Luton Christmas Cracker: Day 1 - At A Glance

[snoopy1239]

Play in this year's Luton Christmas Cracker £750 Main Event commences at 6pm.

This is the At A Glance thread. All posts on this thread will be from updaters only. If you would like to interact with the updates, read a more concise report or view our selection of pictures, then please visit our interactive live update by clicking the link below:

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=29469.new#new


Prize Structure:

1st = £12,870
2nd = £7,350
3rd = £5,510
4th = £4,410
5th = £3,310
6th = £2,200
7th = £1,100

[snoopy1239]

Holy Moly, who needs Ali Mallu when you have a set over set encounter to thin out the field. The unfortunate recipient of this confrontation was Mark Harris, who is now most likely hurtling down the M1 at break-neck speed (yes, even through the roadworks!). On the bright side, however, at least those chips went to a blondeite, Mr UpTheMariners Daniel Rudd being the player to start off today's festivities in fine fettle. All-in with Jacks v Sixes on an 8-J-6 Flop, all Daniel had to do was dodge that case 6, of which failed to emerge as the Turn and River brought blanks.

Good start for Daniel, but chagrin for Mark who could probably join Red-Dog at another venue if he so wished.

[danafish]

Our Runners Today:

Paul Alterman
Jeffery Buffenbarger
Alistair Carins
David Courtney
Bill Davies
Dany Dborin
John Earle
Paul Ephremsen
Lee French
Ryan Fronda
Robert Garfield
Andreas Georgiou
Mohammed Ghani
Harpit Gurnam
Mark Harris
Graham Hiew
Stephen Holden
Derek Lawless
Martin Lawton
Nathan Lee
Karim Louis
Ali Mallu
Terry Mason
James McBride
Mick McCool
Jim McShane
Mike Moore
Soner Osman
Craig Owen
Dervis Ozkarapinar
Jim Reid
Tony Ringe
Richard Robinson
Jeffrey Rogers
Daniel Rudd
Mark Segal
D Shearer
Yilfer Shevket
Allan Shields
Darren Smith
Rumit Somaiya
Tracey Troy
Ben Turnstill
Graham Wheldon
David Young
Arco Zuyderduyn

[snoopy1239]

Graham Wheldon is down to just a couple of thousand after his Kings were out-flopped by Jeff Rogers Flopped set of Eights.

[danafish]

BREAKING NEWS!

47 runners.

[danafish]

Mike Moore is on maybe twice his starting stack after a couple of very exciting hands. His proved good against whatever Craig Owen (who in my mind is a curious hybrid of Daniel Craig and Clive Owen and thus the Ultimate James Bond, but is in reality nothing of the sort) mucked on the J-5-A-6-K, three-hearts board, bumping up Moore's stack and leaving Mr Owen down to 4 or 5k. Next hand he found himself involved with the delightfully named Terry Mason and also Mr Karim Louis, and was again triumphant with his - on a board.

[danafish]

Jeff Buffenbarger's A-J is no good against his neighbour's A-K on an x-Q-x-T-x board. "Couldn't you have put that one down?" he whines, stealing his neighbour's King and trying to put it in place of the raggy river. Dealer seems unamused.

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Rookie is currently on 12k. As reported earlier, he was up to 14k early doors. This came about from two hands. Firstly, he managed to hit trips with A-4 versus Q-Q on an A-A-x Flop, before making up the small blind with and being treated to a Flop. By the time they reached the Turn, Rookie was re-raising an 800 bet to 2,100 to take the pot down uncontested. Apparently, his opponent showed Jacks, which had limped pre-flop. "He was thinking of raising pre-flop," commented Rookie, "so I was worried that he might have Sevens or Eights. Thought I'd stick in 2.1k to find out."

[danafish]

Rumit is OUT. Here is the story as related to me from the next table where  he is now munching on some kind of tuna fish salad.

 Finding himself with Aces, as you do, he has delighted when Tracey Troy raised to 300. A bunch of people called around and so he made it 900. As you do. With your Aces. Tracey folds but there are other callers.

The flop comes Q-2-2 and it checks around to Jeff Rogers who bets 1k. Rumit makes it 3k and Jeff promptly goes all in. After some umm-ing and ahh-ing, Rumit calls. Jeff triumphantly turns over 7-2. "Oh well," sighs Rumit, "it makes a change from Kings beating my Aces."

[snoopy1239]

One table has plenty of familiar faces on it, mainly from the Luton area:

Daniel Rudd -- 22,100
D Shearer -- 17,500
Tony Ringe -- 12,300
Stephen Holden -- 9,400
Paul Alterman -- 9,200
Jeff Buffenbarger -- 6,350
Allan Shields -- 9,350
Dave Courtney -- 9,350
Driton Haxhiaj -- 10,850

[snoopy1239]

Jim '77dave' McShane is OUT.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Jim Reid," he replied abruptly.

There was a slight pause where I wasn't sure if that was the end of the informative tale, but after a brief poke he coughed up.

"I limped under-the-gun with A-K, and so did he in 4th spot with K-4. K-3-5 Flop. I bet, he called. Seven on the Turn, I moved all-in, he called and hit the straight with a Six on the River."

"He called an all-in with K-4?" I asked bemused.

"Well, I only had 1,500 at the time," he replied honestly.

"How did you lose the rest of your stack?"

"Tens into Jacks, Jacks into Aces, and Queens into Kings."

Say no more.

[danafish]

Best of luck to the Luton regs, Terry Mason, Jeff, Mr.Garfield (complete with mid-life crisis diamond earing ) . Also bol to UptheMariners, class thinking poker player.

Is that Mr Jeff Buffenbarger you're after? Because if so, then BOK!

He's out. Not sure what happened to do all the damage beforehand, but he shoved for his last 2k or so, only for the limper in seat 8 (sorry, don't know his name, I'll try to get a photo when the beagle gets back with the camera) to re-raise all in. "Oh no, he trapped me!" cried Jeff, and indeed his was no match for the dominating that Seat-Eightyboy was holding, and the board ment that Jeff was still very definitely losing at the end of the hand. No hard feelings though, handshakes all round before he wandered off to join the terrifying Saturday Night Gambling Party currently happening on the main casino floor.

[danafish]

A very large pot indeed, like so:

Mr D Shearer raised to 650 from the cutoff, only for Tony Ringe on the button to make it 2650, only for Stephen Holden on the small blind to re-raise all in for another 4850. I know it was another 4850 because Tony Ringe got as far as asking for a count before he folded. Holden showed Kings.

---------

Ben Turnstill is now on 24,500 after eliminating Tracey Troy with A-K on a Q-J-T Flop. In triumph, Rookie jumped onto the felt screaming "Yeehaa" whilst swinging his trousers around his head in celebration. Okay, I made that up, he took it quietly.

--------

Another player gone is pseudo Welshman Harpit Gurnam.

"I was short at the time," he mused. "I got in with a flush draw against a flopped straight but didn't hit."

[danafish]

Double-up for Ali Mallu:

I believe he open-shoved for 6225 on a flop and was called by Lee French (he of the pink shirt in seat 9). Mallu is holding and French is holding -arrrghhh!!! - a superior King (I think it was A-K). But a rivered Jack for two pair and Mr Mallu stays in.

[snoopy1239]

Crikey O'Reilly, they're dropping like Lemmings on a greased up tightrope here, Dave Lloyd the latest to join Jim Mcshane and Jeff Buffenbarger at the cash tables.

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Allan Shields is on 17,000 after knocking out who he described as "the guy with the Birmingham accent three seats to my right." Now, I'm no Mrs Marple, but considering that Stephen Holden has a broad Brummie accent, is no longer in the tournament, and was sitting on that table, I'd say he's our man.

Anyhow, it was a pretty simple hand, Stephen raising, Allan re-raising, Stephen pushing and Allan calling... all before the Flop. Big Slick versus Cowboys, no change, and that's all she wrote.

[snoopy1239]

Mohammed 'Duracel' Ghani has run out of batteries, his no match for his neighbour's all-in on a board of . A River sealed the deal.

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Mick McCool, who was down to 2,200 at one point, is now flying high with several thousand. The horse's mouth informed me that it was an all-in jobby under-the-gun with . A call from behind with A-Q, but the T-8-6 Flop soon put a stop to that. Not spades though. "That would have been freakish," said Slick Kid.