Bluesquare.com Grosvenor Grand Prix: Day 1a At A Glance

[danafish]

I heard "all in" from Table Tyler and the scuffly sounds of poker players standing up for the better to see the 2-K-Q flop and/or make a swift and dejected exit so I ran over, but both standees, John Boughey and Robert Nightingale, were holding A-K with no flush possibilities. They split, but Nightingale is woefully short.

[snoopy1239]

May I present to you a few chippie counts of some of the requested names:

Greg Hill -- 3,250
Zahir Aslam -- 6,875
Henry Griffiths -- 6,875
Lee Horton -- 5,500
Ash Hussain -- 18,950
Alex Kong -- 6,500
Ed Arees -- 20,250

Word on the poker grapevine (well, Blue Square) is that last year's winner and reigning champion 'Zippy' Zahir Aslam is out. Details are vague at the moment, but according to my Jeremey Kyle doppelganging source, Zippy had a flush draw against A-K (King on Turn) and failed to improve.

[danafish]

Some chip counts for you now, freshly counted just a minute ago.

Dave Smith -- 24k

Amrat Patel -- 25k

One Hand Rumit -- 14k

Alan McLean -- 36k

Ash Hussain -- 20k


And some recent exits:

Kim Callow
A Adda
R Nightingale
Zafar Aslam
Jez Perdesi
A Powell
Paul Jackson
M Ong
G Wainberg
Alan Davies
Chris Gavriel
J Simpson

[snoopy1239]

Ian Herbert -- 8,600
Rob Sherwood -- 13,000
Lee Horton -- 19,850
Mick Jones -- 12,300
Stuart Fox -- 9,700
Matt Tyler -- 11,650
Olabode Ayegun -- 18,775
James Moult -- 36,000
Karl Mahrenholz -- 19,675
Henry Griffiths -- 8,700
Martyn Cavanagh -- 14,200
Charalambos Xanthos -- 30,450
Paul McCue -- 17,875
Des Jonas -- 13,950
Neil Saunders -- 4,225
Chris Sokrati -- 24,000
Amrat Patel -- 21,625
Jeff Kimber -- 12,875

[danafish]

A six-way pot with the flop reading and everyone checks around to the button, this gent sitting to Amrat Patel's right (who I think be called Wainburg? Any offers?) who inquires as to the size of the pot and then bets it - 1800 of your English chips. To which Mr Patel promptly raises it another 5.2k. Mr Button dwells up for absolutely ages (I actually got four or five photos of him with various expressions of consternation on his face while he was mulling it over) and then folds 5-6 face up, and turns his attention towards gently nursing his slightly diminished stack like it's a sick kitten. Bless.

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H Tran is OUT. He bundled it all-in with A-Q on an A-A-x-8 board but came a cropper against Mateyboy's 8-8. Gulp! No Queen on the River meant he was a gonna.

[danafish]

I'm sorry to say that we are down one moustache. Martino Libertini bets 2.1k on a flop, and the gent two seats to his right calls. The turn comes and Martino throws what remains of his stack in the middle, and is called. Looks like he knows he was taking libertinis, because he resignedly mutters "okay..." as he more casts his from him than shows it. His opponent is delighted, as he is holding and actually didn't seem that happy about calling the all in. The river neither shakes nor stirs anything at all, and Martino is gone.

[snoopy1239]

"Snoops," beckons Ed Arees rising from his seat agitatedly. "I have to get something off my chest."

"I had a pair of Kings," he continued, relieved to have someone to share his pain with, "and got it all in against Seat 4 (Toni Dicesare) only for an Ace to hit the Turn. I would have been coasting then on over 30k."

"You're still there though, aren't you?" I vainly consoled.

"Yeah," replied the Welshman. "I guess so, down to 8k."

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Unfortunately for one blonde viewer at least, Alex Kong won't be climbing the Grand Prix sky-scraper any more, his chips sailing over to uber-aggressor Alan McLean in rather bitter circumstances. All-in on a King high Flop, Kong could only watch in horror as Alan revealed Kings to his Aces, the Turn and River providing no miracle.

"It's a set up," claims a chagrined Kong. "That's the first time I've had them."

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Andy O'Flaherty is also OUT. I gave a gentle tug on the Ash Hussain grapevine to be told of an accident with K-9, Andy's button raise (which virtually committed him) being re-raised by K-K, the hand all over by the turn.

[snoopy1239]

Crikey O'Reilly, they're dropping like intoxicated dominoes here today, the latest to feel the force of a boot in the rear being silent assassin and local boy Marucie Nicholson. He was forced into the docks when Lord Lawrence Gosney started bumping and grinding with what you could refer to as a genuine Lawrence hand.

A Flop of and they both went bananas, Lawrence's reputation as a player in desperate need of a strait-jacket clearly preceding him as Maurice unhesitantly involved himself in a raising war with .

With Maurice making the final hand-to-chips movement, Lawrence made an easy call with.... ahem.... , which naturally held up come the clinical Turn and River.

To his credit, Maurice took defeat like a gentleman and exited with a welcome good luck message. Meanwhile, Lawrence was left to tower up his chips like the Manhattan at the start of Frasier and bask in the glory of his new found 50k-ish stack.

[snoopy1239]

Another one down as Matt Tyler meets his match, if only in the vocal stakes, in a boozed up (is there any other kind?) Stuart Fox. I didn't catch the action, but, funnily enough, Foxy did, although he retold it with a pint of lager in his hand...

"I had A-Q on a Q high Flop and he pushed all-in. He had K-6 of hearts, didn't have anything. No, hold on, he hit a 6."

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Osman Mustanoglu -- 10,225
Ash Hussain -- 27,000
Alan McLean -- 27,775
Marcus Bebb-Jones -- 5,650
Rumit Somaiya -- 4,225

[danafish]

Also OUT is Burnley Johnette Ms Lisa Scotney, all in with A-K on a Jack high flop, her opponent Paul Rayner holding what probably felt like a heartbreaking K-J (I believe there was a bunch of raising before the flop). She walked off without a word, I'm not sure she even stayed to see the turn and river. Not that they made any difference.

[danafish]

Matthew Haden, who showed up today with a small band of emo be-haircutted supporters who since seem to have gone home, shoved for his very tiny 1675 stack and Des Jonas calls him because somebody has to. "Oh," says Des as Matthew flips his  . "I haven't got anything," and turns over . The board looks pretty threatening if you're not paying attention like me, so I wrote down that he was out and then had to cross that out again. He has in fact doubled up to almost 4k.

[danafish]

An accident that never happened -

Mick Jones moves all in on a flop, and Olebode Ayegun mulls before folding. Mick says, "Do you have A-T? You were ahead if you do," and shows K-T. Olebode shows Q-T. It must feel nice to be right. Mulling photos below.

Incidentally, Rumit seems to have actually had an accident that really happened - he's somehow down to 6k or so.

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Ezzat Khayam has bitten the dust recently, his succumbing at the hands of which spiked a second bullet on an board.

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Laurence Gosney is the chip leader with 78k.

[snoopy1239]

I think I may have bokked him with my Paul McGrath comparison as the not-quite-as-alcohol-loving Mick Jones is now whizzing down the M6 at break neck speed after his failed to improve against Pocket Queens, although two diamonds on the Flops teased in that fashion only the Poker Gods seem to be accustomed to.

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Also gone is Greg Hill. According to former table companion Ed Arees, he raised for the majority of his stack pre-flop and found himself committed to calling a re-raise from an early position limper.

Whilst Greg knew he was in trouble with a vulnerable A-6, he perhaps couldn't have imagined he'd be up against Aces and looking to turn water into wine.

No wine appeared.

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Ian 'The Sherbert' Herbert (okay, I confess, I made up that nickname) is also pushing up the daisies (in poker terms, not literally).

He got jiggy on a K-Q-x-J board (3 clubs), but was dismayed to see his Pocket Queens had been caught by A-T. A blank on the River and it was all over for the Welshman and former GUKPT finalist.

"I think the club on the Turn gave him a chance to get away," added Jeff Kimber.

[danafish]

Yes, well, Alan McLean is no longer chip leader anyway. He was down to less than 30k, and that was before he doubled up Rumit (although admittedly for not very much), reraising him all in after Rumit raised to 2.1k utg. Mclean turned over  and Rumit turned over the mighty , which duly hit the board. Guess I'm not asking Mr Mclean for that record deal tonight. I don't think he's cheered up any after that.

Rumit's double up put him at 6.5k, not including the big blind which he immediately posted and promptly folded.

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Other departures include:

Neil Saunders
David Diggler
Peter Evans
M Keighley
Tony Cartwright
A Astley
Rob Stevens
Martino Libertini
John King

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Double up for Marcus Bebb-Jones who has, for the first time in a while, silenced the alcohol induced Stuart Fox who, up to that point, seemed to be having a ball. The hand was a simple affair, a cut-off versus button confrontation with Marcus's A-Q dominating his younger foe's A-T.

A raggy board later and Foxy's looking slightly less jovial with just 4 or 5k.

[danafish]

Double up for Stuart Fox.

All in on a board, the gent to his left, who we are fairly certain is Alan Rudge, calls, but mucks his hand to Stu's . He's still drinking.