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Yo, yo, yo, peeps, it's update time. This will be the world famous 'At A Glance' thread, so don't be trying to post in here. If you want a more fuller update, rather than the basic facts and figures, then be sure to visit our Interactive thread by clicking the magical link below:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=35282.new#new (http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=35282.new#new)

Table 11...

Seat 1: Tony Phillips
Seat 2: Ashton Philip
Seat 3: James Dempsey
Seat 4: John Eames
Seat 5: Ian Gwynne
Seat 6: Jonas Desmond
Seat 7: Michael Mincher

Table 14...

Seat 1: Jeff Rogers
Seat 2: Sid Harris
Seat 3: Bernard Gabriel
Seat 4: Kyriacos Dionysiou
Seat 5: Daniel Longden
Seat 6: Fran Creed
Seat 7: Al Sapiano

Table 34...

Seat 1: Gary Teatum
Seat 2: Pete Linton
Seat 3: Richard Stanley
Seat 4: Rick Trigg
Seat 5: Jeff Sharpe
Seat 6: Chris Bruce
Seat 7: Michael Lee

Table 12...

Seat 1: Ian McDonald
Seat 2: Adam Wilkinson
Seat 3: Paul Lammas
Seat 4: Matthew Buckland
Seat 5: Nicky Evans
Seat 6: Richard Sherwood
Seat 7: Bjorn Andre Hovden

Table 22...

Seat 1: Andy Johnson
Seat 2: Laurence Houghton
Seat 3: Alan Vinson
Seat 4: Shaffiq Mohammed
Seat 5: Ali Mallu
Seat 6: Dave Smith

Table 26...

Seat 1: James Bishop
Seat 2: Tony Nicholls
Seat 3: Stian Johnsrud
Seat 4: Darren Foster
Seat 5: Jon Omara
Seat 6: Martino Libertino

Table 15...

Seat 1: Karl Johnson
Seat 2: Benjamin Carpenter
Seat 3: Josh Gould
Seat 4: Tom Nightingale
Seat 5: Richard Hawes
Seat 6: Asy Ho
Seat 7: Steve Jelinek

Table 25...

Seat 1: Ben Callinan
Seat 2: Richard Berridge
Seat 3: Conor Smyth
Seat 4: Jon Lundy
Seat 5: Andrew Andreou
Seat 6: Neil Giblin

Table 35...

Seat 1: Joe Grech
Seat 2: Trevor Reardon
Seat 3: Trevor Pearson
Seat 4: Alan Stearn
Seat 5: Peter Charalambous
Seat 6: Mathew Wadham
Seat 7: Paul Jackson

Table 23...

Seat 1: Mick McCool
Seat 2: Matt Tyler
Seat 3: Ben Vinson
Seat 4: Rory Campbell
Seat 5: Thomas Carpenter
Seat 6: Andrew Tuxworth
Seat 7: Keith Johnson

Adam Wilkinson was indeed that first exit, and it was Richard Sherwood opening the door and walking him to his car. On what was either the third or fourth hand of the day, Adam and Richard both saw a a flop of 2-4-5, only for Adam to push all in on the ten turn. Holding A-3 for the flopped straight, Richard called quicker than a hiccup and simply had to avoid a house-filling river against the flopped set of Adam's 4-4. A blank on the river, and Adam was gone.

Another one down, and another one in late by the looks of it, as the official on-the-board runners number briefly dropped down to 72 before going back up to 73.

Our early exit was in the exact shape of Tony Nicholls. A gentleman raised to 225 in late position, called by the button. Marc Goodwin made it 1,000 from the small blind, and Nicholls in mid position made it All In for 6,175; the original raiser and the button immediately got out of the way. "Do you want me to call?" enquired Goodwin. "It's up to you, mate," replied Nicholls with an awesome show of absolute nonchalance. Nevertheless, call Goodwin did, and his Ahrt Kc was painfully ahead of Nicholls' Ks Tc. "I didn't think you'd call," said Nicholls, unnecessarily. I understand he'd slow-played Queens a few hands earlier...

Board: a roundly unsurprising 6c 4s 4c 9c 2h, meaning that Nicholls is no more and Goodwin is running, er, well. Table Goodwin broke after that hand.


Excellent updater forethought taking this photo earlier today:

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=18837&g2_serialNumber=1)


With extra value added valet:

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=18841&g2_serialNumber=1)

Setbackaments for Flushy.

With the board reading 3d 8c Qd Ks 9h, he checked over to Steve "cardshark on blonde" Read, who bet a whopping 3.5k. "What the hell?" said Flushy. "Come on James," said Read, "You know you want some." After a short pause for thought, it turned out that Read was right and Flushy did indeed 'want some'. "I'm just curious," said he.  :o

Flushy called, and just mucked when Read turned over Tc Jc. There was some eye-rolling shortly afterwards.

Photo to follow because Snoopy walked off with the camera, sorry.

Albert Sapiano is OUT. He was all in with T-8 against Sid Harris' K-K on a 2-8-3 flop. 4 turn and 3 river was of no use.

Tales from Table Andreou...

The garrulous, so-good-they-named-him-twice Andrew Andreou called me over to complain that Snoops and I must be doing no work at all owing to us having missed two hands on his table. He filled me in.

Jon Lundy is a bit short after getting half his chips in preflop - there was a raise utg and a re-raise, which Lundy flat-called with pocket Kings. The flop came down Q-7-2 or Q-7-9 depending on who you talk to, and the gent in seat 7 whose name I do not know led out for 2,000 into a 4,500 pot. Lundy insta-folded. ???

---

Further tales of the unexpected. Mr Andreou informs me that the reason he has over 20k currently is that he and Ben Callinan saw a Qs Ts Kx flop - Andreou was holding 9-J, Callinan was holding Ks 9s, and no more spades appeared. This may explain the ludicrously good mood that Mr Andreou is in. He drew a happy face on my notepad and ordered me to emulate it for the rest of the day.

Another Linton classic. "Don't report that hand," said Pete. In the interests of journalistic integrity, though, here it is.

Linton raises to a reasonable sort of 225. Two seats down on the cutoff, Rick Trigg calls.

Flop: 2h Qs 3h - Pete bets 325. Trigg calls.

Turn: 8c - check, check.

River: Th

Now Pete bets 1,000. "Oh no," says Trigg, "You're not value betting a ten, are you?" He calls. Pete turns over Ts 8d. Laughs Chris Bruce cross the table, "You're such a fish." "How am I a fish?" replies Pete, "What am I fishing for?" Good question...

Richard Sherwood is your current chip leader with around 30k. He just eliminated another opponent with jacks versus queens, all in preflop, jack on the flop.

---------

Ben Callinan found himself all in. He had Kc Th against Qd 8d on a flop of Qh 5s 3s and survive a Kd turn and 4c river. He's still short stacked though.

 A fun hand from the Table Of Doom.

One of Trevor Reardon, Paul Jackson and Joe Grech raised to 225 preflop, and the pother two called (missed that bit, sorry).

Flop: Tc 7h Ad - Reardon checked, Jackson bet 600 and and Grech folded and wandered off somewhere. "I'll value call," said Reardon.

He then proceeded to bet out 1,100 on the Qc turn, which Jackson called, and they both checked the the 4h river. Reardon turned over Td 7d for a flopped two pair, and Jackson mucked. I would tell you their chip counts after this hand but for the fact that we are getting FULL BREAKTIME CHIP COUNTS any minute! This is great.

Current chip counts:

Richard Sherwood   12   6   24600
Michael Mccool   23   1   23800
Andrew Andreou   25   5   20125
Michael Lee   34   7   18175
Conor Smyth   25   3   18000
Laurence Houghton   22   2   17725
Andrew Johnson   22   1   16950
Matthew Wadham   35   6   16150
Richard Berridge   25   2   15625
Michael Wernick   14   8   15475
Alli Mallu   22   5   15050
Marc Goodwin   35   8   15050
Frances Creed   14   6   15025
Jef Rogers   14   1   14200
Josh Gould   15   3   13750
Matthew Buckland   12   4   13000
Alan Vinson   22   3   12700
Anthony Phillips   11   1   12525
James Bishop   12   9   12000
Thomas Carpenter   23   5   11950
Andrew Tuxworth   23   6   11950
Daniel Jolowicz   14   9   11875
Ian Gwynne   11   5   11775
Alan Stearn   35   4   11650
Michael Mincher   23   7   11625
Peter Linton   34   2   11500
Zaheer Zeb   15   9   11475
Thomas Nightingale   25   7   11450
Richard Stanley   34   3   11400
Benjamin Carpenter   15   2   11275
Daniel Longden   14   5   11225
Steve Read   11   8   11075
Nicky Evans   12   5   11000
Christopher Bruce   34   6   10875
Daniel Rudd   11   9   10675
Bernard Gabriel   22   9   10625
Paul Jackson   35   7   10525
Karl Johnson   15   1   10400
Paul Rayner   11   4   10125
Ben Vinson   23   3   9925
Peter Charalamobus   35   5   9925
Trevor Reardon   35   2   9850
Tuan Le   12   2   9775
James Dempsey   11   3   9750
James Akenhead   15   5   9525
Paul Lammas   12   3   9500
James Reid   22   7   9500
Sidney Harris   14   2   9425
Joseph Grech   35   1   9275
Neil Giblin   25   6   8750
Jon Omara   23   8   8700
Martino Libertini   34   8   8550
Darren Foster   25   8   8450
Ian Mcdonald   12   1   8275
Jeff Sharpe   34   5   8150
Ben Callinan   25   1   7975
Shahnawaz Randera   15   8   7975
Rory Campbell   23   4   7925
Richard Hawes   14   7   7925
Desmond Jonas   11   6   7725
Asy Ho   15   6   7500
Steve Jelinek   15   7   7350
Trevor Pearson   35   3   7150
Gary Teatum   34   1   6925
Philip Ashton   11   2   6900
Jonathan Lundy   25   4   6075
Bjørn Andre Hovden   12   7   6000
Matt Tyler   23   2   5550
Stian Johnsrud   22   8   4575
Richard Trigg   34   4   4450
David Smith   22   6   2750
Kyriacos Dionysiou   14   4   2250

Never quite recovering from that short-stacked-ness, Ben Callinan is now OUT - he raised and then three-bet all in with A-K to an enormous reraise from Neil Giblin. Giblin was holding pocket queens, which held up. I know all of this because the whole time Andrew Andreou was mouthing something at me across the room which I thought at the time was "boring" but actually turned out to be "all in". By the time I realised my mistake and got there, it was of course all over, and I will thus be resigning my post and today's updates will be provided by Mr Andreou and the beagle.

Andrew Tuxworth makes it 275 to go from late position, Mateyboy calls on the button and Matt Tyler makes it 1,000 to play from the blind. Tuxworth calls, Mateyboy steps out the way.

Flop = 5h Kd 7s

Check, check.

Turn = Jh

Check, check.

River = Ts

Matt bets 1,100, Tuxworth makes it 4,000.

"How not to play my hand," confesses Matt as his faces turns sour.

"Nice hand, buddy," he continues.

Meanwhile, Tuxworth remains silent, arms folded, face motionless.

"Will you show if I fold?" asks Matt.

"No," announces Tuxworth abruptly.

"How about that notepad you've been writing on?" probes Matt.

"Definitely not that," replies Tuxwroth smirking.

Soon after, Matt releases hand, only for Tuxworth to go back on his word and reveals Aspades Jd.

"He's an unconventional player," commented Matt later, clearly ruing folding what was probably the best hand.

Matt Tyler = 6,400
Andrew Tuxworth = 10,100

Still on Table Andreou, Alan Vinson has picked up a rather nice pot.

I believe there was a small raise preflop and Vinson reraised; I suspect he was surprised to get three callers. Nevertheless, the flop came down 8h 8c Qh and they checked around, to see a 3d turn. Andreou bet 750, and the gent in seat 8 called, as did Vinson. Jon Lundy folded. The river was the 5s, and it checked around to Vinson, who bet 2.5k. It was enough, and he took down the pot without me getting to see anyone's cards, disappointingly.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=18887&g2_serialNumber=1)

As I wandered passed the far table, little did I know that there was a big three way pot developing between Josh Gould, Andy Johnson and Zeb Zaheer, the latter of those betting 3,000 onto a 8s Kc 7h Td 9s board with almost 10,000 already in the pot. After Gould had checked his cards and ducked out the way, Johnson asked for a count before min-raising to 6,000. Believing it was too cheap to fold, Zaheer made the call and showed Kd Jd. Johnson could only muster Ad 8h to give Zaheer the pot.

As a result, Johnson is down to 6,000.

Moustache Of The Day Martino Libertini bets 1k on on an Ad Qh Kh flop, and all but the young gent to his right fold. Young Gent calls.

The turn is the Qs and Young Gent checks to Libertini, who now bets 2k. With a very small disgusted sort of noise, Young Gent folds.

Continued bully-age from Alan Vinson.

Says Andrew Andreou, "Have oyu got your notepad?" I have. "Get ready to write!" But after four or five players including Andreou and Vinson checked a 3d 3h 2d flop, Vinson bet out 500 on the 2c turn from the small blind, and everyone else passed. Andreou waved his 5-6 offsuit at me as he folded.

It would appear, much to my sorrow as I was hoping to get a photo of his awesome dice-patterned trousers, that Des Jonas has kicked the tournament bucket, and is nowhere to be seen.

A few miscellaneous chip counts:

Steve Jelinek -- 2,950
Josh Gould -- 7,700
Sid Harris -- 14,925
Paul Lammas -- 7,800
Daniel Rudd -- 12,475
Mike McDonald -- 7,850
Alan Stearn -- 13,175
Martino Libertini -- 9,850
Ben Vinson -- 13,000
Chris Bruce -- 13,300
Laurence Houghton -- 15,200
James Dempsey -- 11,900
Dave Smith -- 3,750
Paul Jackson -- 3,725
Richard Hawes -- 7,000

James Dempsey's stack has been bisected in half courtesy of Bernard Garbriel. On a Td Ts 7h flop, James bet of 1,600 led to all the chips flying in with Bernard well ahead with 7d 7s versus Jh Jd. No change on the 6d turn and 9d river and Bernard doubled through.

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Tony Phillips has been eliminated from today's event.

Ooh, this is exciting.

I wandered over to the Table Of Doom to see Alan Stearn betting 2k on an 8c 8s 9c flop, and Dave Smith apparently calling all in.

Alan Stearn: Ac 9s
Dave Smith: oh dear, 4d 4s

But turn: 4h bang!

River: 5d

Stearn: "Bloody hell!"

Smith: around 5.5k now.

I wandered over to Mr Ali Mallu's table to see him betting 600 on a 4c 2h 7s Aspades board, and his opponent, Mr Mate E. Boy, calling. Mr Boy proceeded to check to Mr Mallu on the 3s river, who promptly went Virtually All In for around 5k, leaving himself a single 25 chip as a card protector. Mr Boy folded, and was rewarded by Mr Mallu flashing the Ad. "What a turn..." muttered Mr Boy.

Another smattering of chip counts for you to feast your eyes on:

Marc Goodwin -- 17,500
Tom Nightingale -- 17,225
Andrew Andreou -- 14,850
Peter Charalambous -- 18,150
Fran Creed -- 18,500
Mickey Wernick -- 18,100
Pete Linton -- 16,525
Jim Reid -- 16,175
Steve Jelinek -- 22,000
Richard Stanley -- 19,675
Steve Read -- 17,000
Rory Campbell -- 13,475
Matthew Wadham -- 7,125

Exits so far:

59   Trevor Reardon
60   Michael Mincher
61   Michael Lee
62   Andrew Johnson
63   Paul Jackson
64   Stian Johnsrud
65   Asy Ho
66   Nicky Evans
67   Anthony Phillips
68   Jonathan Lundy
69   Desmond Jonas
70   Andrew Tuxworth
71   Ben Callinan
72   Kyriacos Dionysiou
73   John Eames
74   Dean Sanders
75   Mohammed Shafiq
76   Keith Johnson
77   Albert Sapiano
78   Anthony Nicholls
79   Adam Wilkinson

Mr Gareth Teatum has been making his presence felt on The New Table Of Doom (since the old one broke). He induced an uncomfortable looking 1,200 call from Ali Mallu on the 4s Kh Kc Qc 7s board, and Mallu even more uncomfortably mucked when Teatum turned over Aspades Qh.

Latest chip counts:

Zaheer Zeb   15   9   31300
Michael Mccool   23   1   26600
Richard Berridge   25   2   24250
Michael Wernick   14   8   23950
Daniel Rudd   11   9   23125
Marc Goodwin   11   1   22750
Steve Jelinek   15   7   21800
Alan Vinson   25   9   20300
Richard Stanley   34   3   19900
Conor Smyth   25   3   19600
Matthew Buckland   12   4   19525
Jef Rogers   14   1   19300
Christopher Bruce   34   6   19150
Thomas Carpenter   23   5   18775
Ben Vinson   23   3   18700
Frances Creed   14   6   18550
Peter Linton   34   2   17475
Richard Sherwood   12   6   17250
James Reid   12   8   16675
Thomas Nightingale   25   7   16600
Neil Giblin   25   6   16100
James Bishop   34   7   14950
Steve Read   11   8   14725
Andrew Andreou   25   5   14700
Alli Mallu   34   9   14700
Daniel Jolowicz   14   9   14450
Laurence Houghton   23   9   14425
Paul Lammas   12   3   14300
Shahnawaz Randera   15   8   14075
Sidney Harris   14   2   13850
Ian Gwynne   11   5   13650
Tuan Le   12   2   13550
Karl Johnson   15   1   12750
Gary Teatum   34   1   12400
James Dempsey   11   3   12300
Rory Campbell   23   4   12175
Joseph Grech   25   4   12000
Ian Mcdonald   11   6   11550
Peter Charalamobus   14   4   10025
Alan Stearn   15   6   9825
Jon Omara   23   8   9675
Martino Libertini   34   8   8900
Paul Rayner   11   4   8475
Philip Ashton   11   2   8375
Matthew Wadham   12   5   7800
David Smith   34   5   7675
Benjamin Carpenter   15   2   7100
Daniel Longden   14   5   5625
Bjørn Andre Hovden   12   7   5550
James Akenhead   15   5   5475
Richard Hawes   14   7   4850
Trevor Pearson   23   6   4675
Josh Gould   15   3   4600
Darren Foster   25   8   4550
Jeff Sharpe   12   1   3325
Matt Tyler   23   2   3275

Just before that burger-flipping pause, a very disgusted Rick Trigg laid down his on-the-button Ahrt Kh to a 2k bet from Chris Bruce on a 4h 8c 5c 6c board. He was rewarded by Brucie showing him pocket sevens for the straight.

Mickey Wernick has taken down a 2k-or-thereabouts pot with a cheeky 500 bet in position on the river of a rag-rag-rag-rag-jack board. Both Mateyboy and Fran folded, and Mr Wernick showed them K-J as a kind of folding reward.

Shortly before his table broke, Neil Giblin raised utg and received a grand total of no callers. Blinds for him.

Mr Matt Tyler is winking at me every time I walk past his table, but he has not that much to be cheerful about as he is down to just 3k or so. He might make it to Nando's before closing time...

Karl Johnson's stack has been decimated to 8,000 after coin-flipping with neighbour Ben Carpenter. I joined the drama as the hands were being mucked, but it was Jh Js versus Ad Kc on a Qs 4s 8s 7s Ks board, so I would imagine all the action occurred preflop. Double up for Carpenter.

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Speaking of the little tinker, Fran now has her head above 20,000 after successfully locking horns with wily veteran Joe Grech. After snapping up the blinds with A-K the hand prior, Fran raised it up with pocket kings and received one caller in the Grechster. On an 8d Qd 8c flop, Grech bet out and Fran called, only for both players to slow down on the 2d turn. A king on the river led to Joe calling a bet from Fran, announcing "I need some information" in the process, before swiftly mucking his hand.

Joe Grech has wrested a sizeable pot from perennial update favourite Mateyboy thus:

They saw a Qd 2s 5c flop and Mateyboy bet 1k. Grech called.

They saw a 3h turn and Mateyboy bet 2.5k. Grech called.

They saw a 9h turn and actually at this point I was distracted by a lady enquiring after the £20 rebuy, so I am reconstructing the likely action in this manner: Mateyboy now checked, Grech bet and Mateyboy folded. Either way, Grech was raking in the chips when I turned back to the hand in progress.

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More action than a night at the Beagle's love palace now as the frantic pace continues on Table Gould. With the board reading 9d 8h 2h Ts, Zeb Zaheer and Steve Jelinek both checked to the As river where Zaheer led out for 3,000. As Jelinek targeted his opponent with a piercing stare, Zaheed remained cool under pressure as he leaned over to his plate, picked up a bun and munched down on his burger. "Will you show if I fold?" asked the Jelly man. "Yeah," replied Zaheer as he wiped the grease from his lips.

In the end, Jelinek did indeed fold, Kc Kh face-up, and Zaheer stayed true to his word, showing pocket ducks for the flopped set.

Bad news for loafer fans, the Flushter's gone.

54   James Dempsey
55   Philip Ashton
56   Peter Charalamobus
57   Bernard Gabriel
58   Richard Trigg
59   Trevor Reardon
60   Michael Mincher
61   Michael Lee
62   Andrew Johnson
63   Paul Jackson
64   Stian Johnsrud
65   Asy Ho
66   Nicky Evans
67   Anthony Phillips
68   Jonathan Lundy
69   Desmond Jonas
70   Andrew Tuxworth
71   Ben Callinan
72   Kyriacos Dionysiou
73   John Eames
74   Dean Sanders
75   Mohammed Shafiq
76   Keith Johnson
77   Albert Sapiano
78   Anthony Nicholls
79   Adam Wilkinson

A day of turmoil and misery has ended for Pete Linton as he crashes out at the affluent hands of table menace Chris Bruce. In a limped pot and with the flop reading Q-8-5, Chris led out for 600, Ali Mallu called and Pete made it 2,500 to play with A-Q. Chris raised again to 8,000, Mallu stepped out of the way and Pete called, later confessing it, "I didn't particularly like it at the time, but he'd been pissing me off." Although Chris had been aggressive throughout the day, Pete had pushed at the wrong time as Brucie had the goods on this occasion, his eights in dominant shape against a now paltry top pair. Blanks on the later streets and Pete was gone.

"There was a hand from earlier where I think I should have made my move. The flop was A-8-3, under the gun bet, I smooth called with A-K and Chris reraised. I let it go, but maybe I should have shoved it in then."

Some of your current chip leaders:

Mickey Wernick -- 35,000
Chris Bruce -- 40,000
HWCBN -- 27,000
Joe Grech -- 25,000

I caught the very end of a hand between Ali Mallu and Richard Stanley. The board read 7-A-6-Q-K and the two of them were eyeing each other with indescribable suspicion. Very slowly, Mallu turned over an Ace. Very slowly, so did Stanley. Then veeerrry sloowwwly, Mallu turned over a three to go with it. Not breaking eye contact, Stanley turned over a five. Split. Not sure what all the eyeing was about. Very dramatic, though.

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A few more chip counts for you to go crazy with:

Gareth Teatum -- 10,800
Martino Libertini -- 12,400
Tom Nightingale -- 11,400
Richard Stanley -- 15,500
Ian McDonald -- 22,400
Thomas Carpenter -- 25,000
Matt Tyler -- 5,000
Trevor Pearson -- 5,100
Alan Vinson -- 26,900

Mickey Wernick is down to a very-roughly-estimated 25k after doubling up Richard Berridge to an equally-roughly-estimated 30k. Not sure what Mr Wernick was holding but Mr Berridge was holding 7s 9s for a turned flush.

Dave Smith is OUT. He was drawing dead with Ad Th versus the 6h 6c of Gareth Teatum on a 6s 9s Kd 7s board. Academic Td on the river.

Also gone is James Akenhead, who departed in more testicle crunching circumstances, his pocket kings losing out to Karl Johnson's big Slick river when a flush arrived on the turn.

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All in preflop.

Matthew Buckland = Ahrt Kc
Jim Reid = Qd qs

Board = 8s 8c Th 2h 6c

As Red-Dog once sang in his slimmer vest-wearing days, "another one bites the dust."

Also no longer on his last published chip count, Mr Gareth Teatum. With around 7k in the pot, and a full board reading 6s Jh Jc 9c Ks dealt, Richard Stanley bet 2.5k. After a good long dwell, announced Teatum, "F***. Me." He folded, and is now on around 8.5k.

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Ben Vinson -- 37,800
Karl Johnson -- 10,400
Conor Smyth -- 15,100
Richard Berridge -- 25,100
Chris Bruce -- 43,200
Marc Goodwin -- 16,200

More Tales From Table Andreou. "Ooh, you missed a good one..."

It folded around to Mr Andreou on the button, who found 3-5 offsuit. "A monster." He raised. He found himself called by a mysterious gentleman who insists on being identified only as "The Chinese Guy". The flop came an unappetizing Q-J-4 and The Chinese Guy came out betting the pot, 1.5k. Mr Andreou considered his options, and did the decent thing - he raised to 4k. The Chinese Guy folded, and Mr Andreou gleefully showed him the bluff.

No joy for Matt Tyler either. After grinding like a champion skateboarder, Matt eventually succumbed to the might of Thomas Carpenter and his accompanying bullets. "I had a king high flush draw and a gutshot on the flop so called off my chips. I knew what he had, I just wanted to gamble."

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After building a mammoth stack, Ben Vinson has taken a step backwards and double up neighbour Marc Goodwin. I didn't catch the preflop action, but all the monies flew in on a 6h 4c Qd 8d board with Ben's Ah Qs drawing dead against MrCool's 7h 5s. Looks like Marc has rocket up to around the 30-35k mark.

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Bjorn Andre Hovden (pictured) has been eliminated by Richard Sherwood in what was a classic queens v A-K coinflip. "Well, that makes it interesting," observed Andrew Andreou as the flop came 8d Qh Ts to give Sherwood a set of ladies, but his foe the Broadway straight draw. However, even though Sherwood bizarrely requested a "jack" for his opponent, it failed to emerge on the 3d turn and 5h river and Hovden was gone.

"You know you're not meant to call out your opponent's card don't you?" asked Jim Reid. "Reverse psychology," was the reply.

Mr Steve "Cardshark" Read is up to the heady heights of 25k. He bet out 1.2k on a 9h 6h 8d flop, and his Mateyboy opponent called. He bet out another 2.5k on the 7d turn, appearing rather irked. This time his Mate-opponent made it 5k. Can't have been too irked underneath, as with barely a thought, Read moved all in, and Mate-opponent folded even faster.

Steve Jelinek -- 31,800
Joe Grech -- 23,500
Jeff Rogers -- 27,300
Richard Hawes -- 16,200
Jeff Sharpe -- 2,100
Paul Lammas -- 17,700

A short-stacked Daniel Longden has enjoyed a rather lucky double up. He checked the Th 8s Ad flop, and the only other gent in the hand, Richard Berridge, put him in. Insta-call from Longden.

Berridge: Kh Qh
Longden: Kc 8c

Absolute blanks on the turn and river, and all in stays in, as they say.

Latest chip counts:

Christopher Bruce   12   5   44900
Michael Mccool   23   1   36000
Thomas Carpenter   23   5   35075
Ben Vinson   23   2   33225
Jef Rogers   14   1   29000
Conor Smyth   15   4   28375
Michael Wernick   14   8   28150
Richard Berridge   14   3   28075
Richard Sherwood   12   6   24800
Richard Hawes   14   7   21100
Zaheer Zeb   15   9   20525
Andrew Andreou   12   9   18250
Jon Omara   23   8   17600
Benjamin Carpenter   15   2   17450
Frances Creed   14   6   17200
Paul Lammas   12   3   16275
Joseph Grech   15   3   15375
Alli Mallu   23   4   14475
James Bishop   14   4   11700
Neil Giblin   23   7   11450
Martino Libertini   23   3   11400
Laurence Houghton   23   9   11375
Karl Johnson   15   1   8275
Gary Teatum   15   5   7000
Daniel Longden   14   5   4900
Steve Jelinek   15   7   2975
Shahnawaz Randera   15   8   2200
Jeff Sharpe   12   1   2175

Eliminated so far...

38   Tuan Le
39   Bjørn Andre Hovden
40   Ian Mcdonald
41   Matt Tyler
42   Sidney Harris
43   Matthew Buckland
44   Alan Stearn
45   Trevor Pearson
46   Rory Campbell
47   David Smith
48   Paul Rayner
49   Matthew Wadham
50   Darren Foster
51   Josh Gould
52   James Akenhead
53   Peter Linton
54   James Dempsey
55   Philip Ashton
56   Peter Charalamobus
57   Bernard Gabriel
58   Richard Trigg
59   Trevor Reardon
60   Michael Mincher
61   Michael Lee
62   Andrew Johnson
63   Paul Jackson
64   Stian Johnsrud
65   Asy Ho
66   Nicky Evans
67   Anthony Phillips
68   Jonathan Lundy
69   Desmond Jonas
70   Andrew Tuxworth
71   Ben Callinan
72   Kyriacos Dionysiou
73   John Eames
74   Dean Sanders
75   Mohammed Shafiq
76   Keith Johnson
77   Albert Sapiano
78   Anthony Nicholls
79   Adam Wilkinson

Alan Vinson has a lot of chips. Most recently witnessed, he bet out on a Td 3h Aspades flop and Marc Goodwin, with a look of regret, folded.

Daniel Longden is OUT. He tangled with Richard Berridge again, holding Ahrt 7s to Berridge's Jd Jc. A distinct lack of aces on the raggy board, and he was gone.

Another one bites the tournament dust, this time rather more unfortunately. Laurence Houghton moved in preflop with the Ahrt Ad and found himself pleasingly called by Marc Goodwin's 7h 7d, but a wincingly unfavourable Qd 7s Kh 6d Qh board later and Mr Houghton was wandering around the cardroom in that all too familiar "I just busted out with aces" daze.

Yes indeed, Mr Vinson Sr is on fire - it looked like nearer 60k when I strolled past. He was in the process of calling Marc Goodwin's small position bet on a Qc Kc Ad flop - they both then checked the Kd turn and Goodwin tried it on again for 2k on the 7h flop but Vinson was having none of it and swiftly called. Goodwin mucked before Vinson even turned over his Aspades 3h.

Goodwin however is not doing too badly either though - on around 45k, he's easily the second biggest stack on Table Vinson.

Mr Vinson Jr is also still in and doing well, although not in this particular hand. He raised in early position to 1.5k and received absolutely no respect from Fran Creed who called and Richard Hawes who also called. Martino Libertini, however, moved all in from the small blind for a whisker short of 10k in total, and a veritable tsunami of folding followed. Libertini showed Aspades Ac, to some ooh-ing from the table.

Daniel Jolowicz is gone. His stack was decimated like a tower of cards in the wind, pocket kings being outgunned by the pocket nines of James Bishop on an ensuing 2-3-9-8-4 board. To say he was dismayed would be like calling a hamster in a snake pit slightly disgruntled.

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I join the action with the relentless Ali Mallu all in from the blind after Jim Reid's opening raise from mid position. Mallu's reputation has obviously made an impact, Jim claiming, "You could be making this move with any two cards," before adding, "you're a good player to take up, but not to double up." Mallu, meanwhile, could only shrug his shoulders and declare, "I need a double up."

After a brief pause, Jim announced, "You know what, I'm going to gamble," before making the call. With a couple of raised eyebrows, Jim showed Jh Tc, but he was going to need help as Mallu revealed Ahrt 3c. Sadly for Reid, it didn't arrive on the 6s 8h 3h 4s board allowing Mallu to scoop what must have been a circa 20k pot.

"Go easy now," advised Jim.

"You've created a monster," commented Chris Bruce.

After a bit of a raising war on the 8c 8d Ts flop, Jeff Rogers bet out an enormous 11k on the apparently harmless 4s turn. His on-the-flop raising opponent Richard Berridge folded so fast it looked like his cards just disappeared into thin air.

I made that last bit up.

I only caught the latter stages of this bizarreness so I'm not massively sure how it came to this, but I witnessed He Who Cannot Be Named bet a fairly sizeable quantity of chips on the turn of the 6d Th 8d 7s board and Mr Wernick raising him an equally sizeable quantity of chips. Mr Cannot Be Named called. Mr Wernick had maybe 5.5k remaining behind at this time. The river was the Ad and Mr Wernick checked to Mr Cannot Be Named, who bet 4.5k. Mr Wernick got his chips in, Mr Cannot Be Named called the difference, and they were on their backs.

Mr Cannot Be Named: 3d 3c
Mr Wernick: 5s 5d

Double up for Mr Wernick, disgruntlement for Mr Cannot Be Named. Extraordinary.

------------

Now accompanying Alan Vinson in the race for the chip lead is son Ben with around 55,000 in chips. It required a touch of fortune in the end though, his Ac Kd in need of a little assistance against the Ks Kc of Irishman and former Irish Open finalist Conor Smyth. However, the Poker Gods are a mischievous lot, and after a Qh 7c Ts flop and a 7s turn, out popped the Jc on the river for the Broadway straight. Oooh, nasty, as Knightmare's Tregar would say.

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Fran Creed is down to just 3,000 after doubling up neighbour James Bishop (pictured). With Richard Berridge making a small raise from the button, James and Fran (J-T) both called leading to a three way flop of J-Q-6 rainbow. James checked, Fran bet, Richard folded and James called. The turn came a nine ("I'm not passing now," Fran later commented), to which James check-raised Fran's bet all in for little more. Fran made the call, but was met by a K-T for the straight.

Now that we have established the true value of Mr Vinson Jr's metaphorical scrotal contents, I must tell you that something utterly dreadful seems to have happened to Vinson Sr. First I noticed that he had rather fewer chips than he had a little while ago, but thought nothing of it. But the next time I passed his seat, there was neither any Vinson nor any stack of chips in evidence - just a sad, lonely leather jacket draped over the back of Mr Vinson's former seat. The next time I passed his table after that, he jacket was gone too. Either mysterious government experiments are being carried out, or Mr Vinson Sr is OUT. Sorry, assorted family members and supporters.

Fran Creed is still hanging in there - just. She shoved for her last 2,675 and found a caller in Richard Hawes holding Ad 6s. "I've got connected cards," said Fran apparently by way of some kind of apology for the filth she was about to turn over - the filth was exactly 8h 9c.

Board: Jd Jc 4c 8s 8c making Ms Creed a rather unlikely full house.

She moved in again the very next hand, but this time her table gave her rather more credit for some reason, all folding including big blind and big stack Richard Berridge, who showed her A-8.

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blondeite Neil 'jakally' Giblin has doubled up courtesy of Danny Rudd, kings holding up against K-Q on a nonthreatening A-3-3-7-9 board.

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Benjamin Carpenter is out after making a move with K-8. He was picked off by Joe Grech's A-K, which stood up on a raggy board.

Mr James Bishop continues to enjoy good fortune while the fortunes of the Vinson clan sink lower still.

Mr Bishop bet out 4k on the Js Ts 9h flop, and Mr Vinson Jr called. Mr Bishop bet a further 6k on the 8s turn and after some short deliberation, Vinson Jr raised to cover him. Bishop called, and they were on their proverbial backs, like so -

Ben Vinson: Qs Jh
James Bishop: Qd Ks

River: a not very Vinson-friendly in the circumstances Jc

Table 14...

Seat 1: Jeff Rogers -- 27,500
Seat 2: Ben Vinson -- 25,500
Seat 3: Richard Berridge -- 30,000
Seat 4: James Bishop -- 54,000
Seat 5: Shahnawaz Randera -- 14,000
Seat 6: Richard Hawes -- 41,000
Seat 7: Martino Libertini -- 10,000
Seat 8: Steve Jelinek -- 44,000

Table 12...

Seat 1: Jon Omara -- 39,500
Seat 2: Mickey Wernick -- 22,500
Seat 3: Paul Lammas -- 16,000
Seat 4: Karl Johnson -- 21,000
Seat 5: Chris Bruce -- 50,500
Seat 6: Mick McCool -- 15,000
Seat 7: Jim Reid -- 51,500
Seat 8: Andrew Andreou -- 25,000

Some good old-fashioned aggression from Jim Reid before the break. Thomas Carpenter made it 1.8k from the button and small blind He Who Cannot Be Named Or Have His Face Shown In the Slightly Creepy Photo Below called. Jim however made it around 5k from the big blind, and they both folded.

The next hand it went a little bit less well for him, though. It folded around to him and he raised up his small blind. Big blind Andrew Andreou called and they checked down the 6-7-3-3-A, three-heart board - at which point Reid mucked to Andreou's T-2.

(http://blondepoker.com/gallery/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&g2_itemId=18957&g2_serialNumber=1)

Current chip counts:

Marc Goodwin   11   1   79750
Christopher Bruce   12   5   70700
James Bishop   14   4   61500
James Reid   12   8   56400
Jon Omara   12   1   55800
Richard Hawes   14   7   45700
Daniel Rudd   11   9   45000
Thomas Carpenter   12   6   42000
Thomas Nightingale   11   4   38600
Jef Rogers   14   1   36100
Steve Jelinek   14   9   34900
Richard Berridge   14   3   33100
Andrew Greekfish   12   9   31500
Richard Stanley   11   3   28800
Ben Vinson   14   2   21900
Karl Johnson   12   4   14100
Joseph Grech   11   7   13800
Paul Lammas   12   3   13800
Richard Sherwood   11   5   13300
Michael Mccool   12   7   13200
Shahnawaz Randera   14   5   12200
Neil Giblin   11   2   11900
Gary Teatum   11   6   10100
Martino Libertini   14   8   8500
Steve Read   11   8   7500
Michael Wernick   12   2   5400

Double elimination, not in the same hand, but different tables at roughly the same time. First up was the exit of Steve Read. He fell at the hands of Tom Nightingale, the youngster holding As-Ks against Steve's Kc-Qc and surviving a raggy flop. Simultaneously, we lost Karl Johnson on the nieghbouring table. With the board reading As-4d-7c-Ts-Qs, he bet and called a raise from Chris Bruce only to be shown pocket sevens. Meanwhile, Jon Omara did well to escape cheaply with A-K.

-------

As they were announcing the chip counts during the break, Simon Trumper highlighted Mickey Wernick's paltry stack, adding, "Mickey's more than capable of quadrupling that up a few times and making it through to day two." Well, those words of wisdom may well be justified as the Worm has just doubled up courtesy of Andrew Andreou with queens versus jacks, all in preflop.

CRAZINESS ALERT

Not entirely sure how this happened, but come the 5h 8h 7c flop, He Who Cannot Be Named is all in for 10k, there is considerably more than 10k in front of Tomas Carpenter in a kind of that's-what-he's-betting sort of way, and Andy Mr Greekfish is announcing, "I have queens, I'm all in."

They flip 'em, in the parlance.

HWCBN: 4h 6h
Carpenter: 6c 6s
Andreou: indeed he speaks the truth, he has Qs Qd

Turn: Ad
River: Ahrt

Thus Mr Cannot Be Named triples up to 30k or so, Mr Andreoufish wins the side pot and makes around 10k on the hand, which bumps up his stack to 40k, and Mr Carpenter is down to the proverbial felt. May not be long before Mr Carpenter bites the tournament (saw)dust.

Mr Richard Hawes is OUT. Finding his stack somewhat depleted after "Ben Vinson owned my soul" (apparently Vinson called him on the river with queen-high and it was good), he called an 1800 raise from James Bishop with 7d 9d. When James bet 4k on the jack-rag-rag, two-diamond flop, Hawes shoved for another 20k or so, and after some considerable dwellage, James called with Jd 4d. No miracles, and Hawes is no more.

Mr Thomas Carpenter is similarly a goner. He shoved from the button for his last 6k with Jc 7h and found himself called by Jim Reid holding Qh Kh in the small blind.

Board: a jack-free, not-making-Carpenter-a-straight-or-similar Kc Aspades 5h 9c Tc.

There has been a lot of blind-stealing, some of it more honest than most.

It folds to Andrew Andreou on the button. "Whose big blind is it? Oh, it's Mickey Wernick's, ok, I respect that. I'm all in." Mickay folds K-5, and Andreou shows the ahead-but-not-by-much A-2.

It folds around to short stack Paul Lammas in the small blind, who limps in. Big Blind Brucie raises. There is some dwelling.

I decide to take a break from watching Mr Lammas dwell to go over to the other table and watch Richard Stanley double through Marc Goodwin. The board reads 4-6-7-8-9, Mr Goodwin is holding 8-9, and Mr Stanley is holding 5-7. Mr Goodwin doesn't look massively happy about this.

When I come back to Table Lammas, the table namesake is all in with Ac 7c, the board reads 7h 7d 2h 8c 9c and Mr Bruce's cards are gone, presumed mucked. I therefore surmise that Mr Lammas has doubled up.

Yes yes indeed, while I was taking a break because I thought Snoops was putting up the chip counts, it seems that Snoopy was taking a break because he thought that I was putting up the chip counts.

Here they are:

Christopher Bruce   88500
James Bishop   78300
Marc Goodwin   71100
Daniel Rudd   63300
James Reid   54700
Richard Stanley   50800
Richard Berridge   48300
He Who Cannot Be Named   47700
Jon Omara   45000
Jef Rogers   41500
Thomas Nightingale   41100
Steve Jelinek   39400
Andrew Greekfish   29200
Shahnawaz Randera   25200
Richard Sherwood   23400
Paul Lammas   21500
Michael Wernick    11700
Neil Giblin   9000

We will reconvene at 3pm to continue all of this until we have a winner, and by the by to sample some more of the DTD dessert menu. See you then!