21   1   Paul Lammas - 86,000
21   2   Ivor Frost - 91,000  ("Make sure you get my best side.")



21   4   Denis Ford - 50,000
21   5   John Stritch - 70,000
21   6   Peter Linton - 145,000  (Appears to be staring dreamily at James Williams)



21   7   Harry Dunnell - 85,000
21   8   Tom Kugelstadt - 40,000
21   9   James Williams - 135,000  (Appears delighted with the attention)

Chris Bruce is Busto - A-Q into Queens pre.  Having trundled forward without any chip leaps (I did see him call someone down for a small pot with second pair, 5 kicker though) he admitted in the last break that this sort of level would be all-in/double up/go home type time. 

23   1   Ken Wheatley - 90,000
23   2   Terence Simpson - 60,000
23   3   Peter Wigglesworth - 80,000
23   4   Sidicki Mohangee - 28,000
23   5   Mark Mccluskey - 45,300
23   6   Christopher Brammer - 123,000
23   8   Stephen Holloway - 61,000
23   9   Luke Hallinan - 100,000



Christopher Brammer (pictured) has steadily increased up to his top-five sort of stack right now.  Yesterday I remember him playing well, and now that he's got a chip advantage over his table, he appears undaunted and unafraid to use it.  Just now he re-raised +11k on the button over the top of Peter Wigglesworth, who dwelled for a good while.  Eventually they agreed some sort of "You show/I fold deal" and Wigglesworth passed showing the .  Although Brammer had agreed that the deal, "Seemed fair" he then admitted, "You probably don't want to see them..." before fulfilling his end of the bargain and flipping . 

I am going to add him to my FT list along with Shah, Millar, Linton, Rutter, and Dog.

Matthew Lewis is responsible for Brian Evans's life-support stack... Evans moved in on the cutoff with but was snapped by button Lewis with . 
"Come on baby!" pleaded Evans, and indeed the first two cards on the flop were ... it was followed by and then the on the river, at which a relieved Lewis said, "Yessss!" and Evans said somewhat cryptically, "See what I'm saying, Pete?  Every time."

Lewis winning

Counts from Table Chip Leader:

32   1   Matthew Lewis - 36,500
32   2   Adam Vinson - 125,000
32   3   Michael Millar - 56,000
32   4   Peter Charalamobus - 91,000
32   5   Sandeep Shah - 240,000
32   6   Andrew Beardmore - 60,000
32   7   Mathew Seer - 47,500
32   8   Brian Evans - 8,000

Chip counts for Table Rutter/Red

Tom Rutter - 50,600
Greek Jack - 65,000
Red-Dog - 48,000
Paul Gourlay - 60,000
Christopher Xenofontos - 75,000
Chris Moore - 38,000
Brian Evans - 65,000
Carroll Belfield - 13,100
Geoffroy Buffetrille - 40,000

Sandeep Shah Consolidates Chip Lead By Methodically Busting Everyone on his Table:

Now with over 200k Shah appears unstoppable.  He can't miss either, as demonstrated by the exit of Stuart Morrant.  I only noticed his all-in because of the sheer tension in his voice when he said, "No Jack!" - I turned to see his A-K on its back against the of Shah, the board lying .

River, as if on cue:    

A sorely disappointed Morrant heads out, and that got Shah to 165k.  Apparently there'd been an early position raise, Shah had rr'd pre, then Morrant had moved in and with the first raiser out of the way he made the call.
___________________________________________________

THEN

Shah gets it all in vs. Matthew Lewis (well, he wasn't all in, because he's a monster stack) on the flop: .  Lewis has for top two, while Shah holds .  Peter Charalambous said something like, "Oooh," with that relish reserved for watching other people's races.

Turn:
River:    And he gets another stack and adds it to his battlements.

One player who seems to be raking in a pot every time we walk by is young Sandeep Shah, pictured.  He just bust another player adding at least 20k to his stack when he picked up vs. .  I am going to tentatively tip him for a ft appearance, as as far as my personal experience of watching the tourney goes, he can't lose.

Pre-Break Busto!  John Simons (30k) found AK which was good enough to shove over Steve Holloway's preflop raise to 10k.  He got the call with JJ - pretty standard, but seemed faintly horrified by the way the Big Slick bit the dust.  The board came K-T-3-A-J giving him a teasing two-pair before busting him.  His eliminator also headed over to our office and they are currently engaged in friendly chat, although Holloway would like it known that "I am the best amateur in the world."

Any news on the welsh players there

They have failed to turn up wearing a brightly coloured signifier of their Welsh status.

[Climber of the Tournament]

We don't like to be proven wrong, or become boks, or in any way come across as not with fingers firmly on the pulse of the flow of the action and form of the players.  It is therefore only at this late stage, on Day Two, that I feel comfortable to announce our Climber of the Tournament, Mr. Ian Gascoigne.

600 --------> 84,000.  Good going.

Paula Agnew busts... out of TWO tourneys!  Apologies if this was not meant for public consumption, but that's pretty good going - the £150 only just started and she's on the rail.  The first one, however, was somewhat unfortunate in that she found an open spot in late to shove her short stack with , but Tom Rutter woke up in the blind with Queens! 

I was just about to pry nosily into the second exit, when Simon Nowab appeared brandishing roast dinners.  Ty DTD for taking care of your lax, breakfast-skipping updaters.

Paul Gourlay had briefly reached the giddy heights of nearly 90,000 when I took his photo, complete with ridiculous 'Vegas Royalty' hoody:



But then this happened:  Red-Dog made a raise preflop of a standard size, immediately re-raised by neighbour Gourlay to 16k.  It passed round a few players, but Carroll Belfield wasn't worried by this at all - in went his <20k...  "Look what you two started!" chides another player, but it turns out that Paul Gourlay wasn't just messing around - he called and showed .

Carroll tabled .

"The King's coming," said Paul, half-heartedly, and then just paid the man his money.

Pete Linton Folds Pair?

Julian Thew, looking in his comfort zone with growing towers, just min-re-raised Pete Linton out of the small blind preflop, with a call.

Flop: .  Julian instantly bets what looks like 12k.  There's some staring between them.  There's some consideration.  Eventually, faced with the blithe confidence Mr. Thew seems genetically capable of representing, Linton folded, and there was talk that it was the .  Thew showed and took the pot.

[Hat of the Month]

Hat of the Month:  As Modeled by Red-Dog, no description/eulogy necessary for those who have eyes: