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

[JungleCat03]

Roalnd De Wolfe's stack is moving in the wrong direction.

I join his table as he faces a 3k bet from mateyboy on the river of a board of As .

He ummed and ahhed, prevaricating and procrastinating before asking his opponent "will you show if I fold?" which seemed to be greeted with an affirmative nod...

Roland ultimately passed and his neighbour showed Roland an Ace for trips. "I passed an Ace" claimed Roland" but it was only Ace Two" and seemed happy with his fold.

Next hand Bambos limped and Roland announced "you're in every pot!" before raising to 700.

The flop came . Bambos checked and Roland also checked.

The turn was the . Bambos checked and Roland bet 1700, which Bambos said "it's a bit expensive...." before calling.

The river was the , checked by Bambos and Roland gives up and checks behind him.

"Your ace is good!" he tells Bambos. Bambos sneakily turns over a 6, to which Roland sighs and turns up KT. Bambos now reveals the other 6 in his hand for his flopped set!

"You're supposed to bet with a hand sometime you know" offers Roland as advice, but Bambos is possibly too busy giggling and raking in the pot to take this onboard...

[NoflopsHomer]

As a booming mic voice announces that Bristol Gala has now become the first casino in the UK to be open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, Barny Boatman is contemplating a call on the river of a board. He'd limped in the small blind and Pat Donegan had checked his option but bet 800 into the 600 pot on the flop. Both players checked the turn, before Pat fired 2,000 on the river. Eventually Barny did call, and Pat insta-mucked, Barny's obviously good.

Rob robs Rob news now. Rob, of the Sherwood variety, called a 1,400 bet on the turn of a board from Rob Akery before both checked the slightly scary river. Sherwood, who I'm guessing had a Seven, flung his cards in the muck at the sight of a rivered pair when Akery showed .

[NoflopsHomer]

John Tabatabai is OUT. Ace King against Jacks, with a third knave on the flop for good measure. At least this means I don't have to try and spell his name again..

Bambos, having raised OOP in the small blind against a number of limpers bets 3,000 on a board. Two of the limpers have called before the flop, the first folds but Pete Singleton calls, quickly enough.

The turn is the and Bambos bets 3,000 again. Now, from despite wearing glasses, you can see that Singleton doesn't like this bet at all, Bambos has gone from betting around 3/4 of the pot on the flop to betting less than a third on the turn, sensing he's beat he folds and Bambos, says, "Ok, I'll show this once." He turns over for the set and rakes in the 10k pot.

[JungleCat03]

Play seems somewhat cautious at the moment. Nobody seems massively keen to get too many chips in preflop....there is a lot of limping occurring, and less late position raising than you would expect.

One such pot involves Jitesh Thakker, who limps in from middle position on Barny Boatman's big blind. Ian Woodley completes from the small blind.

The flop comes and you would find more action from a dead hamster in a freezer as it goes check check check.

The turn leads to a little more action, Barny betting 500 which is called by Jitesh and also by Ian Woodley.

The river is the and again the iced-hamster comparison looms over the action as all three players check it down.

"Well I've got a full house" announces Barny..."anyone beat that?"

"I've got a house too" says Jitesh.

"You win" says Barny as Jitesh turns over his slow-played Q-Q. Ian shows the and Barny doesn't show his house, which was probably, although not certainly, a deuce.

The next hand, Ian Woodley abuses the button after it is passed round to him with a vicious limp.

Barny completes and Pat Donagan checks.

Flop .

Check check, Ian bets 625 and Barny passes. As soon as Pat also passes and Ian prepares to sweep up the pot, Barny reaches back into the muck to retrieve his cards flipping up Q3.

"I nearly went for it!" he tells the table (referring to the earlier prop bet he had to bluff with Q3.) The absence of the now eliminated John Tabatabai no doubt contributed to his reluctance to run a move in this spot though. Come back John with your funky stacks, all is forgiven!

[JungleCat03]

Blinds have now risen to 200 400.

I join a table to witness a hand between Bobby Rach and Peter Cockayne.

In a preflop raised pot and on a board, Bobby has evidently checked the flop to which Peter has responded by moving ALLIN for 9k. Although this seems a big overshove with the pot in the region of 2.5-3k, it seems bobby only has 6k or so in his stack.

After thinking for a while and eyeing up his opponent, Bobby eventually reluctantly folds his cards and Peter adds to his stack.

Meanwhile Barny is seem contemplating a button raise by the ponytailed and so far fairly quiet Fiachra Meere to 2k or so on the button.

I see Barny's cards and am suprised when he folds A-Q. Apparently Ian had been dwelling in the small blind and Barny felt he had an ace "that made the fold easier."

ALthough Fiachra doesn't show his cards after the hand, he indicates to Barny that it was a good fold and he seems genuine, but with poker players, well you never know do you!

Richard Ashby has been eliminated apparently. His exit hand is unknown to me at the moment but I will sniff about like a bloodhoundcat and see what I can find out about this.

[NoflopsHomer]

Fiachra Meer is now out, his Sixes no good against Pat Donegan's Jacks. Also gone from the same table is Edinburgh Champion Eddie Gaines, whose push for 4,400 with was looked up by Mark Stewart's pocket Fives.

28 players remain, apparently we're playing 10 levels tonight, which more than likely means we'll be short-handed very soon. At the moment it's 7-handed, but we'll go to 3 tables of 9 as soon as one more player is out.

[JungleCat03]

Fiachra Meeres is OUT.

I gleaned this information not from the poker tables but by overhearing him talking on his mobile away from the tables.
All I managed to discover was that he got his chips in preflop with pocket and found himself dominated by his opponent and removed from the tournament. I wanted to have a chat with him about the tournament and his exit but his phone call went on an extended time.

I am committed to getting as much info as possible for you faithful blondites but I thought interrupting the man on a call when he's just been knocked out would be pushing it a little too far.

I did overhear him say "The dream is over...." and for him it is, although 28 gladiators remain doing battle across the bloodied arena of the felt (actually the tables are quite clean) and for them the dream lives on....for now.

EDIT: apologies for repeating Homer's information. The man is like a wild animal, stalking fallen poker players like a lion before pouncing with lightning speed, leaving the bones of their carcass for me to sweep up. He has to be admired for this.

Play continues with 14 minutes of 200-400 left before the 200-400 with 25 ante level begins....

[NoflopsHomer]

And just as I was having a moan about a lack of action, we've lost two more players.

First William Haughney takes out Paul Hardwidge, calling his all-in on the turn of a board with which held against his opponent's after a blank river. Then after a checked flop of , Joe Beevers bets 3,200 out from the small blind in a 3-way pot. John Bousfield calls for his last 2,125 with but missed his straight draw and overs.

11 more minutes of 200/400 and then we'll be on 200/400 with a 25 ante.

YES! The will be kicking in!

[NoflopsHomer]

Ben Blackmore, cut out of the picture to the left is OUT. Jacks against Alex Torrance's Kings.

15 minute break. Blinds 200/400/25 when we come back.

[JungleCat03]

Whilst floppy soaks up the action occurring like a sponge, all the action seems to die whenever I join a table. I'd like to think that the players all tighten up their game in front of me, keen not to make an error and appear foolish, although this is highly unlikely to be the reason...

Whatever, in 10 minutes of walking round the tables, the best hand I could find to comment on involved Pete Singleton limping under the gun. Joe Beevers, DaMatrix, and Roland De Wolfe also limped before the small blind completed and big blind checked.

"What have i started!" asks Pete exasperatedly at the limpathon occurring behind him.

The flop of As is checked around to Roland, who picks up 2 yellow chips and 2 100 chips and spins the 2,200 bet out fluidly. Everyone folds to his wolfish aggression and he shows the table for a flopped pair and flush draw...

Just as a side-note, whilst Barny has been grinding away hard all day, struggling to get a stack going after various set backs, his fellow mobster Joe has been increasing his stack in imperious fashion and now has a tower of 35k+ in front of him. He is no doubt not massively happy to have been moved to Roland's table though, especially as Roland has position on him.

[JungleCat03]

Floppy's animal hunger for action is currently being muffled by his internet connection which has just gone down.

Whilst he vents his wrath on vodaphone operatives, I'll tell you about a big hand that just took place between Rob Akery and a player whose face is unknown to me and unfortunately is not on the player list I have in front of me. For originality's sake let's call him mayteaboy.

I joined the action on the turn of a hand just as Rob in position bet 4k in chips on a Ah board which mayteaboy called. The river came the . Mayteaboy checked and Rob now bet a whopping 10k, which mayteaboy called.

Rob showed for the turned flush, whilst mayteaboy mucked, with his stack severely and most probably critically damaged by that hand...

[JungleCat03]

A big hand just transpired between William Haughey and Peter Cockayne.

Peter raised the 400 BB to 1300 UTG and William called.

The flop came down As .

Peter checked and William bet out 2k. Peter check raised this bet to 4k, leaving 4k or so back and William went allin for 6k more or so. Peter called instantly.

Cards on their back and Peter showed for top 2, whilst William showed for just top pair.

The turn and river blanked out and William stood up got his coat, wished everyone luck before it was pointed out to him that he actually had Peter covered by 2k or so, and sat back down again.

Peter apologised to William for outflopping him but surely was inwardly shouting "get it!"

[JungleCat03]

Yes, having sent Vodafone a long and ranting email about there useless system seems to bring up content control whenever I need to use my vodafone card, (this has failed off the back of Gala's wireless not working at all). I'm now on Rod's laptop where we'll take it in turns

We've lost William Haugney, he held King Ten on a T-x-x board but Rob Akery had Ace Ten.

Some rough chips counts from a short while ago:

Joe Beevers -- 52,000
DaMatrix -- 17,325
Roland De Wolfe -- 28,000
Pete Singleton -- 16,000
Mark Stewart -- 50,000
Ian Woodley -- 31,000
Barny Boatman -- 30,500
Bambos -- 45,0000

[JungleCat03]

Outstanding picture Dana.

I don't know if you do requests but if so, can we have a picture of spoons being played on Jen's head if possible. I know it's one of her lifelong ambitions...

Moving on with the poker, how about some hands!

First off we had an amusing hand where Roland de Wolfe passed facing a bet from Andrew Mitson on a board.

He realised his opponent hadn't noticed he passed though and asked him "How much have you got back?" to which Andrew replied "about 10k."

"I'm allin then" said Roland cheekily, to which his opponent somewhat strangely said "I guess i call then" before flipping over for the nut straight flush!

The table pointed out to Andrew Roland had passed some time ago to which he said "Thought i'd done him like a kipper there!" but Roland wasn't the one who ended up associated with a kipper.

J
******************************

Next I see Bambos involved in a pot with Jitesh Thakker.

Bambos bet out 2k on a board and Jitesh raised this to 8.8k total, allin. Bambos thought a while before deciding the pot was too large for him to fold his Q-T open ended straight draw.

Jitesh showed the ahead but slightly vulnerable Q-Q which he had slowplayed. A blank turn and river ensued to give the 20k-ish pot to Jitesh.

"Well played" commented Barny Boatman admiringly.

*****************************

[JungleCat03]

Incidentally, we now have 22 players left and one small, ever diminishing stack from one of the players who didn't turn up.

The blinds have just risen to 300-600-50. I imagine that thievery, large pots and all round general carnage will now become more and more prevalent.

LET BATTLE COMMENCE!



No sooner do I say this than I see the sight of Pat Donegan vacating the area. Having missed his exit (although floppy may have witnessed it) I ask a fellow press member "did you see how he went out?"

"He lost his chips"

"Thanks"

It's wonderful how the press help each other in hard times!

This will be the last level incidentally. Let me pass you over to Floppy who will fill you in with some photos and stories....