BLACKPOOL MAIN EVENT - DAY TWO LIVE UPDATE

[tikay]

Play begins at 3pm today for Day Two of the BlueSquare.com Blackpool Bonanza Feature Event, at Grosvenors Sandcastle.

There will be a full blonde Live Update Service from beginning to the end. But we are struggling with the digi-camera today, so we may not be able to bring you photos.

[ariston]

Good luck to alistair (the fox), yoyo, camel,carlo,rob young and lawrence. Quite a few faces to root for in their for everyone. Lawrence stuck in there for a long while with a short stack before being absolutely gifted a double up by an absolute muppett making his worst play of the year (moi of course) and after that there seemed to be no holding him back. 3 form horses left in are definately alistair, Iwan (2 finals each already this week) and Alp (how many events he won lately???) but I am hoping for a big result from yoyo as he has been due a big result for a while now.
ariston

[tikay]

Before we look at todays players, a few words are necessary in respect of Grosvenor Blackpool.

This week's Blackpool Bonanza has been the best run Festival I have attended this year. And that seems to be the view of everyone.

Every comp has started within 3 minutes of it's scheduled time. Play has started after every break smack on time, to the second. The team running the cardroom - Yogi, Blue Wolf & their new Lady (names later) have bent over backwards to be firm, fair & helpful to everyone. And their reward has been "Sold out" signs up every night. The Omaha Rebuy sold out - when did THAT last happen? - & the Feature Event was sold out 24 hours in advance. Even the Valets are the UK's best. Smiling all the time, not waiting to be asked - "anyone wanna drink?" - they are the business, & can only have been especially trained to be so customer friendly.

One or two of the dealers are a bit inexperienced, and as a result there were a couple of "incidents" yesterday. Grosvenor know this, understand why it happened, & they won't let it happen again.

Finally, blondepoker want to thank everyone at Rank Group, Grosvenor Blackpool, & Blue Square.com, for their help & support, without which these Live Updates would not have been possible.

[tikay]

And for the Live Updates, we have quite a team to thank. Claire - Mrs Doc - was the mainstay from the beginning. And she looked a whole lot better in my blondepoker shirt than I do! Colchester Kev was the runner, & what a good job he did. Jonathan Rabb of BlueSquare.com facilitated all our requests, & joined our reporting team. And our blondeite friend Ironside, after busting out of the comp, assisted in every way.

A big thank you to them all.

[tikay]

Right, lets remind ourselves who the remaining runners are, & their chip counts:

Mick McCluskey, 48,500

Carlo Citrone, 57,500

Robert Binelli 82,500

Alistair Findlay, 23,500

Rob Yong 111,500

M Fletcher, 81,000

Trevor Reardon, 46,000

Dave Penly, 1,500.

Table 2

Lawrence Gosney, 122,000

Achilles Kalakkas 39,500

Iwan Jones 37,500

Nik Whiten 46,500

Douglas  Dickson 34,000

Cemal "Jimmy" Alp 42,000

Julian Yoyo Thew, 142,000

Jimmy Marcou 73,500

Table 3

S Pearson, 29,500

John "CT" Law, 166,000

Camel 51,000

J Buffenbarger 20,500

Adrian Swingler, 53,000

T Dunwoody, 24,500

P Moss 35,500

James Browning 22,500

[tikay]

So current Chip Leader is John "C T" Law. John is based in the North East, & plays mainly at Stanleys in Newcastle. CT makes a habit of making Finals in the Master Classics of Poker in Amsterdam, where the fields are always big & tough. He begins in a strange situation, in that all or most of the low stacks are on his table. He'll try & pick 'em off one by one, but he needs to be careful of the guy to his immediate left, Keith The Camel Hawkins, who has 51,000, more than enough to hurt CT.

[Junior Senior]

go on Julian, Rob and Nick.  I see the Notts boys are taking the heads up win confidence into the main event.  Surely a result to come from one of them.

[tikay]

Currently in second placed is William Hill's Julian Yoyo Thew. By his standards, he's had a quiet time lately. He was well chipped up at Gutshot, but met with a series of accidents & failed to Final. In Jesolo last week, he finished 3rd in the closing event, after being chip leader with 4 players left. On that evening, & down to the last 3 players (including Robert Binelli who is here today) Thewy suffered three of the worst bad beats you could ever imagine - in successive hands! Anyways, you know all about Thewy. We travelled up together in my car, & are staying at a nice little B & B across the road from the Casino. We had a long chat in my room last night, & I can tell you, Thewy is determined to do well today, especially as the Poker 425 crew will be filming the Final.

On the same table - which could be significant - is the no-nonsense, bluff gruff Leeds lad Lawrence Gosney, currently in third place. I cant recall seeing Lawrence so strongly focused for ages. Gosney "reads the table" as well as anyone I know, & had a nice draw - about 6k - at Notts last week. He's the original "any two cards can win" geezer. I cant see Lawrence finishing 2nd, 3rd or 4th - I take him to win it, or blow his stack away earlier trying to win it. There's no half measures with Gosney.

[Lou]

I think it has. Whoever, the next challengers are to the notts collective be warned. These guys are on form!   

[tikay]

Once again, Notts are well represented, & the second of the Notts boys still in with a chance is Rob Yong. Rob is a millionaire in "real-life", & does not need to play for the money, but he's some hungry competitor. He chopped the 500 at Luton, & winner Carlo Citrone said that Rob was a complete nutter. That's about right. But a nutter with brains. Patience is sometimes a problem with Rob - I hope he settles down today, & saves his A-Game for the latter stages of the Final. To see the likes of Rob Yong, Thewy, Carlo, Jimmy Alp, The Camel, Gosney, Binelli & Iwan Jones etc lock horns in the later stages would be something else.

[tikay]

Ok, am gonna be off air for an hour or so, & will continue with the Preview a bit later.

I can't believe what's happening next. Bad Girl Pham has somehow persuaded me to go on the big dipper roller coaster thing here at the Pleasure Beach in Blackpool. Wassamatterwiv her? And wassamatterwivme? I'm a grown man, approaching middle age, and that lass has somehow got me to go on the UK's biggest big dipper jobbie. I am PETRIFIED of those things too. OMG.

Later......

PS - And Thewy was supposed to come, but he BOTTLED IT.....

[Yogi-Bear]

Go for it Tikay.

Its the whole minute it takes to get to the top thats the worst.

Some quality coverage here, whilst I had to work all night.

See you all soon.

Yogi

[AlrightJack]

Been a great event so far.  Looking forward to this afternoon's action and I echo Tikay's comments about that possible dream final.  Should make good rail viewing.

As Blue Square's rep here I'd like to thank Yogi, Blue Wolf, Claire and all the staff at Grosvenor for a well run festival.  You've been great hosts.  I'd like to thank Tikay and everyone involved with and helping out with Blonde. I'd also like to thank everyone who has attended this week.  Its great to see each successive festival get bigger and better and I really appreciate all the feedback I'm getting from everyone I've had the pleasure to spend some time chatting to.

Finally...well done to the Nottingham team.  Looking forward to the next challenge, wherever and whenever that takes place.

[ifm]

What's happening with the report on the heads up challenge??
I know this main event jobbie is of some interest but come on we wanna know what happened with the challenge in some detail please!
Good luck ALL for today i look forward to catching up later.
Ian

[tikay]

5th chip is Robert "I Love you Deeply Tony" Binelli. Robert sat quietly most of yesterday, but got moving late on. Robert finished 2nd last week in the closing event at Jesolo, & has made finals all over Europe.

There are quite a group of players in the 30/40/50k region. Carlo, Trevor Reardon, the in-form Iwan Jones, Mick Mccluskey, & Man of the Moment Cemal Jimmy Alp. You know enough about all of these guys, they can all go on & win this.

Nik Whiten is an interesting one. He's Rob Yong's business partner & lifelong friend, and of course yet another of the Nottingham Crew who are mashing up Final Tables all over Europe. Nik got 4th at The Vic a month or so back, in the biggie that Andy Church went on to win.

Achilles Kalakkas is in reasonable shape. This guy does not play many tournaments, though he plays some pretty serious cash. But a Top 30 finish in the WSOP tells us that the guy knows how many beans make five. Lovely fella, too.