Bluesquare.com London GUKPT: Day 3: At A Glance

[Djinn]

Play will be restarting in about 10 minutes - here are the chip standings as the last 27 attempt to make it to tomorrow's final...

This is the info-only thread - for interactive updates see: http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=28322.0

Buskirk, Carl   603,300
Gibson, Nick   385,300
Bader, Martin   280,000
Ogunmakinwa, Jamil   254,000
Martin, Jonathan   253,100
Kam, Leo   244,600
Gilbert, Brian   205,700
Cox, Ian   168,800
Nikkhahe, Kourosh   168,400
De Mel, Priyan   159,300
Allen, Richie   136,900
Cruickshank, Andrew   132,300
Selin, Patrik   129,600
Mehrmand, Davood   123,300
Denton, Charles   112,000
Owen, Craig   103,900
Xanthos, Charalambous   98,900
Chattha, Sunny   96,300
Boon, Robert   91,000
Banin, Mark   90,100
Pini, Frank   86,100
Bale, Michael   79,600
Eastwood, Simon   79,600
Goulding, Adam   68,800
Ringe, Gerald   65,600
Heller, Adam   61,700
Kabbaj, John   60,900

[JungleCat03]

Welcome back to the Vic for Day 3.

The tournament is getting very excited now as we approach the final stages. With Snoopy and Ian Cox still there and playing well, there is lots of potential for a blonde winner here.

But there are a host of excellent players still competing for the title and the portents for a game of great poker are strong.

Jen has already rushed to the card room, so I'll be joining her now to witness the early fun and games. Good luck to the players, we're off!

[JungleCat03]

Jen can you keep a close eye on Richie Allen for me please. Thanks

The blinds are currently nice and chunky and attractive to players sitting in late positions at 2.5k 5k with a running 400 ante.

Richie has had an early set back unfortunately, when his raise in late position was repopped by the shortish stacked Adam Heller. Richie was happy to go with JJ, but found Adam holding the dominating KK.

The subsequent board didn't contain any pitfalls for Adam and he has doubled to circa 120k whilst Richie has had his stack halved and is now less comfortable with 65k or so.

Bad news has also filtered through to the press room as Michael Bale has reportedly doubled up through Ian Cox, flipping his little pocket ducks against Ian's impressive looking but unltimately worthless AQd. Not one to stay down for too long though, Ian has now doubled through Owen Craig in a QQ v AK coup. Back in the hunt straight away.

Snoopy has been quiet so far but he is poised like a coiled spring, ready to pounce at any moment. Seriously.

[Djinn]

Brian Gilbert doubles up...

With the blinds at 2,500/5,000 ante 400, Simon Eastwood limped on the button, small blind Gilbert made it up, and then big blind Martin Bader raised 30,000.  A dwell-pass from the button, but Gilbert made the call pretty fast.
Flop:    Gilbert, who'd dwindled to what looked like about 80k left, shoved immediately, and was called almost as fast.

Bader:
Gilbert: 

No help with the raggy turn and river and a grimacing Bader paid off the double up. 

[Djinn]

Richie Allen is OUT in 27th place - after dropping to a danger stack straight away, his final confrontation saw his A-J taken on by the winning 5-5 of Charles Denton.

Bambos is OUT in 26th place - no idea what happened to him.

PAYOUT:

1st: £119,590 + £10,000 added + fab watch + Grand Final seat  (this copied from the GUKPT Bluesquare page - their description, not mine)
2nd: £64,950
3rd: £43,300
4th: £34,640
5th: £25,980
6th: £21,650
7th: £17,320
8th: £12,990
9th: £10,820
10th: £6,500
11th: £4,330
12-18th: £3,460
19-27th: £3,030

[JungleCat03]

An interesting hand was just played between Kourosh Nikkhahe and Leo Kam...

Kourosh raised to 20k from UTG and Leo re-raised from middle position to 50k...

Amazingly Davood Mehrmand in the BB thought a while and asked a few questions of Lam as if he was considering playing. Ultimately though, he passed...

Back to Kouresh and.....he FLAT CALLED, leaving roughly 80k back...

FLOP:

Kouresh immediately moved ALLIN.

Lam now began a long period of contemplation and thought. Seconds, minutes, hours passed. Beards grew, epochs came and went and finally , as we were into our third ice age, Lam decided to fold  and Kouresh showed a T.

He then began berating Davood for getting involved in his  pot and they had a little squabble but nothing more than a few handbags. The fisticuffs come later...

Snoopy has just won a pot - and its a cracker. Johnathan Martin raised to 18k in early position and snoopy pushed, with a stack that must have been in the region of 60k....Johnathan commented to Snoopy "You know I haven't played a pot all day?" but Snoopy is pretty good at just blanking out opponents when they try and crack him - he would make an excellent spy - and sat there impassively until Martin eventually folded. Snoopy couldn't resist flipping over 89, the showoff. Well done Beagle, good work.

[Djinn]

We're down to just 22 players, and these are their rough counts and seating positions...

Table 1

Jonathan Martin -- 210k
Snoops -- 80k
Simon Eastwood -- 96k
Brian Gilbert -- 95k
Martin Bader -- 205k
Michael Bale -- 146k
Ian Cox -- 175k
Robert Boon -- 320k
Craig Owen -- OUT

Table 2

Mark Banin -- 160k
Nick Gibson -- 460k
Charles Denton -- 220k
Sunny Chattha -- OUT in 23rd place
Jamil Okunmakinwa -- 380k
Gerald Ringe -- 80k
Priyan de Mel -- 136k
Adam Heller -- 67k

Table 3

Kourosh Nikkhahe -- 220k (showed up half an hour late and immediately got into an argument)
John Kabbaj -- 160k
Leo Kam -- 300k
Patrik Selin -- 168k
Carl Buskirk -- 540k
Andrew Cruickshank -- 143k
Davood Mehrmand -- 112k
Frank Pini -- OUT

[JungleCat03]

Adam Heller, Jamil Ogunmakinwa and Priyan De Mel have just collided in strange fashion..

Jamil has plenty of chips and opened the betting with a 24k raise from early position. Priyan flat called the raise and Adam Heller announced "ALLIN" for an additional 41k.

Jamil made the call and Priyan thought about it for ages, making comments about value...pot odds....and smiling a lot before throwing his away.

He let out an anguished cry though as Jamil flipped and Adam showed (!) for a somewhat strange squeeze play, that had no hope of getting a fold given his stack.

"Fortune favours the brave" as the saying goes (or is this a "random fluctuation of dumb luck" -Bill Fillmaff) and the board came to give Adam a flush, a double up, a big grin and assorted confused stares from the watching crowd. He was very pleased with himself and Mark Banin observed, "I knew you couldnt have been making a move because you didn't have enough chips, but then you showed 8 5 suited!"

Poker's a strange game sometimes!

[JungleCat03]

 Davood Mehrmand and Patrick Selin have just tangled.

Selin made a raise from late position and Mehrmand, who now had a pretty short stack went over the top.

Selin made the call and on their backs Davood showed Ad3d and Selin showed the dominating As .

A flop brought hope to Mehrmand but a turn cut down his outs and a blank river sealed his exit and...


Davood Mehrmand is OUT in 22nd place, winning £3,030

[JungleCat03]

Snoopy's stack is getting chunks ripped out of it by the blinds and antes and his stack had dwindled down to just over 50k. With blinds at 3k 6k with a running 500 ante that won't last long without some help.

I joined his table as the action reached Snoopy on the button of an unopened pot. He moved his stack into the middle. After not too much thinking both blinds passed and Snoopy quietly stacked his chips before silently taking my notepad off me and writing 3-2o on the pad, the scalleywag.

Andrew Cruickshank has just been in a crucial pot with Leo Kam. The two players saw a raised pot, Andrew holding 99 decided to commit himself on a board of with just the one overcard to his pair. Unfortunately for him Kam held JQ for top pair, which once all the chips were thrown into the pot and the dust had settled, held to reward Kam with a very useful pot and send Andrew to the rail.

Thus...

Andrew Cruickshank is OUT, eliminated in 21st place, winning £3,030

[JungleCat03]

Mark Banin just moved allin.

It was passed to his small blind and with a smallish stack of 50k ish, he shoved allin. Nick Gibson reasoned he would be doing this with a pretty wide range and called very quickly with 5s5c, Mark showing .

A board devoid of Kings or Tens ensued and Nick eliminated Mark from the comp, meaning...

...Mark Banin is OUT, eliminated in 20th spot, winning £3,030[/b].

[Djinn]

Adam 'Snoopy' Goulding finishes in 19th place, winning £3,030

Having successfully stolen, re-stolen and shoved his way to just under 100k, on which he's rested gently all day, Snoops finally got caught, shoving in early position with and finding Cox in the big blind with .  It wasn't the worst situation in the world, but nothing about it changed, including the fact that Snoops was behind, and the beagle is on the rail.

[Djinn]

Gwibbo new chip leader...

Gibson, Nick   514000
Buskirk, Carl   450000
Kam, Leo   401000
Boon, Robert   333000
Kabbaj, John   303000
Bale, Michael   263500
Denton, Charles   244800
Selin, Patrik   234000
Nikkhahe, Kourosh   232000
Gilbert, Brian   225000
Eastwood, Simon   205500
Martin, Jonathan   201900
Heller, Adam   178000
Ringe, Gerald   153700
De Mel, Priyan   110600
Bader, Martin   87000
Ogunmakinwa, Jamil   87000
Banin, Mark   82800
Cox, Ian   60000
Goulding, Adam   47500

[JungleCat03]

at 4k 8k with a 500 ante, there is a juicy 17k in every pot before a single card has been dealt, pillaging is starting to become a serious business.

Prian De Mel raises in early position and it's passed round to the big blind, G Ringe. He dwells a while before Priam De Mel calls the clock on him.

"You have one minute" announces the Tournament Director, which causes a reaction from John Kabbaj.

"You can't call the clock if you are in the hand, don't you know the rules..." John grumbles somewhat strangely, since I've never come across that rule and judging from the confused expressions surrounding the table, not many people have. A bit of debate occurs about when it's appropriate to call the clock. Meanwhile Prian is just sitting there, wondering whether his raise will get through or not.

"I hope you are still counting that minute!" says Priam wearing a wide grin, and ultimately Ringe, pronounced to rhyme with singe (and possibly other words) passes....

....In the next few hands there is an early position raise by Brian Gilbert to 30k, which John Kabbaj calls holding position, and everyone else gets out of the way.

The flop comes 2, which both players check. The turn is checked by Brian and John immediately bets 40k. Brian calls after a short pause.

River .

Brian checks, then John checks. Brian shows AJ for top pair on the river and John lets out an anguished cry as he shows his rivered K. You can almost see the steam coming out of his ears at this point....


Left to right: John Kabbaj, superdweller Gerald Ringe and Priyan de Mel

[Djinn]

Well spotted Llevan - John Kabbaj has made a pretty impressive comeback since those Aces yesterday started him out on Recovery Road - and he just eliminated Jamil Ogunmakinwa in 18th place (£3,460) - as you can see from this photo of him next to a newly empty seat...

Kabbaj raised under the gun, and Ogunmakinwa, having dropped right down from his once second-place stack to just under 100k, moved in on the big blind.  It all happened so fast - they were suddenly on their backs - Kabbaj's playing Ogunmakinwa's .
Flop:
Turn:
River:   And that couldn't have been a more disappointing card for the young player whose shot at the GUKPT title ends with two tables left.