Gala Poker Tour Grand Final: Day 1A - At A Glance

[NoflopsHomer]

Hi, this is the no-frills 'lite' update for the Gala Poker Tour Final. Only updaters will be allowed to post here. If you wish to interact with the updaters and ask about any player in particualr, then please head over to the interactive thread here: http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=28775.0

The event begins at 2pm Wednesday.

[JungleCat03]

Welcome to the Gala from the Cat.

Much has been said about this event, the steep buyin/ clash with amsterdam and location have all served to produce a scarcity of numbers. With what looks like only 55-60 ish runners confirmed at the moment (although this number could rise depending on last minute entries), it would appear justice is not being done to a competition with an excellent structure.

HOWEVER, let's dwell on the positives for a moment. The gala casino itself is polished and sparkling, sympathetically lit, plushly furnished, part of the wave of new, gleaming casinos that are moving poker in this country out of the dark ages and giving the game we love a respect and recognition it deserves.

The field itself is peppered with a glittering array of talent. Bejeweling the field are such names as Jamie Gold, the controversial 2006 champion, the cheeky Phil Laak, his glamourous missus, Jennifer Tilley, who looks amazing even before you realise she is closing in on half a century. (I'm sure you'll agree!)



Phil Laak's good friend and fellow high stakes american pro, the goateed magician Antonio Esfandiari is also playing and if they share a table, the banter and action should be explosive...

From the UK, the Hendon Mob are out in force with Ross the only mobster missing from the action, but I'm sure Barney Boatman, Ram Vaswani and Joe Beevers are willing and ready to pick up the slack.

The star-studded field may work against last minute entries as people won't be seeing masses of value in this field but it is sure to make for some great poker and personally, I'm champing at the bit for this event to get started...

....players have just been called to the tables so it should be starting soon.

GOOD LUCK ALL!

[JungleCat03]

Here are the runners for today...1st in alphabetical order and I will post again in a moment with the table numbers.

43 runners signifies there have been a number of last minute entries bolstering the field and raises hopes that the total number in the tournament will exceed 100 by tomorrow. Perhaps some enthusiastic exitees from Amsterdam will evade the lure of the coffee shops and high heeled women in windows, fly back over and rush to sign up for tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Rob Akery
Richard Ashby
Joe Beevers
Ben Blackmore
Barny Boatman
John Bousfield
Peter Cockayne
Roland De Wolfe
Pat Donegan
David Edwards
Carl Eglintine
Marcus Farthing
Andrew Feenan
Andrew Flemming
Eddie Gaines
Omar Ghandur
Jamie Gold
Richard Haile
Paul Hardwidge
William Haughney
Rshad Hussain
Khoo
David Maudlin
Ian Mcwilliam
Fiachra Meere
Andrew Mitson
Mika Ollila
Passantino Benedetto
Colin Pearson
Guiseppe Pillitteri
Bobby Rach
Chris Royle
Mark Seagal
Rob Sherwood
Pete Singleton
Daniel Smith
Mark Stewart
Johnathan Tabatabai
Jitesh Thakker
Alex Torrance
Paul Walsh
Ian Woodley
Xanthos Charalambos

[JungleCat03]

Here is how they the tables have been drawn today.



101   Andrew Mitson
102   Omar Ghandur
103   Marcus Farthing
104   Pete Singleton
105   Xanthos Charalambos
106   Ian Mcwilliam
107   Passantino Benedetto
108    Khoo
109   Richard Haile
201   Mark Stewart
202   Daniel Smith
203   Fiachra Meere
204   Ian Woodley
205   Barny Boatman
206   Pat Donegan
207   Colin Pearson
208   Jitesh Thakker
209   Johnathan Tabatabai
301   Alex Torrance
302   Bobby Rach
303   Andrew Feenan
304   Guiseppe Pillitteri
305   Peter Cockayne
306   William Haughney
307   Paul Hardwidge
308   Andrew Flemming
309   Richard Ashby
401   Jamie Gold
402   Mark Seagal
403   Rob Akery
404   John Bousfield
405   Rshad Hussain
406   Chris Royle
407   Joe Beevers
408   Ben Blackmore
501   Rob Sherwood
502   David Edwards
503   David Maudlin
504   Roland De Wolfe
505   Paul Walsh
506   Eddie Gaines
507   Mika Ollila
508   Carl Eglintine

[NoflopsHomer]

And we've lost our first player already...

Colin Pearson bets 500 on a flop, Mark Stewart makes it 2,000. Pearson re-raises to 7,500 and Stewart moves all-in and is insta-called.

Pearson:



Stewart:



Turn:



River:



Stewart has Pearson covered and we down to 42 players.

Meanwhile Joe Beevers and Jamie Gold have been battling away, Beevers raising Gold's bet from 275 to 1,175 on a board getting the WSOP champion to fold. Then a few hands later on a Q-J-9-Q-J board Gold tried to bluff the river with 8-6 offsuit but was quickly caught by Joe's K-J.

[JungleCat03]

With blinds of 25 50, Daniel Smith raises from UTG to 175 and is called by Pat Donegan and Mark Stewart in the BB.

The flop comes .

Daniel bet out 225, and was called by Pat.

The fell on the turn and both players checked.

River: .

Check from Daniel and Pat bets out 300.

"I'll call just to see what you had...." says Daniel throwing 400 chips over the line generously before the dealer returns 100 to him.

The hand played out as though Pat had a flush and indeed he turned over KhQh to take down the pot with his flush.

Meanwhile,  we have had another knockout!

I joined the hand as the chips were being passed to Omar Ghandur, the board showing 3-7-3-6-J, and Omar Ghandur holding 3-3 for quads. The unfortunate Khoo was holding 6-6 for a full house that was no good. Although this looked like a standard cooler, because of the slightly idiosyncratic order in which some of the dealers deal out the cards, it was impossible to see from the board that the 3 had actually come on the river, meaning Khoo received a one out bad beat. Very harsh but he is our second exiter.

[NoflopsHomer]

Jamie Gold, who looks both bored and tired, limps for 50, Rob Akery makes it 200, everyone folds back to Gold, he re-raises to 800 and Akery passes. Gold shows the .

"Was that your highest one?" asks Ash Hussain.

"I have to do something to keep myself awake..."

[NoflopsHomer]

John Tabatabai having bet all the way on a board, bets 2,150 on the river. Barny Boatman, who had been check/calling him the whole way eventually makes the call saying, "show me a set of fives..."

Tabatabai flips for a very filthy wheel. Boatman mucks, claiming surprisingly a set of deuces.

Roland De Wolfe limps from the hijack and Eddie Gaines limps on the button, the small blind passes and Carl Eglintine checks his big blind.

Flop:



Carl and Roland check, Eddie bets 200 into the 175 pot, Carl passes, Roland bumps it up to 700 and gets a quick pass from his opponent.

[JungleCat03]

Jamie Gold look like he has woken up and was involved in an entertaining pot...

with a raise to 250 in early position by Rshad Hussain, Jamie reraised to 700 preflop. Sandwiched between the two aggressors in the big blind, John Bousfield called and Hussain also called.

The flop came .

John checked, Rshad bet out 400 which Jamie gold raised to 1400.

John called Jamie's 1400, to which Jamie became more animated. "uh oh...I thought I was just playing with you" says Jamie, motioning to Rshad.

The turn comes the , which prompts John to bet out 1500 or so. (I'm still struggling to get my head round the chip denominations. Being colour blind sucks when it comes to poker someitmes!)

"Of course now you bet" says Jamie, continuing his banter. "How many chips have I got left...not many..."

Eventually Jamie raises 5k more and starts firing out little comments to his contemplative opponent. "Don't riase me please, i won't know what to do!" ......"Is Ace-King of clubs good??"

Finally John passes and Jamie flips over the , leaving his other card, which was highly likely to be a jack I'd have thought, unrevealed...well he can't always be bluffing.....can he?

[NoflopsHomer]

More Jamie Gold news, but it also involves the exit of Ash Hussain. I missed the the preflop action but arrived to see a three-way flop of:



Ash bets 1,400, Jamie Gold asks how much more Ash has, it's roughly 10k. He also asks the third player in the pot, Rob Akery, how much he has too, Akery has around 15k behind and has Gold covered. Gold decides to just flat-call the 1,400. Akery then raises to 7,400 and after a dwell, Ash calls with only about 4,000 behind. Gold goes into a dwell, sighing, he tells Akery, "I was going to bet you $1000 that I could name your cards but I can't do it, now there's a third player in the pot...I'm sorry guys, I need a little time here." After a good think for a couple of minutes he mucks his cards, and we go to the turn.



Ash bets 4,000 with a few hundred back that I think he forgets to throw in. Akery calls.



The rest of the chips go in, Ash shows his but he's been rivered by Akery's and is OUT. Jamie Gold says he had a set of fives, "I thought one of you had and the other had a set of Tens, either way with that action, top set was definitely out there..."

[JungleCat03]

Bobby Rach and William Haughney have jsut been involved on table 3.

In a raised pot, William in early position checked to Bobby on a flop of , who responded by firing in a bet of 750.

William called.

The turn brought the . A further check by William resulted in Bobby betting 1500. CALL.

The river came the . Check by William and Bobby stopped firing and also checked.

William showed A-Q for top pair, which was evidently good as Bobby mucked...

As I noted this hand down, I heard strange sounds coming from Jamie Gold's table..."One more deuce, one more deuce....a deuce is my only out!" before he was seen passing to a 1k bet from Ben Blackmore on a J-2-3-T board...

[NoflopsHomer]

Funny little pot between Chris Royle and Ben Blackmore

Flop:



Royle checks, Blackmore bets 1,500, Royle makes it 5,000 and Blackmore calls.

Turn:



Check check. Curiouser and curiouser.

River:



Royle bets 5,000 and Blackmore quickly calls. Both are incredibly reluctant to show their cards, there's almost a comedic 10 seconds before Royle relents and shows . Blackmore then shows his . Chop it up!

[JungleCat03]

Mark Stewart was just seen raising to 300 from the hijack, which was called on the button by Ian Woodley. Barny Boatman and Pat Donegan passed from the blinds.

The flop came .

Mark checked and Ian checked.

The turn came the .
Check from Mark, 350 bet by Ian which Mark called.

The river came the .
Mark now thought a while before bettng out a bet that seemed to be 1,100.

"set of tens or set of jacks?" inquired Woodley, in his quiet, shy manner. "Which one of those 'ave you got?"

Mark laughed before saying "tens?" with a shrug.

Ian passed and Mark turned over leaving Woodley a tad miffed!

[NoflopsHomer]

We're now on a 15 minute break. 38 players left, I'm going to try and get a few chip counts.

Incidentally, the multi-coloured stacks break down as follows.

Red - 25
Purple - 100
Green - 500
Yellow - 1,000
Pink - 5,000

[NoflopsHomer]

News of Dave Maudlin please

I'm afraid he's OUT. Rob Sherwood said he raised and got 4(!) callers. The board came and one of the players, Mika Ollila, was holding and hit the turn which is when all the chips went in. Ollila looks to be the chip leader at this point with around 41k.

A few other chip counts:

Joe Beevers -- 20k
Jamie Gold (who seems a really pleasant chap and not the swearing machine that I observed at the World Series) -- 13k
Rob Akery -- 25k
Roland De Wolfe -- 12.5k
Richard Ashbu -- 16k