I had this e-Mail from the organisers today, some of you may find it interesting, so I share it. Note, by the way, how some players are "TV Tourney" specialists & play in all these affairs. Also, as an odd aside, note how many blondes are in this, & furthermore, wht a good job Lord snoops has done with blondepedia - see how many have blondepedia entries. Well done snoops.
".....FIRST EUROPEAN OPEN SEMI-FINAL LINE-UP COMPLETE
February 5, 2008: Ian Frazer won a dramatic Turbo Heat in London last night (February 4) to claim the last spot in the first semi-final of the PartyPoker.com European Open IV.
The Razor joins heat winners Craig Burgess, GUKPT Grand Final winner Mike Ellis, UK Open Champ Andrew Feldman, Jeff Buffenbarger and Nick Slade in the first semi-final on Thursday night, after beating Ghassan El-Hoss heads-up in the Turbo, which lasted less than an hour.
The Turbo Heat is a new addition to the tournament, fought out by the six runners-up from the first set of heats. The players have 20 seconds to make their move or their hand is dead and the blinds go up every seven hands.
It was sure to be a fiery affair with some big names sitting round the table. David Johnson was first to leave and Dave Hancher soon followed after surrendering his stack to be left with just 1,000 in chips with the blinds up to 10/20 as quick as a flash.
The 15/30 level proved too much for Hendon Mobster Barny Boatman who didn’t stand a chance all-in with 10 4 against Frazer’s K J, and the 2005 European and UK Open champion soon came out on top in an on-running battle with Anthony Nicholls. The Nottingham-man had left Frazer with just a touch over 50,000 earlier in the piece, but Frazer battled back to take Nicholls out.
Frazer was a massive chip leader going into the heads-up with El-Hoss, and it didn’t take long for him to clean-up. His K 8 was always going to be too strong for the plucky El-Hoss and the full-house with the 8 10 K Q 8 board is a warning to the rest that Ian’s got both his game and the cards on his side.
The heats for the second semi get underway today with another strong line up with Ian Woodley and Luke Patten in the mix. WSOP Europe winner Annette Obrestad and runner-up John Tabatabai take on Andy Black and World Open winner Anthony Hardy later today with Premier League Poker winner Juha Helppi, Roy “The Boy” Brindley, Roland De Wolfe, and, of course, 11-time WSOP bracelet winner Phil Hellmuth still to play their heats.
RESULTS SO FAR
Celebrity qualifying heat:
1) Michael Le Vell (Coronation Street actor) – through to Heat 1, 2) Spoony (
), 3) Jack Marsden (Heatbeat actor), 4) Austin Healey (Rugby Union), 5) Wayne Mardle (Darts), 6) Brandon Block (
)
Heat 1
1) Craig Burgess – through to semi-final, 2) Dave Hancher – through to Turbo Heat, 3) Dave Gregory, 4) Achilleas Kallackis, 5) Simon Craig, 6) Michael Le Vell
Heat 2
1) Mike Ellis, 2) Ian Frazer, 3) John Exley, 4) Rob Cooper, 5) Graham Smith, 6) Nathan Lee
Heat 3
1) Andrew Feldman, 2) Ghassan El-Hoss, 3) Leon Loukaides, 4) David Smith, 5) Scott Fenton, 6) Andy Greeksfish
Heat 4
1) Jeff Buffenbarger, 2) Barny Boatman, 3) Dave Garbacz, 4) Albert Sapiano, 5)Piers Shepperson, 6) Ryan Fronda
Heat 5
1) Nick Slade, 2) David Johnson, 3) Jonny Hewston 4) Andy Arnott, 5) Theo Dalton, 6) Christoph Haller
Heat 6
1) Dave Broadhurst, 2) Anthony Nicholl, 3) Jan Peter Jachtmann, 4) Simon Zach, 5) Darren Hickman, 6) Dale Hoy.
Heat 7
1) Phil Curtis, 2) Dixie Dean – through to Turbo Heat 2, 3) Ben Grundy, 4) Surinder Sunar, 5) Michael McCool, 6) Neil Channing
Turbo Heat 1
1) Ian Frazer, 2) Ghassan El-Hoss, 3) Anthony Nicholls, 4) Barny Boatman, 5) Dave Hancher, 6) David Johnson
To be played:
Heat 8 – Tuesday, February 5
Luke Patten, Ian Woodley, Steve Holden, Gary Paterson, Tim Flanders, Ashley Hayles.
Heat 9 – Tuesday, February 5
Dave Matte, Annette Obrestad, Andy Black, Anthony Hardy, John Tabatabai, Roberto Romanello
Heat 10 – Wednesday, February 6
Liam Flood, Barry Carter, Bronwyn Campbell, Marty Smyth, Lascelle Barrow, Mohammed Shafiq
Heat 11 – Wednesday, February 6
Ian Cox, Richard Ashby, Marc Goodwin, Roland De Wolfe, Damon Ioannou, Derek Rosenberg
Heat 12 – Thursday, February 7
Phil Hellmuth, John Magill, Juha Helppi, Paul Jackson, Roy Brindley, Darren Brown
Turbo Heat 2 – Thursday, February 7
Semi-final 1 – Thursday, February 7
Craig Burgess, Mike Ellis, Andrew Feldman, Jeff Buffenbarger, Nick Slade, Ian Frazer
Semi-final 2 – Friday, February 8
Final – Friday, February 8...."
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