Action on Table 22... Joseph Byrne finds himself with a tricky decision, as having invested 12,500 preflop, he now faces Gareth Compton's 25,000 bet and the surprise big blind go-for-it all in of Jordan Burnett (for a little more than the 25k).  Byrne dwells, understandably, and eventually gives either his raiser or the big blind credit for something very good and lets it go.

Compton does in fact show
Burnett shows

But the flop brought ... the turn a safe ... the river for the flush.  It took Compton a minute to realise he had to pay more, while Burnett shook his fist gently and then, bizarrely, gave it a little kiss.

Pictured:  Burnett on the left, Byrne dwelling on the right.

plz can i hav a pic ov nicolas mclellan ty and chip count 

A story too, as luck would have it...

Nicolas Mclellan calls a raise to 4,200 preflop in the small blind.  Raiser Tom Kugelstadt and he see a flop of .  Mclellan checks, and so does Kugelstadt.
Turn:    Mclellan bets out 5,500, called pretty quickly.
River:  Now Mclellan bets 10k, and again receives a call.

He shows .  Kugelstadt rues the final card: "That's a sick river," as he shows the losing ...

Pictured:  Victorious rivering Mclellan c. 75k:

Unlikely titled Geoffroy Buffetrille doubles through after shoving in early position for 14,500 and getting a quick call from Hiren Kanabar.  Greek Jack seriously considered calling too, but unfazed, Buffetrille just waited for everyone else to eventually pass before flipping .  Kanabar's missed; he's back in the game.

It's all over!  They decided against further levels tonight, and are releasing our 93 remaining players for a better night's sleep... and welcoming them back with Sunday Lunch.

We like the sound of that and consider the Lunch bandwagon something we'll be jumping on.  Seeing as that is 12pm, and it's 4:10 now, we'd better get a move on and have a nap before coming back here, so   Back tomorrow for 2pm start (chip counts coming up later when we get them).

Jim Reid is OUT - all in with (I think on the flop) of , looked up immediately by Andrew Beardmore with his .  With a five now no good for 2pr, he was drawing thin, and then busted.
______________________________________

Elsewhere people continue to play as if there's no tomorrow (which there is).  James Williams bets 9k on the turn when Harry Dunnell checks to him on a board.  Long think; Dunnell calls.  The river is the , check to Williams once more - he immediately announces all-in.  The signs are bad for a call - head shake, puff cheek, eyes close... pass.

"You had a flush draw."
"No you had a flush draw."  The postmortem continues for a few moments but so does the game.  Dunnell had a very large stack indeed at the beginning of the level and it just hasn't gone his way at all during the 11th hour.

As the final level sort of chugs along (the pace of the last two doesn't seem to be able to be maintained somehow - it is 3:40am now after all) I thought it might be a good idea to introduce a couple of new names who've made some stacks for themselves out of the earlier carnage.  Just so there won't be too many Day Two surprises...

Tom Rutter - 74k
Denis Ford - 59k
Amer Latif - 73k
Harry Dunnell - 85k
Michael Millar - 70k
Ken Wheatley - 56k
Terence Simpson - 60k
Paul Brammer - 54k
Simon Lee - 50k
Gary Melvin - 50k

There are a few unmentioned as yet big stacks in there - if my camera battery hadn't this moment decided it needed an electrical vacation I would put faces to the names.  As it is, will hijack Chris' or snap them tomorrow as they're almost sure to return as we've only got 18 minutes left to play today.

You know when a succession of moves happen like they've been sped up on film, or two players have already decided, "If A then B, If B then C"?  A raising skirmish just occurred between small blind James Bagley and big blind Brendan Pedley which seemed to fit that bill: 

Bagley raised to 2,400, Pedley reraised to 6,000, Bagley instantly moved forward his tower of high denom chips which covered his opponent.  Briefest of pauses.  Pass.

Troops regrouped for later battles.

Sidicki Mohangee races his aip against ... and wins with a satisfying straight flush after the board comes .  Overkill on the river, but it looks nice   He's up to 20k now.

[120k+ stack]

Gareth Compton just propelled himself into undoubtedly the chip leader spot after squaring off against hitherto unstoppable Chris Gavriel!

I noticed a 35k+ pot already brewed, the board all out and looking like:  .  Both players were chipped up, the leaders on the table, and although Gavriel covered everyone, he could be seriously dented by Compton.  "All in," he announces.  The table hushes as eventually an unhappy looking but not-going-anywhere Compton made the call for his tournament life with his for the maisonette (small house).  Gavriel mucks and that adrenaline comedown ends with Compton just sort of babbling about the hand a bit, "Even if I'm beat, I have to call.. didn't like it...Have to call."  You know how you do.

When he calms down, he'll find that his 120k+ stack is definitely at the top of the pack now in level 9.

Just now someone left this important-looking piece of technology on the side of my office.  It was only for a matter of seconds, but the temptation to 'bust' a few choice players, give some ridiculous middle names and reorder the chip leaders with Chris at the top was almost too much for me to bear.  DTD.  I bet everyone has an iphone and a blackberry and one of those mini projectors that fit on your keyring too. 

Mad Turk says, "I am calling you!"

But he says that after he's moved in on a flop; what he's referring to is preflop, when opponent Rab Bain says he should have re-raised.  "I am calling you!  I am gonna show you," he offers, while his opponent deliberates calling what looks like is going to be all-in himself or close. 

Finally, Bain passes.  He shows .  Mad Turk shows the , clearly not lying about being happy to call preflop, but having taken the shove initiative and run with it.

Yucel Eminoglu: Mad



Rab Bain:  Even-tempered



Incidentally, the trend for sort of half-woolly-hat-half-cap type headwear both baffles and intrigues me.  The part of me that likes my glow-in-the-dark gloves and Chris' hoody kind of wants one.

Also OUT are Jed Tribe and Daniel Cochrane.  The latter moved all in for 3,425 after his neighbour had raised to 2,000.  There was no question of a fold - the only unknown turned out to be the small blind who really looked like he was on the verge of repopping it to isolate the all-in Cochrane... but didn't.  The big blind thought about it, but also passed, leaving the autocall for what turned out to be A-J.  Cochrane made that eye-rolling, half laugh half cry face as he flipped his A-T and that was all she wrote.



************************************* break and chip race ********************************************

Triple all-in! 

John Stritch gets the in position on a short stack who'd shoved with and with a stack who covers both of them in the blinds only too happy to oblige with a call with .  Nothing straighty/flushy/over a Ten (or, er, between Deuce and Four) to scare Stritch and he claps his hands (just once, reservedly almost) and near-triples up, busting one player and putting Queens-caller Denison Ranson on life support with 4k.

Another player doubling up late in the day is the pseudonym-sounding Ivor Frost - his were in perfect shape after the board came and his opponent showed .  Still, he didn't have all that many chips to start with - hands like that could be spectacular if two big stacks picked them up around now.

Selzer Refreshing...

Mike Selzer's stack was looking in need of replenishment, and it all worked out in time for him to get back in the game.  A raise in early middle position brought a re-raise all in from John Perrin out of the small blind.  Perrin wasn't liking it when Selzer snapcalled with , in good shape against his ...  The flop brought every high combination apart from what was needed to help that out, and even a flush draw picked up on the turn didn't do the trick.  Double up to 25k for Selzer, down to >6k for Perrin.