Bluesq.com GUKPT Brighton Day 1a: At-A-Glance

[danafish]

Good morning, friends! It is yet early, and I am over at Casa Junglecat eating bacon sandwiches, but come apparently 2pm we will be down at the Grosvenor Casino By The Sea to update you on all the action on the first GUKPT of 2008.

In the meantime you might be interested to know that the media comp last night ended up an all-blonde affair, with me and Junglecat playing heads-up in an only slightly boozy manner for the first prize of a free GUKPT main event ticket. In a most gentlemanly of conclusions, we decided to split the prize somehow. But I won. Is the important thing. Yay me and Junglecat!

People spotted in the casino last night, and therefore most likely playing today, include Red-Dog, tikay (God help us if he's playing today though), Mickey Wernick, William Hill's own Julian Thew, Paul Parker, and Jen Mason (wandered in around 1am to drink whisky). Should be a good one...

[danafish]

We are here! And everyone in the pressroom is having trouble connecting to the internet except for me! Ahh ha ha ha ha! I love my Mac.

Spotted milling so far are Ian Woodley, Willie Tann, Ian Cox, and a bunch of other people. We have a bag of jelly babies, and we're ready to roll...

[JungleCat03]

Well, blonde have sent me to all the far flung corners of the land, from Plymouth to Walsall and my exotic journey now comes full circle as I return to my town of residence, the "sunny" and idyllic locale of Brighton as the TD just referred to it.

Actually, he was being slightly economical with the truth as it is in fact a grey,  wet, windy and somewhat drab day weather-wise, but that is unimportant as an abundance of excited, happy, optimistic and talented poker players have assembled to do battle on Day 1 and will be filling the grosvenor casino with enough poker sunshine to tan a marshmallow.

As a quick aside, I realise Dana has already done an official chirp regarding the press tournament last night but I would like to add my congratulations to Dana who played very well to bring home the seat. Well done you banjo-playing badass! (Jen took some interesting and most probably humiliating shots of us in celebratory poses which we will post up during any lull for your general amusement and because we are shameless punks)

The players have just about started and Dana has plunged into the midst of things to get the early news. The tournament clock will be posted up shortly but a quick reminder that the event starts with 10k chips and 25 50 for the first level. Level increases will be hourly.

There is lots of interest for blondites in the form of Ian Cox, Julian Thew, Red-Dog and many others who we will be following closely. There is a nice blend of strong experienced players as well as the usual smattering of "less gifted"* participators.

In addition of course there is the fearsome and well supported Jen Mason, who seems to run deep in every live tournament she plays these days and will no doubt make anyone sharing the felt with her ever so slightly uncomfortable. My confidence in Jen is such that it was only slightly shaken by her comment as we travelled to the casino that "mmmmm, my hair smells of bacon."

I have wittered on for far too long so I will join Dana to catch as much of the opening drama as possible.

Good luck everyone. May the force be with you!

*(Pretentious euphemism for donk)

[JungleCat03]

I am currently typing up a full and frank listing of the table seating configuration for your perusal and general enjoyment. This will follow shortly...


Meanwhile I have news of the aforementioned Ms Mason and her crazy antics.

She was seen raising a bet from her table partner and neighbour Chris Cousins from 600 to 1200 on the turn of a Q-T-8-T board.

He flat called and on the river, he checked, and Jen also checked behind. Chris tabled T-8 for a spiffing full house whilst Jen mucked, looking slightly crestfallen and drawing on her reserves of pork-scented hair for comfort.

"I should have bet the river!" said Chris somewhat chirpily, as he stacked up his new chips.

"You played it well betting out with the house" offered Jen generously.

[danafish]

Well, we've been having some interesting times with the internet connection (my Mac is apparently not Blessed By God, as I previously assumed), but that's ok as it has been a fairly typical early-stages sort of thing so far. The board was claiming 10 minutes in that there had been nine exits already, but I think that was a lie, unless they all went in the first minute and shamefully slunk off, so let's assume for the moment that the board was fraudulent.

Things that have been happening are that Red Dog is being bullied. First hand he called a raise with J-9 and bet out 500 on the Jack-high flop, but then laid it down to a 1200 raise. Down 1000 chips on the first hand; ouch. "I'm building my image," says he.

Meanwhile Jen has also lost a fairly sizeable pot (Rod has details) which doesn't bode well for my 1%. Come on my 1%!

Obviously many other hands have been played but I've yet to see a big one happen among the largely-random-but-dotted-with-familiar-faces field. We have a player list in paper format, so we'll be laboriously typing that up any day now.

[JungleCat03]

Here is the full player list and seat numbers. Some interesting tables out there I'm sure you'll agree! (the two players whose names have been struck though, Tony Ringe (pronounced to rhyme with singe and...er other things and J Macnair are not playing today but tomorrow)



Carl Limbert      101
Robert Boon      102
Richard Haile      103
Terry Simpson      104
Robert Rees      105
Terry Plumber      106
Julian Thew      107
John Earnes      108
Willie Tann      109
James Harrison      110
      
Phil Gregg      201
 Dominic Kay      202
Richard Grace      203
Gregory Howard      204
M Hill      205
Kevin Williams      206
Ryan Fronda      207
Mark Russell      208
Nik Persaud      209
Peter Singelton      210
      
Darren Fuller      301
Brendan Hartnett      302
Chris Mason      303
Graham Burt      304
James Atkin      305
David Lloyd      306
Anthony Adderley      307
Alin J Rapoport      308
K Taylor      309
Andy Achillea      310
      
High Kirton      401
Cunningham-Brown      402
Michael Bale      403
Victoria Coren      404
Mazhar Nawab      405
Peter Wood      406
Tony RInge      407
Kevin Poast      408
Javed Abrahams      409
Dave Clarke      410
      
Stephen Eames      501
David "Porno" Monckton      502
Jerome Bradpiece      503
Sunny Chattha      504
Ian Cox      505
Anna Goldsmith      506
Stephen Basri      507
Paul "The Lemon" Murrell      508
Andy Miles      509
Ian Holman      510
      
Paul Bracken      601
Anthony Cascarino      602
S Cllutterbuck      603
Dan Furnival      604
Calvin Stacey      605
Charles Sanderson      606
Sidney Harris      607
Thomas Mcready      608
James Reid      609
Timothy Hiskett      610
      
Deborah "DebbieFish" Rogers      701
Michael Denton      702
Ashley Hayes      703
Duncan Meyer      704
Paul Garrad      705
D Nutt      706
William Martin      707
C Ellis      708
Chris Cousins      709
Jen Mason      710
      
Jack Power      801
P Gardener      802
John Fletcher      803
Stephen Spencer      804
J MacNair      805
Ian "BUPA" Woodley      806
Mark Wycherly      807
Mark Bointon      808
Scott Chaudhry      809
James Sudworth      810
      
Dave Herman      901
David gregory      902
Jeff Buffenbarger      903
Yilfer Shevket      904
Mick Chivers      905
Mickey "Leg-end" Wernick      906
Dave Felton      907
Tom "Macker" Macleod      908
Balbir Pottiwal      909
David J Lloyd      910
      
C Xanthos      1001
Richard "Captin" Collier      1002
Andrew Teng      1003
Craig McCorkell      1004
Michael Clarke      1005
Josef Grech      1006
Neil "Bad Beat" Channing      1007
Peter Abela      1008
Simon Taylor      1009
Stephen Zudithipunpare      1110
      
Adam Stoneham      1101
Dan Carter      1102
Anthony Hardy      1103
Neil Fox      1104
Ray Wyre      1105
Michael Mccool      1106
Praz Bansi      1107
Alex Martin      1108
Wayne Rideout      1109
laurence Houghton      1110
      
Lee Redmond      1201
James Browning      1202
C Buntyn      1203
D Kis      1204
Nathan Lee      1205
Sal "Never Give" Ghozali      1206
Terrence Owens      1207
Daniellle "PocketLady" Allen      1208
Bob Ballou      1209
A Phillips      1210
      
Marcu Bebb-jones      1301
James TYler      1302
James Moult      1303
Sasha Rosewood      1304
D Ozkarapinar      1305
Mike Moore      1306
Conan Bailey      1307
Spencer Lawrence      1308
Glenn "The Mutz" Martin      1309
Leon Campbell      1310
      
Niall Charlton      1401
Simon Randall      1402
Adam Wilkinson      1403
Owen Lock      1404
Steven Khoo      1405
Ross Campbell      1406
David Moule      1407
Mehrdad Saffari      1408
Alan "Ice Cream" Vinson      1409

[JungleCat03]

Some strong tables out there, but this one in particular looks like a cracker. Alex Martin will likely be playing in a firestorm with this list of players out there....

They include World Heads Up runner up, the baby faced Dan Carter, Adam Stoneham, who has posted lots of consistent results, the fiery Irishman and blondite Mick McCool, the braceleted Hit Squadder Praz Bansi, Laurence Houghton and of course...the one and  only long standing cheesy capital radio "DR" Neil Fox.

Actually I am not 100% sure that Neil Fox is the infamous capital radio , or just someone sharing his name but I am off to investigate right now...


Adam Stoneham      1101
Dan Carter      1102
Anthony Hardy      1103
Neil Fox      1104
Ray Wyre      1105
Michael Mccool      1106
Praz Bansi      1107
Alex Martin      1108
Wayne Rideout      1109
laurence Houghton      1110

[danafish]

I checked on Conan Bailey and he's doing ok on about 9k - not much change so far.

While I was lurking at his table, I accidentally chanced upon, I mean, I employed my massive updating skill and sought out a rare early exit - a preflop raising war between Noah-Boeken-style-horror-hoodie-wearing Joshua Tyler (down on the list as James for some reason) and tablemate Lawrence Spencer. On their backs, Joshuames had  and Lawrence was holding .

Board - ("here we go..." says Lawrence)

"I warned him at the very beginning of the tournament not to get involved with me," says Joshuames, which seems a little unfair, but he is now table chip leader.

Lawrence took it well and is now drinking beer. Good man.

[JungleCat03]

I had a quick chat with Julian, who is always very amiable and he was quick to congratulate me on   the result from the press tournament. "Thanks very much" said I before inquiring as to his progress...

"It's a slow start for me, managed to donk off a quarter of my stack, well maybe not donk off...[he quickly corrected himself].... I'm plodding away though, plodding's under-rated!" (I sense he may have been hanging around with Paul Jackson a bit too much recently perhaps...)


Jen is not looking too happy and in need of a pep talk during the upcoming break which she shall duly receive. She is sitting on about 6 and a half thousand. "It's slow progress but not in the right direction..." she mused slightly morosely. I may have to lecture her later on misuse onf the word progress but for now I will concentrate my energies during the break on raising her spirits.

The blind structure still gives her plenty of room to manoeuvre (I can never spell that word) out of her current sticky predicament...


Tom Mcready told me that Jim Reid had just provided a choice quote for him. "He says I'm playing too loose, playing too many hands!"

"Yes" agreed Jim, seemingly shocked at the brazenly aggressive style of Red Dog today...

"He's played 5 hands in the first 2 levels!"


That's it for 10 minutes folks. We're on a break. Back very soon....

[JungleCat03]

Had a quick chat with Hitsquadder Sunny Chattha during the break.

"How's it going Sunny?"

"Yeah, not bad, up to 11,000...slow and steady progress, that's how I'm playing it"


Meanwhile I have been informed of a significant elimination.

Winner of last year's Walsall GUKPT, Jerome Bradpiece has met his match. He called a raise with Q-Q, slowplaying his big pair for value and once the flop came 6 high the chips flew in.

Unfortunately, he found his (currently unknown) assailant holding the dominating K-K and was unable to spike a required lady, meaning he joins the crowded rail with the rest of us...

[danafish]

Tales from the break and beyond:

Neil Channing is OUT - apparently he somehow got himself all in massively behind, on a one-outer, I believe. Oops.

Ericstoner was down to 6.9k but is now back up to 11k. He saw a Nine-high flop with Jacks and bet out, but come the river there ere four hearts on the board and he checked to his opponent's check. His opponent was holding a Nine with no hearts, and Brendan seemed to be torturing himself a bit about checking the river, but fair enough, say I.

Red Dog is up to 20k. After, in his words, "pissing about in a load of pots" and showing terrible hands at the end, he called a 400 preflop raise with pocket Tens. The flop came A-T-T and he got himself in a raising war with the original raiser. Eventually on their backs, the other guy was holding A-K and Red Dog's full house held up, taking him up to about 14k. He has since been abusing his new chipped-up position to bully everyone else, and is up to 20k.

Greg Howard is on around 7k, for those enquiring. Alex Martin is down to around 5.5k - I'm afraid I don't know what happened.

By the way Mr Moorman, we have a Stephen Eames on the list - is he the same as your John Eames? We do have a few mistakes on the list. No other Eames apparent...

[danafish]

Mike Ellis is OUT, with A-J I am told.

[danafish]

We're down to 116 runners. Among those now OUT are Ashley Hayles who moved in over the top of Jen Mason's A-J with A-7. The beginnings of a comeback for my 1%! Go my 1%! Also Terry Plumber is gone, holding against William Hill starlet Julian Thew's Pocket Rockets. There was a Ten on the board, and two spades somewhere along the line, but actually I have no idea at what point the chips went in nor how many spades were out then. Also lurking around the cash desk, presumed OUT, is Willie Tann.

[danafish]

Also OUT is Scott Chaudhry, who moved all in on an flop. Ross Campbell dwells up, doing a funny clicky thing with his jaw, and he seems to be in real pain. Eventually he calls.

Scott Chaudhry -

Ross Campbell -

Turn -

River - oooohhhhh -

"'Orrible," says Chaudhry and leaves.

[danafish]

Chip counts, end of level 2, courtesy of that fine figure of a man, Mr Jon Raab:

Table   Seat   ID   Player   End of Level 2   
1   2   102    Robert Boon   13875   
1   3   103    Richard Haile   1750   
1   4   104    Terry Simpson   8600   
1   5   105    Robert Rees   14975   
1   6   106    Terry Plumber   14550   
1   7   107    Julian Thew   7700   
1   8   108    John Eames   21200   
1   9   109    Willie Tann   2600   
1   10   110    James Harrison   7950   
2   2   202    Dominic Kay   6625   
2   3   203    Richard Grace   11200   
2   4   204    Gregory Howard   6850   
2   5   205    M Hill   19500   
2   6   206    Kevin Williams   11550   
2   7   207    Ryan Fronda   8625   
2   8   208    Mark Russell   10300   
2   9   209    Nik Persaud   12100   
2   10   210    Peter Singleton   13250   
3   1   301    Darren Fuller   10100   
3   2   302    Brendan Hartnett   9725   
3   3   303    Chris Mason   9500   
3   4   304    Graham Burt   4625   
3   5   305    James Atkin   18125   
3   6   306    David Lloyd   12575   
3   7   307    Anthony Adderley   7700   
3   9   309    K Taylor   10475   
3   10   310    Andy Achillea   8075   
4   1   401    Hugh Kirton   11200   
4   2   402    Andrew Cunningham-brown   10025   
4   3   403    Michael Bale   4725   
4   4   404    Victoria Coren   5825   
4   5   405    Mazhar Nawab   2250   
4   6   502    David Monckton   10450   
4   8   408    Kevin Poast   18450   
4   9   409    Javed Abrahams   10750   
4   10   410    Dave Clark   26375   
5   1   501    Stephen Eames   4525   
5   4   504    Sunny Chattha   11050   
5   5   505    Ian Cox   10450   
5   6   506    Anna Goldsmith   10575   
5   7   507    Stephen Basri   11725   
5   8   508    Paul Murrell   17900   
5   9   509    Andy Miles   16275   
5   10   510    Ian Holman   7650   
6   1   601    Paul Bracken   10275   
6   2   602    Anthony Cascarino   15200   
6   3   603    S Clutterbuck   7925   
6   4   101    Carl Limbert   6650   
6   5   605    Calvin Stacey   9600   
6   6   606    Charles Sanderson   9325   
6   8   608    Thomas Mccready   22750   
6   9   609    James Reid   15725   
6   10   610    Timothy Hiskett   9350   
7   1   701    Deborah Rogers   9100   
7   2   702    Michael Denton   3850   
7   3   703    Ashley Hayles   6200   
7   4   704    Duncan Meyer   6775   
7   5   705    Paul Garrad   19775   
7   6   706    D Nutt   13350   
7   7   707    William Martin   22250   
7   8   708    Michael Ellis   500   
7   9   709    Chris Cousins   14500   
7   10   710    Jen Mason   5700   
8   1   801    Jack Power   10375   
8   2   802    P Gardener   8400   
8   3   803    John Fletcher   17150   
8   4   804    Stephen Spencer   7200   
8   6   806    Ian Woodley   11325   
8   7   807    Mark Wycherly   12300   
8   8   808    Mark Bointon   6050   
8   9   809    Scott Chaudhry   9250   
8   10   810    James Sudworth   8400   
9   2   902    David Gregory   14850   
9   3   903    Jeff Buffenbarger   13150   
9   4   904    Yilfer Shevket   11100   
9   5   905    Mick Chivers   10275   
9   7   906    Micky Wernick   15325   
9   8   908    Tom Macleod   10850   
9   9   909    Balbir Pottiwal   4800   
9   10   910    David J Lloyd   10175   
10   1   1001    C Xanthos   7175   
10   2   1002    Richard Collier   5575   
10   3   1003    Andrew Teng   14700   
10   4   1004    Craig Mccorkell   16875   
10   6   1006    Josef Grech   15100   
10   8   1008    Peter Abela   14075   
10   9   1009    Simon Taylor   5000   
10   10   1010    Steven Zudithipunpare   12250   
11   1   1101    Adam Stoneham   7200   
11   2   1102    Dan Carter   8075   
11   3   1103    Anthony Hardy   6350   
11   4   1104    Neil Fox   8975   
11   5   1105    Ray Wyre   8275   
11   6   1106    Michael Mccool   18975   
11   7   1107    Praz Bansi   10975   
11   8   1108    Alex Martin   5275   
11   9   1109    Wayne Rideout   13900   
12   1   1201    Redmond Lee   5325   
12   3   1203    C Buntyn   10825   
12   4   1204    D Kis   10350   
12   5   1205    Nathan Lee   24850   
12   7   1207    Terrence Owens   16525   
12   8   1208    Danielle Allen   6900   
12   9   1209    Bob Ballou   2500   
12   10   1210    A Phillips   2975   
13   1   1301    Marcus Bebb-jones   10450   
13   2   1302    James Tyler   27500   
13   3   1303    James Moult   13300   
13   4   1304    Sasha Rosewood   8675   
13   5   1305    D Ozkarapinar   5850   
13   6   1306    Mike Moore   5250   
13   7   1307    Conan Bailey   4900   
13   9   1309    Glenn Martin   14575   
13   10   1310    Leon Campbell   9500   
14   1   1401    Niall Charlton   8250   
14   2   1402    Simon Randall   10950   
14   3   1403    Adam Wilkinson   7400   
14   4   1404    Owen Lock   11775   
14   5   1110    Laurence Houghton   8350   
14   6   1406    Ross Campbell   19300   
14   7   1206    Sal Ghozali   5600   
14   8   1408    Mehrdad Saffari   29900   
14   9   1409    Alan Vinson   7750