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Evening all! Welcome to the Grosvenor Walsall where I am all set up in the High Roller Room, leeching off of some unspecified wifi and all ready to bring you news from this relatively boutique £750 event. I will be updating solo for the next hour or so owing to Junglecat encountering some interesting train problems, so please please do tell me your picks, requests, hilarious asides and so on, but also please go easy on me if I'm a bit sloooooooowww for the first hour or so...

Spotted so far are, um, Snoopy, mainly because he gave me a lift from the station but also because he is playing tonight, and also Mr Ian (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=176) Woodley (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=176). Will make more of an effort to spot more Notable Runners in just a minute. Also to be mentioned immediately, though, is Mr Red Dog, currently final-tabling the £500 event. Go Red Dog!

They were due to start at 8 but for some reason they're kicking off at 8.30, so I'm going to have a cup of coffee run around and find out some interesting stuff. See you shortly...

Looks like they're shuffling up and dealing any second. I have a full player list but it'll take me a little while to get it typed up, so for the time being here are just a few of the spot-ees spotted lurking in the casino and therefore probably playing tonight unless they're secretly living here:

Dave Smith
Julian Thew
Jon Hewston
Dave Colclough
Matt Tyler (who told me to report that he gave me a kiss, with tongue, but the tongue was in my ear - none of this is funny, or true)
Chili
Paul Jackson
Des Jonas
Chris Bruce

Looks like a small but perfectly formed field - we have 70-something runners (tbc) but it looks tough as old boots to me. Good luck all!

Ok, here we go:

Table 1

Demetriou Maria
Pearson Trevor
Parkes Kevin
Trickett Sam
Mitchell David
Rutter Stuart
Libertini Martino
Penly D
Lloyd David


Table 2

Jelinek Steve
Bullock K
Yaffe Mark
Sunar Surinder
Goodwin Marc
Mulla Reyaaz
Risdale Nicolas
Iqbal Javed
Rokach Lucy


Table 3

Reehal Jujhar
Dunwoodie Thomas
Hussain Arshad
Padden Clive
Reee Rob
Johnson Chris
Sapiano Albert
Cavanagh Martyn
Horton Peter


Table 4

Goulding Adam
Jahanpour Essy
Sivaguru Arulmaran
Fellone Tony
Colclough Dave
Thew Julian
Woodley Ian
Singleton Peter
Herbert Ian


Table 5

Jonas Des
Smith Dave
Segal Mark
Callinan Ben
Bradshaw Andrew
Bebb Simon
Hemsley Ian
Corrigan Mick
Gavriel Chris


Table 6

Green Philip
Stevens Rob
Slade Nick
Mclean Alan
Koumi Joseph
Norman Steve
Lennon Stephen
Jackson Paul


Table 7

Stearn Alan
Bruce Chris
Mercado Grant
Reid James
Romanello Robert
Johnson Andy
Reid Paul
Artemis M


Table 8

Orlowski Mark
Porter Matt
Nicholls A
Kennedy Antony
Cashman Richard
Madan Ved
Davies Justin
Reardon Trevor


Table 9

Sidhu Kuljinder
Louca Andy
Patel Kalpesh
Davenport Justin
Flanders Tim
Maudlin David
Gough Andrea
Tyler Matt

Ok, late entries have been arriving, taking the current total to 85 runners. Late entries include: Mickey Wernick (now on Table Rutter/Chili), Ash Pervais, Amir Abassi, R Gurnham, M Mirza, MZ Hussain, Jon Hewston and Red Dog (currently residing on Table Snoopy/Colclough/Woodley/Thew/Herbert). This is a double chance freezeout and that looks like a crazy table to me, so hopefully I will catch some interesting raisey fireworks over there at some point...

By the way Red Dog came second in the £500, so congratulations congratulations! What to say to people when they go out of tournaments, winners or no, is very definitely not my strong point, so I'm fairly certain I offended him somehow. Oops. Nevertheless, very well done, sir.

The card room is reverberating to the regular cry of "CHIIIIIIPS!!!", but I have yet to catch anyone in the act except for Mr M Artemis, who stuck it in with, I believe, Jc Qc on an all-club flop and was called by Aces, the fourth club on the river giving Mr One-Of-My-Aces-Is-A-Club a higher flush.

I also witnessed Mr Steve Jelinek take down a smallish pot with a 1k bet on a Qd Qc Tc 2h board. He didn't look like he wanted his photo taken, but I took it anyway.

It is 6k each chance, so 12k total. Amazingly there are four players gone already. We also thought Snoops might be gone - Chili drew my attention to the beagle apparently picking up his coat and wandering away from the Table Of Doom, but he was merely wandering to Table 6 to continue playing.

He tells me he dropped down to 4k (having taken all his chips at once, greedy dog), but has since doubled up. The drop was down to a turned Queen-high flush, which he checked; when the river paired the board and he bet, his opponent raised. After deciding there was no way that his opponent could have a full house, Snoops called - to be shown the Ace-high flush. Ouch. However, he then flopped a flush and straight draw and went up against Julian Thew's two-pair. He hit the flush, and is back up to 8k again. Go my 5%! I mean, good luck everyone, not just the guy I've got money on. Ahem.

Hi folks!

I won't bore you with the fascinating details of my journey here, suffice to say I was on the verge of running updates from the interior of my train carriage. (Cutting a long story short, woman with screaming child beat irritatingly loud man on his mobile convincingly in their heads up battle) Muchas gracias to Dana for holding the fort all on her lovely lonesome in my absence.

Well, I've just been getting up to speed with developments thanks to Dana and I have to say, wow, that's a very strong field. Every table is bristling with strength, perhaps no better illustrated than Snoopy's "Mission Impossible" table. Still, I've said before Snoopy would make a good secret agent and this is his chance to prove that...

There's very few weak links in the field as far as I can see, and it is going to be a real battle out there between some very experienced and capable poker players.

Let's see what's happening!

I saw an entertaining hand involving Welshyboy Mr Roberto Romanello. Three players, Roberto, Alan Stearn and the gent standing in the below photo whose name I'm not massively sure of, were in the hand, with some pretty big betting up to the river of the 5d Aspades Qs 6c Td board, at which point Roberto announced that that he was making a value bet of a paltry 200; both Artemis and Stearn called. There was no value in it for Roberto though. Said Mr Nameless, "I have a pair." "Well, if you have a pair, then I'm ahead!" said a cheerful Roberto, turning over an Ace. Both other players also turned over an Ace. Roberto and Alan turned over a Deuce kicker apiece, and Mr Unknown (please someone, help me out) took the whole lot with, er, a Seven kicker. Poker's fantastic.

Players are on a wee short break. Update from the players who have wandered into our High Roller Press Room:

Chili has 15k

Snoops has 9k, and doesn't feel even slightly bad for doubling up off of Julian, as Julian himself doubled up first hand, shoving with a flush draw against someone else's two pair, so it's like divine justice, or something.

I run pretty good at finding interesting hands. I popped out on my first sojourn into the card room and immediately saw a massive hand on table 5...

The hand seemed to be being played out between the man in seat 9, who according to the player list is Chris Gavriel, but according to my eyes is not...and a player in seat 5 who was Andrew Bradshaw.

The chips had flown in on a , not suprisingly, since Andrew held for middle pair a gutshot and a straight flush draw, whilst the Chris Gavriel replacement, held 5-8 for the flopped straight.

The hand was over on the spectacular turn though, completing Andrew's middle pin straight flush to loud cries from his table!

The unlucky gent in seat 9 looked to have one solitary chips left with which to mount a comeback although I'm not sure if he had his second chance in reserve.

First hand to report on being a straight flush, I'm a happy cat Smiley

Yet another correction to number of runners - looks like one more snuck in while no-one was looking, as the official number now reads 86, of which 77 are left in, with blinds at a mere 100/200.

Dreaded Table 4, previously the Table Of Doom, has been re-christened Table Wasps' Nest by current resident Red Dog. "We have new, improved, rock-like Woodley, and new, improved, raising-like-a-maniac Singleton," says he. Never mind, Red Dog. You've had like eight hours' practice playing today already, you should have warmed up by now...

We are 15 minutes into the 100 200 level...

I watch Snoopy's table for a short while but things seem relatively quiet.  Moved off the table of death from earlier, Snoopy is sitting on table 6 now, although the presence of several top notch players including Paul Jackson, will hardly make it a cakewalk to accumulate chips for the beagle...Whilst I stand coiled, pen itching to relate tales of vim and vigour from snoop's table, the best hand I am rewarded with is Actionjack limping on Snoopy's blind and Snoopy checking...

The flop came down Kh 8h 2h, Snoopy checked and Actionjack bet out, rewarded with a fold by Snoopy. Exciting stuff I know......I did warn you!

Whilst I lurk round Snoopy's table, I am drawn to Roberto Romanello's table. As usual the verbose Welshman is in full flow and I catch the snippet "If you've got clubs, you've got outs, otherwise I'd fold...I've got to protect my hand!"

I check the action and Roberto has raised preflop and has bet out a large-ish stack of chips on the Tc 4s 2c flop. His opponent, who I don't recognise, eventually folds to the Welshman's table talk.

Roberto turns over 4-7. "See I'm not raising with rubbish" he tells the table. "People think you need Aces to win!"

Good old Roberto!

Incidentally, here is the prize structure awaiting out lucky final tablists tomorrow...

1st -  £23,210
2nd - £14,190
3rd -   £8,260
4th -   £6,000
5th -   £4,000
6th -   £3,030
7th -   £2,260
8th -   £1,940
9th -   £1,610

Mickey Wernick bets out 3.5k on a 6h 9s 5d flop, and looks incredibly disappointed when everyone folds. He shows his Qs Qh so they all know he had an actual hand...

Matt (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) Tyler (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) is wandering off. "Are you...?" I enquire, wide-eyed, and he makes the universal sign of the slicey throaty. Hmm, think I, I shall leave off reporting this for a moment. Eventually he returns to his healthy stack and sits back down next to Surinder (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=422) Sunar (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=422). "I knew you weren't out," say I. It is apparently hilarious to mislead the credulous updaters. Oh well. I'd do it too if I were playing. Anyway, Matt's on a very respectable above-average 20k - with 74 players left, average stack is 13.9k. Although says he: "Surinder's got his eye on them, so it'll be around 3k soon".

There I was mocking the tightness of Snoopy's table when a large-ish pot plays out, and it involves the dog himself!

In what looked like an unraised pot, seen by several players the flop came out

Qh Ahrt Tc

Snoopy checked, there was a bet to 700 from someone in middle position which was raised by a late position player (apologies for lack of names, these players are unknown to me and have been throughtlessly moved from their initial starting seats with little consideration for the cat. Also apologies for this probably unnecessarily long parenthesised paragraph, which will no doubt render the end of the sentence completely meaningless as you'll have forgotten what I was blithering on about in the first place) to 1700.

Snoopy FLAT CALLED the raise...

The turn was the 4h and Snoopy now bet out 700 which was called.

The river was the 2d. Snoopy checked his cards again, before asking the other player in the pot how much he had left in his stack. After a little think, Snoopy checked and the other player also checked.

He showed down K-J for the straight which was good against the flopped two pair A-T for the unlucky beagle.

The turned heart was doubtless a good card for Snoopy as he could well have lost more chips without this danger card appearing. So good news and bad news, he's down about 2.5k on the hand, but he's not broke.

I caught the very end of a hand involving the salmon-shirted (actually salmon, Snoopy fans, not, this time, pink) gentleman below - if the seating plan does not in this instance lie, his name is Mick Corrigan. The board read 4-A-K-8-6, and he was taking the pot with pocket Eights while Dave Smith showed his losing Ace. Mr Corrigan now has about 28k.

He limps in to see a flop on the next hand too. Ian Hemsley bets 500 on the Jh Kh Ahrt flop, but lays it down when Mr Corrigan raises him - he shows Ts 3s, and Corrigan shows pocket Aces. Someone's having a good day.

Mickey Wernick, Trevor Pearson and Stuart Rutter just got involved in some poker-ing.

Anothe unraised pot, Stuart checked the Qc Td 6h flop, and Micky quickly bet out 500 into the 600 or so pot. This was called by Trevor Pearson, before Stuart check raised to 1900.

Quick passes from both players and the scarfless, but not chip-less monsieur Rutter raked in the pot...

Micky mumbled something through his impressive beard that sounded like it was probably "well-played".

Snoopy's scraped back a few chips. Three players including the Beaglous One check the turn and river of a 5-T-6-J-9 board. The young gentleman in seat 9 announces that he has the nuts, but turns over pocket Threes instead. Matey 2 shows A-Q and so Snoopy's A-T is good. Not a big pot, but better than nothing for the shortish Snoopster.

It looks like Lucy (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=251) Rokach (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=251) has been eliminated. Who by, I cannot say, howso, I do not know (trying desperately to make my ignorance sound like it has mystical connotations.) What I can say is her chair is vacant and there is a Lucy (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=251) Rokach (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=251) shaped hole at the table.

---

Matt (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) Tyler (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) is on 20k, he is happy and was busy wandering around the cardroom picking play fights. He started with Ian (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=176) Woodley (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=176), who told Matt, "One punch and you'd be out like a light, but I'd catch you and cradle you to the floor like a baby" Matt looked dubious. Dana got some good footage of him getting revenge on Ian...

---

Dave (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=95) Colclough (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=95) looks to be relatively short, I could only see around 7k in his admittedly partially obscured stack. He is all sniffly and cold-ridden it looks like. Bless.

Dr. Cat prescribes homemade chicken soup for dinner and lemon, ginger, honey and hot water in a mug before bed time.

---

As I pass by Mark Segal's table, I notice that he is drinking his tea but that the saucer has remained attached to the cup. A part of me is inclined to tell him before it falls off, but a bigger, more mischievous part is taking bets on whether he notices before it falls...

Suddenly it seperates from the cup, there is a crash of crockery and the saucer hits the floor but miraculously survives its perilous trip to ground and begins to roll off under another table. I flash out a paw like lightning and scoop it up to return to the a grateful Mark Segal but fail to say, "Ahhh, keeping the saucer close to the cup, Mr Segal. I guess that makes the tea hard to spill"

---

Finally amidst all this waffle a hand, involving 2 guys who, assuming they are in the same seats they started in (which is a tenuous assumption I must admit) were Arulman Sivaguru and Tony Fellone and also Ian (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=176) Woodley (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=176).


All 3 saw a flop of Qd 7d 5d and it was checked around I beleive.

The turn came the 6h, which elicited a bet from Arulman of 550 after it was checked to him , called by Tony (who was in the small blind) and also called by Ian.

The river was the Aspades, checked once more by Tony, also checked by Ian, and bet to the tune of 1500 by Arulman. Tony now check raised to 4k!

Wow, some slowplay if he had a monster. Ian quickly passed and Arulman tanked for a few minutes but eventually also gae up the ghost, leaving the slickly haired, slightly mobsterish looking (and sounding) Tony Fellone to pick up the pot.

Steve (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=414) Jelinek (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=414) bet out on a Qs Td 7d flop, but dejectedly laid it down when Matt (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) Tyler (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) shoved his considerable stack across the line. He's down to 7k or so (it looks like less, but there was a 5k chip in front of him), and this time he looks like he wants his picture taken even less than he did last time.

Reyaaz Mulla is OUT to the young gentleman below who may or may not be called Bullock. Both of them insta-all in on a 3c 8h Jd flop (with not a moment taken to Mulla it over, chortle), Mulla's 9d Ts failed to improve against Bullock's Jh Js.

Micky Wernick makes a comment about playing with the "talented Chili" and the wise old Red Dog, who has recently moved to his table.

"Give her a spanking" urges Paul Jackson from the adjacent felt.

"Oi niver spink yung loidies" says Micky, protesting (the below picture showing Micky possibly rubbing his nipple provocatively is pure coincidence)

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5558&g2_serialNumber=1)

"YES YOU DO!" counters an astonished Paul Jackson.

Red-Dog is busy laughing at this frivolity. Meanwhile a hand is being played out. Red Dog, Chili, KP nuts Kevin Parkes and one other I believe have seen the flop of

Ac 8d As.

Checked round to Chili on the button, she raps the button to indicate a check too.

The turn is the

9d.

Once more check-age predominates and there are no bets.

The river is the 6c and Kevin now picks up a 500 and 100 chip and bets out ( the bet being 600 if you are too lazy to work that out)

Chili quickly raises to 1500 and Kevin quickly calls and looks a bit bemused as he shows J-J whilst Chili shows the slowplayed A-8, with which she had flopped a full house.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5562&g2_serialNumber=1)

"I was hoping someone would catch up! Hard to get paid off with hands like that" remarks Chili as she rakes in the medium pot... Red-Dog agrees sagely before happily posing for this picture with Chili.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=5560&g2_serialNumber=1)

Also spotted-at-the-cash-table-presumed-OUT is Roberto Romanello.

Julian Thew is OUT!

He ran his K-K into Ian Woodley's A-A. Standardly the chips went in preflop and there were no shocks of any kind.  A merry-as-he-could-be Julian picked up his things and left the table.

That propelled Woodley to what looked like it might be 30k or so, but I am having a bit of a problem differentiating the 1k blues from the 5k purples so my chips counts may occasionally lack a little accuracy...

Dave Colclough is lookign focused and possibly a tad less sniffly than before (sneaky little chicken soup Dave?) and also it appears as though either I miscounted his stack earlier or he has had a revival of sorts as he appears to have 20k+ now...

The tables have been reduced to 6 now, 58 players remain and we are on 200/400. Things may start to hot up now...

Assorted Chip Counts:

Red Dog -- 16k
Chili -- 30k
Smoopy -- 8k and clawing: "Well, I wouldn't mind getting Aces..."
Stuart (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=421) Rutter (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=421) -- 12k
Matt (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) Tyler (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) -- OUT - not sure how, but whatever happened, Chili informs me he muttered something about playing it badly before he wandered off. She says Julian knows, but he's out too. Oops. Poor old Matt and Julian.
Trevor (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=445) Reardon (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=445) -- 12k
Steve (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=414) Jelinek (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=414) -- back up to 30k somehow. Possibly partly off of Matt (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274) Tyler (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=274)? I merely speculate. But he looks much happier.

I have a quick chinwag with Stuart Rutter, who is busy piling up a stack of chips...

"Just got lucky!" he tells me, "but I got unlucky just before that"

He had just lost a pot with Q-Q  v A-J "which sucked" when he raised in the next few hands with 5h 6h.

He bet out on with a gutshot on a flop of 7h 9c 2c and was called. The turn card was a "big card for me", it being the 3h to give him a double gutter and a flush draw. More chips went in on the turn before a magical offsuit 4 to give him the nuts arrived on the river and the rest of the chips went in. I didn't catch his opponent's unfortunate holding but Stuart was suitably grateful at his backdoor draw arriving.

---

I may have to stop cracking Stephen Seagal gags if Mark Segal keeps up his rampant chip accumulation.

He appears to be on 40k+ at the moment.


0

....Sorry just to expand a little on that. I run bad at chasing mobster poker players (NB any views expressed by the cat are not necessarily those of Blondepoker, Dana or any other updates so any hits organised should be specifically carried out on the cat, beware though, I like getting whacked...)

Anyway I found Tony's seat to snap him, but his chips were gone...Just as I was regretting having not snapped our resident Soprano prior to his knockout, I turn around and  there he is!! Still in - just relocated to a different table! I prepare to point and click when Stuart catches me to tell me about the hand he had jsut played out with 5h 6h above....When I had finished having a pleasant chat with Stu, I turn around to find Tony Fellone has disappeared and is seen skulking around the cash tables looking very miffed.

Not wanting to get on his wrong side, I decide now is not the time to approach so I leave him be, but bad luck Tony, you'll beat those wiseguys next time...

---

Chip counts randomised for your pleasure....

Pete Singleton 17k

er, that's it...

Better get back to work!!!

More Chip Counts That Were Roughly True About Ten Or Fifteen Minutes Back Now:

Thomas (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=1134) Dunwoodie (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=1134) -- 5.5k
Mark Orlowski (he of Hairdo Of The Day - to be posted in just a moment) -- 16 or 17k
Paul (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=326) Jackson (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=326) -- 27k
Local boy Anthony Kennedy -- 22k
Ved "Vince" Madan -- 12 or 13k
Des (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=129) Jonas (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=129) -- 19 or 20k
Essy "Eliminator" Jahanpour -- 7k
Andrea Gough -- 12k
Ian (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=176) Woodley (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=176) -- 18k
Mohammed (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=296) Hussain (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=296) -- 17k
Ash (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=38) Hussain (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=38) -- OUT
Surinder (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=422) Sunar (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=422) -- probably 15k unless he's hiding some purple chips that I couldn't see.

Meanwhile Trevor Reardon is a GONER at the hands of Marc Goodwin. Didn't catch the whole hand, but there were two Nines and a Ten on the board, with Trevor Reardon holding Ad 9h and Marc Goodwin holding Tc Th. The mutters of "unlucky" as Trevor left his trademark double backwards chair arrangement to fend for itself suggested that the money went in before the Tens filled up, but it might have been more a you're-never-getting-away-from-that "unlucky".

As I join Red Dog's table, I find Red-Dog in the middle of a tough decision, the action looks as though(and this is the best I can reconstruct it) Chili has raised to 1500 or so, Red has re-raised to 5k (or possibly BY 5k) and A. N. Other has reraised allin...

Red with 18k back has already been dwelling over the decision for 5 minutes or so before I arrive apparently and it is a toughie as he has Q-Q..."What would Micky do here?" he wonders aloud, before being told the answer by the table. "The right thing!"

Eventually he passes "good fold" says Micky, "He's got AA or maybe KK..."

Chili says "hmmm, I think he was just going to flat call my raise until you got involved", perhaps implying he may have had a few other hands there and then she looks up with a cheeky expression as if she knows she is stirring things up a bit!

"If it's good enough for Micky, it's good enough for me" says Red Dog, happy with his decision, but bemoaning the fact he had just got back to average before he lost a chunk on that hand...

---

The blinds have just risen to 400 800. There are 43 players left and carnage is about to ensue. You have my word.

Oh, unhappiness. Sorry Smoopy, nh ul wp gg.

Saw a pretty big hand that's left Surinder Sunar a wee bit short.

On a Kh 7h Qs flop, Surinder bets 500 and Anthony Kennedy calls. They both check the Tc turn, and Surinder bets 1200 on the 3d river. Anthony makes it 4k. There is some mulling, and Surinder calls. Anthony turns over Qd Js. "Is that good?" He sounds shocked as Surinder nods and looks at his cards like he's going to muck. "I'm shocked." Surinder looks uncomfortable and eventually shows his Qc 8h, I'm not sure why. He's down to maybe 13k now.

There could have been violence between Segal and Anthony Nicholls, but in the end there wasn't.

The board reads 9h Kc 4h 7s and Anthony bets 2k; Mark calls.

The turn is the 8d and Anthony checks before it's out of the deck. Segal bets 2k. Says Nicholls: "For 2k, I've got to call." And he turns over K-J. "Errr..." says Segal, and turns over K-J. Much hilarity ensues. Nicholls says he would have folded had Segal bet more, and everyone believes.

Des (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=129) Jonas (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=129) is OUT - he raises preflop only for Marc (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=257) Goodwin (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=257) to re-raise him. They agree that Des is all in, and they race that classic classic race:

Des (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=129) Jonas (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=129) - Ac Ks

Marc (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=257) Goodwin (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=257) - Qc Qd

Board - 4c 7d 6d 5s 4s

And with some gentlemanly backslapping and "nice hand"-ing, Mr Jonas is leaving the building. Marc Goodwin has soooo many chips now, in very tall, very leany easily-tip-overable stacks.

Just to clarify, we are playing 30 minutes of the 600 1200 level before the players retire for the evening.

It looks like Ian Woodley and David Lloyd have retired already as I noticed them hightailing it out of the casino early...


David Colclough just played out a big pot. Anthony Nicholls limped in for 800 as did Arulmaran Sivaguru and David Colcough also limped on the button.

The flop came down an all red  two hearts.

Anthony confidently bet out 2k, which was called by Arulmaran. Dave adjusted his hat slightly, before picking his chips up and pushing them purposefully over the line, announcing himself ALLIN!

It was about 12k more to Anthony, who was nursing multiple large stacks of chips that  must total in the region of 50k or so...

...and after a long dwell, he CALLED, and Arulman seemed to unnecessarily dwell behind him, given that he had time to make a decision during Anthony's dwell up.

EVENTUALLY Arulman folded, Anthony shook Dave Colclough's hand and the cards went on their back.

for Arulman, top pair, eight kicker.

Ah for Dave Colclough for top pair, four kicker and the nut flush draw...

a Two Clubs Turn followed by a...

river meant it was time to do some...

...and Dave stayed in the tournament...

coming up are final chip counts from the day...

My friends who have made it to, er, breakfast time or something now with the bizarre late start - we have finished for the day.

We have three tables left; here are chip counts for two of them (Mr Cat coming back with the rest):

Maria Chili Demetriou -- 14.5k
Tom Red Dog McCready -- 46.6k
Zahar Mirza -- 35k
Clive Padden -- 39.3k
David Mitchell -- 58.3k
Joseph (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=206) Koumi (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=206) -- 74.1k
Arulman Doc Sivaguru -- 12.6k
Paul (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=326) Jackson (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=326) -- 57.5k
Mickey (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=283) Wernick (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=283) -- 41.8k
Steve (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=414) Jelinek (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=414) -- 34.1k
R Reece -- 39.2k
R Gurnham -- 35k
Marc (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=257) Goodwin (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=257) -- 114.2k huuuge
Surinder (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=422) Sunar (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=422) -- 25.5k
Ved Vince Madan
Anthony Kennedy
Dave (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=95) Colclough (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=95)
Mick Corrigan

Notable among those is Mr Red Dog - after starting the day with an awesome second place finish in the £500 event and then straight into the main event without so much as a cup of tea and then grinding his way through the whole thing, he doubled up last hand with KK against Paul (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=326) Jackson (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=326)'s QQ, so he's back tomorrow with an incredibly playable stack. Good for you, Mr Red!

Ok, here are the remaining chip counts....

 Jujihar Reehal        21.6k
 Thomas Dunwoodie    6k
 Kuljinder (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=796) Sidhu (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=796)        38.1k
 A Nicholls             113.1k
 R Cashman            28.9k
 Ian Helmsley          30.8k
 Martin Cavanagh     18.4k
 Mark Segal             18.8k
 MZ Hussein             21.1k

The players will be reconvening tomorrow for a 3.30 pm start.

As it stands Mark Goodwin and Anthony (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=36) Nicholls (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=36) stand head and shoulders above the rest of the field. Can they be caught?

Join us tomorrow and we will see. But for now, thanks for joining us, and we'll see you tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion.

 ;stickaforkinme;