The Grosvenor Fessies are BACK

[tikay]

Last year, with the arrival of "Series  Poker" (GUKPT, GBPT), the traditional Fessies got a bit sidelined, not intentionally, just a sort of blue on blue really. The mainstay of UK Tourney Poker Fessies are Grosvenor, & it was their Fessies which suffered most, almost to the point of extinction, with Marketing & PR focused on the GUKPT. And, of course Management Resource was concentrated on the GUKPT, as it had to be in Year One.

John Raab listened, & told us he'd restore the balance in2008, starting, really, at Walsall.

He did his homework, published - uniquely, surely? - a full Structure, Starting Stack & Clock for Every Fessie, for each value Event, also 1 or 2 dayer, the lot. The 2008 Grosvenor Fessies are, of course, now part of the GUKPT Schedule, but not just a few Support Events, they are proper Fessie Events.

So, the Waslall Fessie duly began on Monday, & as chance would have it, Johnny Raab was sat with Chili, Tom, BookieBasher, Bazza Neville, & myself on Monday in Walsall, an hour before the Tourney started, & Raaby's eyes rarely left the "Entries" figure on the Plasma. He'd done his bit, set the thing up, & now, there was no more he could do. But his face was a picture, as the Entries figure climbed & climbed - 70, 80, 100, 110, 120, 130, 135 at KO time, &, eventually, with Alternates, 146. This was just wonderful (it was a £200-er) & since then, we know the £300 & the Omaha both had excellent fields, too.

Raaby was beaming from ear to ear, chest puffed out, a job well done.

From me, I'd like to say thanks, because the whole Circuit, as I know it, used to revolve around the Grosvenor Fessies, & I've missed them very much. I'm not alone there.

[tikay]

Who was there on Monday? Prompted by the Players List kindly passed to me by the ever-growing (in stature) Zac, the notables included.....

Fari Badmansour

Andrew Calladine

Ben Callinan

The Carpenters (Ben & Tom)

Dan "Get Haircut" Carter.

Monty Burns

Chili

Greek Jack (currently leading the Pro-Rank 2 Leaderboard, well above Flushy). Real name Kyriacos Dionysiou (Greek for "God of Love").

Mad Turk (Yucel Eminoglu)

Mick Fletcher

Alan Geddes

Nick "Gwibbo" Gibson

Tom Gibson

Lord Gosney

Barry Hearn (eh?)

Steve Holden

Maz Hussain

Steve Jelenik & his very much better half, Irina Liepina

Andy Johnson

Des Bling Bling Jonas

Jon "skalie" Kalmar

Bo Le.  Shortest name on the circuit?

Thanh Le

Tuan Le

John Lea

Chao Li

Pete Linton, DTD £500 Hero

Mark McCluskey

Mick McCool

Red-Dog

Bookiebasher (Jamie Moult)

Barry Neville

Billy Ngo

Mo Nicholson

Ash Pervais

Rob Reece

Magic Sami

Albert Sapiano

Bill Shrevington

Pete Singleton

Rumit

Johnny Vacc

Clive "portfolio" Williams

Not bad for starters, & with more big guns likely to appear later in the week, Raaby had every reason to be pleased with himself.

Thanks to Zac's clever list, I can tell you the following all departed before the end of Level Two (the first break, & "cut-off" for Alternates or Late Entries).

Richard Davies, Greek Jack, Adrian Eley, Dave Freeman, Jon Heath, Steven Khoo, Emanuale Lamanuzzi, Jon Lea, Mick McCool, Reyaaz Mulla, Barry Neville, Ken Page, Chri Strickland, & Chris Wright.

I believe Bazza, who departed almost before it started, had his Aces cracked. I think his opponent was behind pre-flop. Bazza did not seem overly impressed......

[tikay]

The Result of the £200, & the £300 I think, is shown elsewhere, but I know Steve Holden & Nick "Redbull" Hicks both got cashes, & that Pete Singleton Finalled in the £200.

The Omaha (£250 Freeze) was a welcome return of Omaha to Fessies, & the field was very high quality, Raaby must have been delighted, but Value?, there was little with this crowd in, which included a coach-load of the Blackpool Boys.

Fari Badmansour

Derek Barnes

James Browning (soon to be seen on Sky Poker)

Russ "Ariston" Cawley

Monty Burns

Greek Jack

Jeff Duval - a rare visitor to Walsall

Mike Ellis

Rob Garfield

Nick Gwibbo Gibson

Ed Giddens

Marc Goodwin

Harprit Gurnam

Steve Holden

Maz Hussain

Ip Mann

Paul ActionJack Jackson

Steve Jelenik & Irina

Chris Johnson

Gareth Jones

Jon skalie Kalmar

Jeff Kimber

Chicken Joe

Karl Mahrenholz

Mick McCool

Malcolm McKinlay

Stuart Nash

Riverdave Penly

Howard Plant

Trev Reardon

Glyn Rees

Jim Reid

Lucy

Magic Sami

Albert

Nick Slade

Theo

Matt "Humpty-Dumpty" Tyler

Adam & Alan Vinson

Lord Wernick

Ian Woodley

Not much Value there, eh?

One Table had Woodley & ActionJack on it, very loud, but neither of them as loud as Marc Goodwin, whose antique jumper outdone them both - I believe it was once owned by Henry Cotton.

So, lots of faces I've not seen in one comp for ages.

About time we had some Omaha Tourneys (Freezeouts ONLY please), so well done Walsall & Raaby.

[TightEnd]

The Omaha result, shortly to appear in our results service


 


NAME OF CASINO: Grosvenor Casino Walsall

DAY: Wednesday

DATE: 13/02/08

COMP: £250 Omaha
      
ENTRIES: 83

PRIZE FUND £20,750

1st D Penly -- £7,060
2nd A Vinson -- £3,940
3rd M Wernick -- £2,900
4th C Owen -- £2,080
5th J Duvall -- £1,450
6th S Nash -- £1,140
7th P Jones -- £930
8th Anon -- £730
9th I Liepina -- £520

Congratulations to riverdave!

Not a bad final table line up, some mixed game legends on that one!

[tikay]

Good grief Rich, that's a nice Omaha Final Table!

Penly always had chips, Wernick (3rd) Duval (5th) & Nash (6th) are real old-school, but I don't know if the Vinson is Adam or Alan, both were there.

"I Liepina" is the interesting one, that's Irina, Steve Jeleniks beautiful companion. She has one helluva game in Hold-Em, & she had 18k at the first break last night. She sometimes comes across as a bit shy at the Table, but her English is not perfect, & I think she just struggles with the language a bit. She sure ain't shy when it comes to bluffing though, & has a sort of Annette robotic look to her when she's at it. She'll win a vey big Comp quite soon, I'm sure of that, & she ran well in one of the recent EPT's I believe - Bahamas? I hear she does very well in Online Qualifiers, too.

Well done her.

[George2Loose]

I finish work at 6.30 2moro. How likely am I to get into the £100 tourney tomorrow? Says limited spaces on the website- would really want to play it. Would get to Walsall about 7.15

[mondatoo]

Noticed tuan le(sure there was others in the list who are at same level but was juct scrolling down and noticed him) in the players list for £200 game is it usual to get such world class players in a tourney which for such a player is tiny stakes.

[TightEnd]

its a different Tuan Le

[jonah]

Good grief Rich, that's a nice Omaha Final Table!

Penly always had chips, Wernick (3rd) Duval (5th) & Nash (6th) are real old-school, but I don't know if the Vinson is Adam or Alan, both were there.

"I Liepina" is the interesting one, that's Irina, Steve Jeleniks beautiful companion. She has one helluva game in Hold-Em, & she had 18k at the first break last night. She sometimes comes across as a bit shy at the Table, but her English is not perfect, & I think she just struggles with the language a bit. She sure ain't shy when it comes to bluffing though, & has a sort of Annette robotic look to her when she's at it. She'll win a vey big Comp quite soon, I'm sure of that, & she ran well in one of the recent EPT's I believe - Bahamas? I hear she does very well in Online Qualifiers, too.

Well done her.

That person in 7th place was me

It was my first major omaha comp & such a thrill to FT with so many esteemed players in attendance. It was Adam not Alan who finished second Tikay, another player emerging from the Vinson stables.

You may know me tikay from the opening night of DTD when we sat together shortstacked for most of it buying each other coffees   I had the fortune of winning it. You also cashed if I remember right.


I'd have reinvested my omaha cash into the main event but was going to see the legendary Stranglers Saturday night so couldn't partake.


More Omaha please, £250 again would be nice, the $500 at the vic is pushing it a bit for me!

[Ironside]

More Omaha please, £250 again would be nice, the $500 at the vic is pushing it a bit for me!

i have to agree more PLO please at reasonable levels

but surely £250 and $500 are about the same in this day and age of £1= $2

[jonah]

The $ should have been a £

[tikay]

Good grief Rich, that's a nice Omaha Final Table!

Penly always had chips, Wernick (3rd) Duval (5th) & Nash (6th) are real old-school, but I don't know if the Vinson is Adam or Alan, both were there.

"I Liepina" is the interesting one, that's Irina, Steve Jeleniks beautiful companion. She has one helluva game in Hold-Em, & she had 18k at the first break last night. She sometimes comes across as a bit shy at the Table, but her English is not perfect, & I think she just struggles with the language a bit. She sure ain't shy when it comes to bluffing though, & has a sort of Annette robotic look to her when she's at it. She'll win a vey big Comp quite soon, I'm sure of that, & she ran well in one of the recent EPT's I believe - Bahamas? I hear she does very well in Online Qualifiers, too.

Well done her.

That person in 7th place was me

It was my first major omaha comp & such a thrill to FT with so many esteemed players in attendance. It was Adam not Alan who finished second Tikay, another player emerging from the Vinson stables.

You may know me tikay from the opening night of dtd when we sat together shortstacked for most of it buying each other coffees   I had the fortune of winning it. You also cashed if I remember right.


I'd have reinvested my omaha cash into the main event but was going to see the legendary Stranglers Saturday night so couldn't partake.


More Omaha please, £250 again would be nice, the $500 at the vic is pushing it a bit for me!

Well done you! I love to see good guys doing well, & I'm really delighted for you fella.

[riverdave]

Delighted to see PLO comps in all bar one of the GUKPT schedules although i am pretty sure £100 rebuys make for a much better PLO comp than the freezeouts. The £250 1 rebuy or addon that is in one of the scedules might make for a happy medium.