Christmas Cracker £750 Main Event - Final Day - At A Glance

[Djinn]

Double up for Chris Huyton - he raised preflop, and found Gez Morris on the big blind re-raising another 14k.  To put this in perspective, the pot already had about 17k in it, and this re-raise implied commitment, (why either of them didn't just move in is a question I pose)... but Chris decided to flat call, leaving himself <15k and Gez about 10k more than that behind.
Flop:    Instant move-in from Gez, but Chris beats him into the pot with his which had spiked the trips to outdraw the in the blind...

Odd, but table-turning - now Gez Morris is very short-stacked while Chris gets some breathing room.

Blinds currently 1k/2k.

[Djinn]

Well, it's carnage on the corner table - we're down Barry Earnshaw (a while ago), Justin Turner and just now Dave Knight... a bit of a reshuffle and I'll get the updated counts.

Elsewhere it really has been dramatic for Dan Samson, who's just lost another big chunk racing the of Gez Morris with his .  No hit and he's gone from chip leader to mid-to-short stack in one level.

Ryan Fronda gets his very short stack all in against two players, one of whom (Jim Mcbride) bet the other off on the x flop.  He held , but all-in Fronda had which stayed good to more than triple him up.

[Djinn]

************Correction************

It's Chris Eddleman who's out, Justin Turner still there with 36,000 chips.

[Djinn]

And hot on their heels, Dan Samson is OUT.  "I haven't won a 50/50 in two days," he mutters, clearly annoyed at how his big stack was demolished by a series of small pairs which called all in (actually 55 and 66, both in the hands of Gez Morris) when he was re-raising with AK each time.  Then finally, down to 15,000 (with the blinds at 1,500/3,000) he moved in under the gun with .  The same guy now wakes up with .  From chipped up to down and out in three easy steps.

[Djinn]

Down to Two Tables... and here they are, with chip counts:

Table ex-Samson

Dick Shek           83,500
Martino Libertini   24,000
Paul Webb         40,000
Gez Morris          46,500
Mickey Wernick   54,500
Chris Huyton       73,000
Ali Mallou           100,000
Jim Mcbride         53,500

Table Chip Leader

Michael McCool    36,000
Anthony Kirkbride  133,000  (this may be the best Climber of the Day performance yet)
Driton Haxhiaj       50,000
Bill Davies             70,000
Bad Girl                26,500
Justin Turner        15,000
Ryan Fronda         52,000
Michael Clements   70,000
Paul King              30,500

[Djinn]

And you may notice a drift in chips between Justin Turner and Ryan Fronda - the latter in fact doubled up off the former, raising under the gun with and then dwelling for a good while before calling Justin's quick re-raise in the blinds with, as it turned out, .  The Queens stood up and while Ryan was under 10k not long ago, he now has enough to propel him gently towards the final...

[Djinn]

Prize structure:

1st £25,300
2nd £14,400
3rd £9,700
4th £6,800
5th £5,000
6th £3,200
7th £2,900
8th £2,500
9th £2,200

[Djinn]

Bad Girl finishes in 15th place

Having dwindled to under 30k (in fact, never getting over that number), she found a good spot to move in on the button with no action before her with .  Paul King on the big blind seemed in a hurry to call her all-in, at which point she said, "Ooops, I didn't mean it..." but he held , so so far so ahead.
But the board came down:  so it was goodnight and good luck to the others, and the rail for Xuyen...

[Djinn]

Mickey Wernick makes an odd pass...

Jim Mcbride makes a raise preflop, and Mickey in the big blind clearly wasn't convinced, as he re-raised another 20k or so.  Now with over 60k in the pot, Mcbride moves in for around 16k more.  And Mickey passes. 

Over on the Other Table:

Martino Libertini finishes in 14th place

Paul King gets pocket Queens twice in about five minutes, and gets the blinds both times; Ali Mallou raises 24k after Bill Davies limps in, and he's shown the tough fold of .

[Djinn]

And it's all over for Mickey - he still had an OK stack, and got it in with against ... The Ace came on the flop, and another crucial 50/50 is lost, sending Mickey Wernick OUT in 13th spot...

[Djinn]

Saver News Now - £500 off each of the top three spots to pay to 12th 11th and 10th...

[Djinn]

And Ali Mallu's out 11th in a blaze of glory (or something a bit like it) - the final hand was his A10 against the AJ of Driton Haxhiaj, who now has a plentiful stack (picture forthcoming).  He wins £500 - a lemon-juice-in-paper-cut 2/3 of his money back...

[Djinn]

Finishing in 11th place (yes, this does mean that my previous post was inaccurate by one spot - Ali was 12th) is Gez Morris -

Jim Mcbride raised (again) to 16,000.  Small blind Gez pushed in for a further 17,500, and after one of those 'how much am I going to have left after this' counts of his chips, Jim called, showing .  Gez showed .
Flop: 
Turn: 
River: 

And it's hand for hand.

[Djinn]

And Michael McCool is the Bubble - and quite dramatic too...

Blind vs. blind with Anthony Kirkbride, they saw a limp-check flop of .  Then bet from Michael, raise all in, call.
Michael showed: 
Anthony showed: 

Far from this being a lesson in not slowplaying Aces preflop, the turn came and the river an to knock out Michael in 10th spot for £500.

Chip counts follow shortly.

[Djinn]

Counts for the Final, in seat order.

1  Anthony Kirkbride   224,000
2  Bill Davies             53,000
3  Chris Huyton        57,000
4  Driton Haxhiaj     207,000
5  Ryan Fronda       20,000
6  Paul King           92,000
7  Dick Shek          103,000
8  James Mcbride      139,000
9  Paul Webb           67,000