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

[Djinn]

For what I might generously describe as charmingly amateurish photos of the finalists, I refer you over to the Interactive thread.

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=17828.msg363853#msg363853

[Djinn]

And within a minute of starting, the first player has been eliminated - Paul Webb, in 9th place, winning £2,200


I think it was James Mcbride who benefitted from his chips - going to go rail and see if I can work this out by a cunning process of stack subtraction.

[Djinn]

Somehow Ryan Fronda has hung in there with 20k for around a week - and now he's just doubled through Bill Davies...

In the big blind (which is 6k, pretty big for a 20k stack) Bill called and they checked the flop.  The turn was the - crucial for Ryan, who happily check-raised all-in and was autocalled by Bill's .  He held for the straight, however, and can now probably win the tournament.

[Djinn]

Well, it's reached that slightly quiet time, with no one really wanting to break the mould and start raising more often than they're statistically likely to have a hand...what that means in real terms is that not much is happening.  But here are a couple of hands where something was shown -

Threeway action preflop and a flop of .  Check from big blind Driton, check from Shek and Anthony Kirkbride on the button takes it down with a 30k bet (although plenty of dwelling went on in between all of this).  He shows the .

Small blind Driton makes up and Ryan Fronda checks.  Flop, turn and river are all checked, until we see .  Driton shows the unexpected , while shortstack Ryan Fronda wins that one with a pair of Deuces.

And there's been many a raise-all-others-pass hand - and really quite a few of these end up being shown. 

I think I could write a short encyclopedia with all the free information that's been given by the players on the last two tables...

[Djinn]

Chip estimates as they head for the end of this level:

1  Anthony Kirkbride   272,000
2  Bill Davies             25,000
3  Chris Huyton        50,000
4  Driton Haxhiaj     280,000
5  Ryan Fronda       50,000
6  Paul King           66,000
7  Dick Shek          90,000
8  James Mcbride      135,000

Sharply divided into the big two stacks and everyone else.  With James Mcbride in the middle.

[Djinn]

****************BREAK****************

I am going to start drinking Red Bull now.  I'm driving home tonight, otherwise it may have been something stronger.

[Djinn]

Paul King doubles up -

Some background - Driton Haxhiaj has raised (minimum twice) several times preflop with no interest shown by any of the players in looking him up.  Now he does so again under the gun and Paul King moves in over the top.  Call.
Paul shows: 
Driton shows: 
Flop: 
Turn:
River:

So Paul now has joined the ranks of mid-stacked, knocking Driton off the top spot.

[Djinn]

I bring you the ballad of Bill Davies... It's a long one, involving being perilously short stacked (25k, blinds 4k/8k) for the last hour, and moving in with no callers, repeatedly.  When he does this under the gun, it folds to big blind Anthony Kirkbride, who passed face-up last time, and this time took what to me seemed an eternity to call with .  He doubled up with his , spiking a Jack and prolonging the final table by perhaps up to four or five hours.

[Djinn]

Pressure in the form of rising blinds is about to force people to do something - it's gone from 4k/8k to 6k/12k...

Just now Jim Mcbride re-raised all in (85k or so total) over the top of Driton Haxhiaj, who made one of those head-shaking folds signifying, most likely, a hand in the cookie jar.  I am expecting something I can report any minute now.

[Djinn]

And here it is:  Chris Huyton is OUT in 8th place, winning £2,500

He was short-stacked, especially with these new blinds, and when he moved in he received four callers (one was the original raiser Bill Davies).  It was in fact Bill's flush which took out the eighth place, but there was a look of determination on the faces of the other players to knock out at least one this hour. 

[Djinn]

Driton Haxhiaj is down to the felt after this hand against Bill Davies...

What started off as a fourway flop - got heads up as Bill bet out 16k and Driton called.
Turn:    Bill bets another 16k.  Driton eventually calls (he only had about 45k before making this call).
River:    Bill bets another 16k.  Now this can't be a nice river for Driton as someone who might have been betting the nut club draw might have just rivered a sneaky straight (can you tell what's going to happen?)...but he calls with his nonetheless.
and the in Bill's hand, and the chip leader for a good portion of the tournament is now on life support.

[Djinn]

Driton Haxhiaj trebles up:

Finding the good enough he puts the last of his chips in the middle, and both Dick Shek and Jim Mcbride give him a spin, checking down the streets until a eventually reveals Driton's Jack is good enough to keep him in it.

Brevity a necessity; I keep missing the good bits over here.

[Djinn]

Outdrawtastic elimination news now:

Anthony Kirkbride limps in under the gun.  It folds to Dick Shek in the small blind who raises to 36k (leaving himself 40k behind).  Anthony dwells for a while, but must have made a decision that he'd folded to short stacks too much, and anyway, he had a lot of chips.  He raised the unfoldable 40k; call.
Dick showed: 
Anthony showed: 

Flop: 
Turn: 
River: 

Poker is a skill game which is occasionally buried under a luck avalanche.

[Djinn]

I wasn't kidding when I said that once Ryan Fronda got off the 20k mark on the final table he could win it... he just doubled up off Bill Davies, who raised on the button with , then faced a +73k re-raise from Ryan in the big blind.  He called; Ryan had

The board brought both the King and Queen, but since a pair of Kings is a higher hand than a pair of Queens, Fronda won and is now looking dangerous.

[Djinn]

Oh, in case the importance of the post before last was lost on anyone:

The 7th place finisher, winning £2,900 was Dick Shek.