwright
Martyn Cavanagh
Russell Cawley
Neil Channing
Cheryl Charnley
Gary Chatterton
Paul Child
Sammy Chung
Carlo Citrone
Michael Clark
S Clutterbuck
Dave Colclough
John Conroy
Terry Cook
Caroline Cove
Steven Craig
Andrew Cunningham
Matt Dale
Theo Dalton
Peter Daniels
Alan Davies
Damon Dcruz
James Dempsey
Charlie Denton
Kat Dibbits
K Dionysiou
Bob Dolan
Phil Dorrington
Steven Dougherty
Mick Downey
Brendan Duffy
J Duke
Thomas Dunwoodie
Wayne Dutton
Jeff Duval
Mark Eccleshare
Daffyd Elias
Michael Ellis
Peter Evans
John Exley
John Falconer
John Farnworth
Jonathan Farrer
Keir Fitzgibbon
Tim Flanders
Michael Fletcher
Gary Fox
Ryan Fronda
John Gale
Paul Gardener
J Ghazi
Lawrence Gosney
Johnny Gould
Joe Grech
Daivd Gregory
Bruce Hardman
Sid Harris
J Hartwell
Mark Hawkins
Ashley Hayles
Alan Henson
Richard Herbert
Michael Herstritt
Paul Higgins
Ouday Hikary
Stephen Holden
Greg Howard
Gregory Howard
Paul Howley
John Huckley
Jonny Hudson
Stephen Hunt
Ash Hussain
Chris Huyton
Alexandra Jackson
Dewi James
Stan James
Des Jonas
Iwan Jones
Jon Kalmar
John Kay
JP Kelly
Tony Kendall
John Keown
Paul King
David Kingsley
Martino Libertini
Keith Littlewood
Michael Lott
Joseph Lovlady
Peter Lucraft
Karl Mahrenholz
Andrew Marshall
Gordon McArthur
Morris McCarthur
Mick McCloskey
Marshall McCombie
Mick McCool
Neil McGrath
Allan McLean
Andy Miles
Jamie Millar
David Mitchell
Paul Moss
Reyaaz Mulla
Stuart Nash
Ian Nelson
Terry Nelson
Balvinder Nijar
Simon Nowab
Barry O'Callaghan
J Owen
Terrence Page
Daivd Parker
Paul Parker
Luke Patten
Eileen Patterson
N Persava
Anthony Phillips
Howard Plant
Jaime Pont
Jamie Price
Trevor Reardon
Glyn Rees
James Robinson
Anthony Romanello
Roberto Romanello
Stuart Rutter
Mathias Samuelsson
Dave Shallow
Gary Shaw
Y Shevket
Pete Singleton
Nick Slade
Stephen Slavin
Andrew Stratford
Nick Stuart
James Sudworth
Jonathan Tarr
Julian Thew
B Travers
R Trigg
Michael Tsamis
Nigel Turver
Matt Tyler
Paul Vicary
Alan Vinnicombe
Allan Vinson
B. Vinson
Steve Walmsley
Paul Warburton
Paul Webb
Brian Welby
Mickey Wernick
Craig Williams
Matt Williams
Nigel Willis
Ken Wong
Alistair Woods
Warren Wooldridge
Nick Wright
Ray Wyre
C. Xanthos
Simon Zach
Harry Zammit
J. Ziab

With the end of level 1 approaching, we have somehow only managed to lose 2 players, one of whom is James 'MC' Atkin.

James called a small pre-flop raise with Qh 5h, only to Flop a flush draw.

The original raiser bet out, Mateyboy called and James re-raised. Both opponents smooth called.

The Turn brought the Kh, the worst card, not only because it made the initial raiser his bigger flush, but also because it elevated James' hand to second nuts, which makes it so much harder to fold.

Anyhow, all the spondoolies flew in and James was drawing dead.

Ariston, of whom I have an extraordinary photo being massaged by one of the be-corseted ladies (which I cannot currently put up due to lack of connector to tikay's laptop - see what a mess one piece of electrical equipment makes), hasn't had a good first level.  As the blinds are raised to 50/100, he's down to the tune of 3k, having laid down Js Jc  on an all-rag board to Iwan Jones, who showed him Kh Ks .  And some other things happened, none of them moving his chips in the upwards direction.

Nik Persaud  has been taking looks at raised flops with little pairs and suited connectors, with no result other than a gradual downslide in chips.  He's not keen on "going down to 5k and getting the double back to 10k" so if he can it's going to be a more rockily played level two...

Another 'name' gone. This time it's Ryan Fronda who won the December Christmas Cracker in Luton.

Sid Harris -- 13,700
Dave Shallow -- 3,875
Dewi -- 7,900
Jon Exley -- 4,700
Des Jonas -- 7,100
Tim Flanders -- 7,225
Mickey Wernick -- 13,125
Trevor Reardon -- 11,550

Chip counts from table Bandit - and an interesting pre-start fuss from Peter Evans, who apparently originally refused to sign his TV release form, but no paper no tournament so he capitulated. 

Michael Clark      10,100
Karl Mahrenholz   11,100
Terry Nelson       11,000
Adrian Bates       13,900
David Gregory      8,450
Peter Evans        12,225
Richard Herbert    7,200
Theo Dalton        17,400
Paul Vicary          10,500

and I think, judging by emptiness of his seat, Chris Huyton may be OUT....

TV celebrity Matt Dale raises from late postion and gets three callers, including both blinds Simon Zach and Ariston. 
Flop:  7s 9s 5c  checkcheckcheckcheck
Turn:  Kh  Simon bets out 225, Matt calls
River:  6s  I was distracted by a double preflop re-raise on the next table so I don't know what happened here although I would guess that both players checked

Simon shows 8d 5d for the straight against Matt's Ac Tc.

Table 17:

(1) Olabode Ayegun -- 10,475
(2) Alan Vinnicombe --  9,500
(3) Daivd Parker -- 10,650
(4) Pete Singleton -- 7,500
(5) Nick Wright -- 10,550
(6) Martino Libertini -- 7,750
(7) Julian Thew -- 7,975
(8) Greg Howard -- 10,425
(9) Gary Shaw -- 11,725
(10) Paul Moss -- 10,200

Table 18...

(1) Morris McCarthur -- 8,250
(2) Kat Dibbits -- 7,425
(3) Gary Fox -- 5,550
(4) Michael Fletcher -- 12,950
(5) Nick Slade --  14,650
(6) Alan Barnacle -- 10,975
(7) Carlo Citrone -- 9,725
(8) James Robinson -- 8,200
(9) Daffyd Elias -- 8,875
(10) Jonathan Farrer -- 7,800

Table 13...

(1) Jon Kalmar -- 3,825
(2) Mickey Wernick -- 11,300
(3) Vincent Campbell12,250
(4) Andy Miles -- 22,350
(5) Paul Higgins -- 17,225
(6) Johnny Gould -- 2,325
(7) Stephen Walmsley -- 7,225
(8) Bruce Hardman -- 10,225
(9) Steven Dougherty -- 8,725
(10) Robert Bright -- 7,350

Reyaaz Mulla is down to the felt with just 950 in chips after he run his A-K into the T-T of Sid Harris (biggest stack) and A-A of Caroline Cove, who seems understandably delighted.

Board = 5-J-K-J-6

*****20 minute secondary buffet break*****

Before I go and worm my way to the front, two more tables' counts:

Table tikay

Richard Ade    10,325
Richard Trigg    8,250
Niel Mcgrath     8,800
tikay               9,700
Howard Plant   9,300
Gordon Mcarthur  10,100
Paul King          10,700
Simon Aspinall    6,950
Matt Cartwright  12,000

Table Talk

Craig Williams      9,950
Jonny Hudson    11,050
Michael Herstitt   11,175
Thomas Dunwoodie  5,300
Paul Parker          8,500   "I long to have ten thousand."
Andrew Cunningham  700
Dan Carter            11,700
Ken Wong            12,600
Sammy Chung       13,050
Peter Daniels        12,500

Russell 'Ariston' Cawley is OUT.

He was down to just 3k when his raise with Bullet was met by 2 callers, one of whom held A-4, which went on to Flop a straight on a 2-3-5 board.

Ariston has bitten the early dust.  "I'm not usually in long enough to see Aces.  But I just ran Aces into A-4."  Yes, his Aces got some in preflop, and the rest on a 2-3-5 two clubs flop.  His opponent was all too happy to call with the flopped straight.

Managed to grab a quick word with Des Jonas. He reported of two early exits on his table, both in the same hand!

Mateyboy eliminated them with Jacks vs. Q-9 and T-9 on a J-9-9 board.

Flushy considers his 14k to be reasonable, seeing as he feels his table was a lucky draw, pretty rocky despite Stuart Rutter two to his right.  Both he and McCool were hanging around the computer zone in the break, and of the two of them Mick is doing better - 18k and climbing.

Dewi James is OUT.

He held the monster draw of 7c 8c on a 5c 6d Tc Flop.

Unfortunately, John Gale had Pocket Fives, which ultimately stood up.


Paul Child is also gone.

He ran A-J into Pocket Queens on a Jack High board.


Daffyd Elias -- 8,600
Pete Singleton -- 10,350
Andrew Bradshaw -- 14,125
Mark Hawkins -- 28,300
Dave Shallow -- 4,475

More counts, before the remaining 187 start to mingle, making this harder:

Table 1

Terrence Page     13,600
Y. Shevket           13,800
Paul Child                   OUT (or moved)
Allan Vinson           7,850
Mark Eccleshare      12,425
Nigel Turner          8,500
Tony Brady           7,200
Charlie Denton      17,200
Lawrence Gosney    2,800
JP Kelly                  19,000  (paid off set earlier helped)

Table 2

Anthony Romanello  6,500
Joseph Lovlady        12,800
Michael McCool        23,000
Warren Wooldridge   7,000
Harry Zammit            4,650
James Sudworth       6,800
John Farnworth       11,300
Balvinder Nijar           6,625
B. Vinson                12,650
Jeff Duval                 6,575

With the blinds at 100/200, a couple of thousand have made their way into a threeway pot on Dave Colclough's table - he's one of the players in it, along with Ian Nelson, who bet out 700 when the board read:  Jh 8s Js 9s.  Dave called and the other player folded, making the pot around 4k.  On the Kh river, Ian checked, and after a brief think Dave checked behind - good that he did because Ian held 6s 7s.  Nik Persaud muttered something about how he wished people with flushes would check to him too.

Greg Amolis, pictured below, is now OUT.

He lost out with Kings versus Iwan Jones' Sevens on a rather discomforting 3-4-6-5-8 board.


Tony Cartwright -- 6,400
Matt Dale -- 8,275
JP Kelly -- OUT

Nick 'dino' Wright is OUT - he was on a reasonable 8,500ish, when there was a preflop raise to 900 after one limper.  He called on the button with 7s 7h.
Flop:  7d 6c 2c.  The raiser bet out 2k, Nick raised to 5k, expecting a fold or an all-in... instead, a smooth call.
Turn:  A Club.  The raiser pushed the last 4k in, and Nick, although covered, "didn't have the mental strength to climb back from 3,000" and called.  His opponent had the Jc 9c and with no pair on the river it was all over.  Not a shameful way to exit his first one of these, however...

JP is no more - after a smallish loss with one of those 'out-think yourself on the river' situations, his final hand involved raising with Td Jd, and facing a re-raise to 1,300.  He considered that the range of hands of the other guy, considered it pretty small (AK and big pair-y type hands) and called.
Flop:  9s Qs Ac  Theo Dalton bets out 2k.  Call.
Turn:  9c.  Theo bets out 3k, JP decides that A-K alone can't call now if he pushes.  He pushes.  A-K calls, and takes him out.  A good start, an overly complicated read, a quick exit.

Greg Amoils OUT - Iwan Jones came over mulling about odds for a certain matchup - he held 7c 7s on a 5c 6h 8c board.  He check-raised preflop raiser Greg's 1,300 by 3,000 and then faced an all-in.  He called, and found Kh Kc against him.  It was his day to hit, and the straight knocked out Mr. Amoils and gave Iwan a nice early stack.

J Duke is OUT.

Queens outdrawn by J-T.


Cheryl Charnley is now on 10,700 after moving all-in on a flop of 7-4-Q against a harmless looking A-J. A Jack on the Turn threatened a miracle escape, but it never arrived.


Thomas Dunwoodie is OUT.

He smooth called a pre-flop raise with Kings, but found himself up against Aces.

Raggy Flop.

Mateyboy bet 600, Thomas made it 1,800, Mateyboy moved all-in and Thomas called the extra 3,000.


John Conroy -- 6,350
Glyn Rees -- 6,500
Praz Bansi -- 17,575
Ouday Hikary -- 8,725
Stuart Nash -- 20,800
Y Shevket -- 11,250
Matt Tyler -- 5,500
Stu Rutter -- 14,250
Matt Dale -- out
Carlo Citrone -- 9,775
Simon Nowab -- 17,425
James Dempsey -- 18,750
Bambos Xanthos -- 10,225
Mike Ellis 17,900
Mick McCool -- 32,300
tikay -- 13,500
Mick Fletcher -- 3,350
Trevor Reardon -- 10,800
James Browning -- 7,500

Martyn Cavanagh is OUT.

Interesting hand with John Gale, who is running very well today.

Martyn flat called with Aces in second position (another slow player!) and John raised 300.

Martyn made it 1,100 and John called.

Flop = 6-5-2

John checked blind, Martyn checked.

Turn = 8

John bet 1,700, Martyn made it 3,500, John dwelt before moving in for another 5k, Martyn called.

John takes the pot with trip eights.

Matt Cartwright is currently on 14,650 after eliminating Howard Plant with 8-8 vs Q-Q on a A-8-x-x-x board.

S Clutterbuck is OUT after seeing his Sixes outdrawn by the Q-K of Micahel Tsamis, who is now on 11,300 as a result.

Tim Blake -- 9,850
Ashley Hayles -- out
Nick Slade-- 32,225
Paul Higgins -- 14,825

Chip count (extended):

Tim Flanders     7,200
John Gale        27,200
Iwan Jones      21,600
J. Ziab             26,000
Nigel Willis        17,000
T. Blake           12,500
Richard Herbert  15,800
Matt Arnott      22,800
Oliver Boyce     27,200  ("Don't tell Mike Lacey, he may get excited")
Des Jonas        12,000
Greek Jack      12,700
Paul Higgins      17,025
Karl Mahrenholz  9,700
Womble            3,600
Sid Harris           6,850
Roberto Romanello  22,600
Nick Slade         32,800  (definitely in the top few chip leaders)
tikay                 15,800
Howard Plant       OUT
Paul King            20,500
Matt Tyler          12,500
James Browning   7,575
Bambos              11,300
John Conroy        6,400
Praz Bansi            14,350
Mick McCloskey     17,000
Trevor Reardon    9,000
Neil Channing       10,675
Carlo Citrone         8,300
Stuart Nash          21,250
Ash Hussain         11,650
Michael Ellis          19,500
Stuart Rutter       16,500
Flushy                 17,000
Nik Persaud          29,500
Julian Thew         13,000
Paul Moss             14,250
A. Romanello        8,000
Ben Vinson          11,300
Michael McCool     26,600
Simon Nowab       31,000
Joe Grech            32,000
Peter Evans         16,575
Kier Fitzgibbon      11,800
Richard Trigg        11,400
Burnley John         5,400

David Kingsley is your new chip leader with 56,150.

He just a three way pot with Kd Jh all-in on a Flop of 9d Td Qs

Mateyboy had 7d 5d, which missed, and Andrew Bradshaw had Jd Ts, which improved by the 8h Turn, but wasn't good enough to beat the nut straight once the Ts River sealed the deal.

As a result, Mateyboy is left with just 4,300, whilst Andrew Bradshaw is sent to the rail.



Members of the chasing pack include Nick Slade with 31,850, Mark Hawkins with 34,100, Nick Persaud with 36,600 and Theo Dalton with 48,100.

Richard Ade -- 18,400
John Exley -- 5,100
Lawrence Gosney -- 34,700
Glyn Rees -- 10,600

Daniel Carter is OUT after running Q-Q into T-8 on a T-8 Flop.

SO a couple of Karl Mahrenholz vs. Mickey Wernick hands now...

A 4+ limpathon including Mickey in the big blind saw a Kd 9s 2d flop.  Mickey checked, Karl bet 1,000 into the 1,200 pot.  Fold back round to Mickey who raised to 4k.  Karl just pushed in for his 11k remaining.  Eventually, Mickey passes, showing the Kc.

Karl shows the 2s.


Then Mickey re-raised Karl preflop (1.2k to 5k) only to decide to pass for the other half or so of his stack when Karl moved in, admitting (which is rare for Mickey, who's at it more than people think) that he was on a Jack-high move.

So a healthier stack (25k) for Karl at the end of Day One, and a bit of a short one for the Legend Wernick...

End Of Play -

There's a redraw every new day, and presumably they're doing that after the Chip Bagging...

Play will restart at 3pm tomorrow, and after a bit of a debate with Jon Raab over whether they should have eased the length of tomorrow by fitting in another level tonight (I was pro another tonight, Jon was anti) he's ended by saying he's pretty sure that they'll get down to at least the final two tables on Day Two.  We shall see...

Just in case the final chip counts go missing in cyber space, here are a few random chippy counts that I managed to jot down from the bags.

Dave Kingsley -- 65,775 -- 100,000
Alan Barnacle -- 8,150
Lawrence Gosney -- 40,225
Tom Brady -- 2,100
Iwan Jones -- 21,050
Paul Parker -- 6,700
Gary Chatterton -- 17,025
Joe Grech -- 17,025
Mick Fletcher -- 15,675
Theo Dalton -- 29,775
Richard Herbert -- 25,175
Paul King -- 20,200
Pete Kingleton -- 11,150
G Shaw -- 9,750
Ben Vinson -- 6,600
Sammy Cheung -- 25,000
Roberto Romanello -- 23,950
Jeff Duvall -- 5,800
T Nelson -- 2,625
Kier Fitz-Gibbon -- 14,300
Simon Nowab -- 41,025
Oliver Boyce -- 28,475
Richard Ade -- 17,550
Rick Trigg -- 12,100
Gary Fox -- 8,050
Paul Moss -- 16,600
A McLean -- 22,650
Tony Adderley -- 9,675
Greek Jack -- 21,325
J Zaib -- 19,150