BlueSq.com GUKPT Grand Final - Day 1a

[Djinn]

I have to admit that I spent a little bit of dinner break overlap looking for hoodies online to rival John Tabatabai's, whose personal collection probably has more rhinestones on it than Dolly Parton.  I failed to find anything of real interest, except for a design-your-own site which kept me entertained for a while.  Here is my first effort:

Tabatabai, at his brown and featureless-est:


What he Could have if he hired me as his personal stylist:





Can anyone do better?  Of course they can.  customink.com...

[JungleCat03]

Click to see full-size image.

Can Karl's self-pleasure face please be removed from the site.

Click to see full-size image.

I think it's better than yours Snoopy. Sorry.

I was thinking the same thing, Roderick.

This is a war where we are both destined to lose.

[danafish]

Clearly refreshed after their 40 minutes with nothing to except eat dinner again or pump money into the slot machines, players have been wasting no time in getting their chips in the middle in various bids to either get a big stack or bust out before the last Tube.

Abhishek Khaitan got it in with a speculative on a flop, but unfortunately for him Andreas Johnsson was looking down at and it was an easy call for him. Johnsson went on to fill up on the turn and river, and it's curtains for Khaitan.

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Panicos Ellinas on the other hand has been having rather better a time of it, doubling up to 21k when Tony Phillips paid off his aces. Mr Phillips down to 28k from his earlier peak of 40k.

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And mystery for Adam Clarkatroid and Martin Bader. Bader in the small blind bet out 3k on a flop and Clark spent ages looking everywhere but at Bader or the table before making a puffy-outy-cheek-face and going all in for 10,625 total. Then it was Bader's turn to stare at things for a while, before eventually passing. Clark turned over the top-pair-tastic but declined to show his other card.

[TheHotel]

He's his usual chirpy, bubbly self, although he has donned a rather strange piece of headgear today.

"People were always making fun of my scarf. Well now they can make fun of my hat!"

It's all to do with a blue and white dyeing attempt that went wrong.
But his secret is safe here.

[ripple11]

Chip counts courtesy of Mr Jon Raab from the end of level 4.

Marc Goodwin   57475
Long Zhang   41475
Antony Phillips   36650
Benjamin Vinson   36450
Timothy Flanders   33550
Robin Keston   32075
Daniel Carter   31925
Martin Bader   30175
Anthony Cascarino   30025
Steve Jelinek   29900
John Tabatabai   29625
Christopher Moorman   29075
Kim Wittendorff   27625
Jeraint Hazan   26975
Michael Ellis   26650
Van Hoang   25850
William Martin   25025
James Akenhead   22850
Javed Abrahams   22150
Kuljinder Sidhu   22075
Samuel Trickett   21900
Iwan Jones   19900
Guy Steel   19850
David Lloyd   19775
Karl Mahrenholz   19750
Ofir Abromovici   19225
John-paul Kelly   19050
Surinder Sunar   18750
Knut Ekvardt   18700
Fahid Ali   18050
Henryk Nowakowski   17500
Richard Gryko   17375
Stuart Rutter   17250
Jeffrey Duvall   17125
Michael Moore   16875
Barny Boatman   16550
Paul Jackson   16050
A Alsanea   15575
Mark Phillips   14725
Gregory Howard   14475
Ramsey Ajram   14400
Gary Clarke   14025
P Bansi   13625
Andreas Hoivold   13550
Talal Shakerchi   13375
Davood Mehrmand   13150
David Mitchell   13125
Andrew Teng   13075
Paul Webster   12900
Peter Wood   12725
Jan Bendik   12400
Andrea Buzzigoli   12150
Mats Gavatin   12075
David Colclough   11950
Adam Clark   11950
Abhishek Khaitan   10375
Paul McIntyre   10250
Andreas Johnsson   9900
George Hassabis   9600
Paul Dack   9550
Ariel Adda   9300
James Morgan   9050
Jerome Oshea   8225
John Eames   7775
Sami Yusuf   7575
Panicos Ellinas   7025
Paul Ephremsen   6150
Jonathan Butters   5650
Barkatul Mohammed   4975
Daniel Tafur   4725
Ganesh Rao   2175

Could you pls ask Mr.Goodwin what's he been taking recently!!!

[danafish]

[NoflopsHomer]

I have to admit that I spent a little bit of dinner break overlap looking for hoodies online to rival John Tabatabai's, whose personal collection probably has more rhinestones on it than Dolly Parton.  I failed to find anything of real interest, except for a design-your-own site which kept me entertained for a while.  Here is my first effort:

Tabatabai, at his brown and featureless-est:


What he Could have if he hired me as his personal stylist:





Can anyone do better?  Of course they can.  customink.com...

Try www.drjays.com or www.yukka.co.uk

[147pro]

hi hows tony phiillips doing?

[scotty2hatty]

I was thinking the same thing, Roderick.

Isn't that the guy from Balls of Steel?

[Sionzi]

Wish Iwan Jones a VERY happy birthday today!!Good luck in the game!!

[JungleCat03]

Variance Junkey - One whose loose aggressive play causes their stack to experience wild fluctuations.

Dan Carter - prime example.

In the space of an orbit he managed to win one 20k pot and lose one 30k pot in quick succession.

The latter involved a tussle with Stu Rutter, Carter popping it up to 800 pre-flop, Rutter making it 2,500 only for Dan to now make it 5,600.

Rutter looked seriously at Dan before picking up the rest of his chips and pushing them over the line.

Dan looked at how much more it was to call....9.1k, how much was in the pot...11.7k and made the call with , only for Stu to showdown pocket Aces.

An Ace on the flop looked likely to end any resistance, though a single solitary diamond offered a chink of hope to Dan's suited big slick. His hopes were dashed on the blank turn though and he counted out the chips he now owed Stu.

"Still got 24k" he told me cheerily despite this set-back.

"Once he four bets me I know he has AA, KK, QQ or AK but the price is too good not to call I think."

This picture tells you who was on the right side of that 30k pot...



Only moments later though, Dan is back to his usual up-beat self, chatting about the hand with Stu, with Karl Mahrenholz perhaps listening in more carefully than he is letting on...

[NoflopsHomer]

This is a war where we are both destined to lose.

I've decided failblog is better than lolcats.

[Djinn]

hi hows tony phiillips doing?

Here's when he was happier and sat next to Lars Larsen instead of Long Zhang...Phillips has not had a great couple of levels. Or half a level.  He’s dwindled below his starting stack having had something like 37,000 at the break… anyway, Long Zhang just took a few off him after calling his preflop re-raise (Zhang had raised to 1,200 in the cutoff and then called Phillips button reraise to 3,600).  They sort of switched off after that for a minute, during which time the board came out .  Zhang bet out 3,500 on the river, which Phillips called, only to find the in his opponent’s hand.  Zhang now has the kind of oversized stack which makes all tournament players happy – 70k and rising!

[danafish]

A flurry of double ups, exits and just good old fashioned big pots as this tournament finally seems to be getting into the swing of things.

Rollercoaster Of The Day title goes to Mark Phillips, who first came to my attention as I strolled by to see him all in on a flop, called by John Eames. Eames was holding the drawtastic but the blank on the turn and the blank on the river meant that Phillips' took the pot, doubling him up to around 9k.

A few minutes later, I noticed a relatively large Wall Of Media (there aren't really many of us here, it was more a Hedge Of Media or Fence Of Media, but I digress) forming around Mr Phillips' table. The reason was not an excessively enormous pot in terms of chips but nevertheless a three-way, preflop all in.

John Eames: A-4
Daniel Tafur: A-9
Mark Phillips: K-T

Board: J-6-7-9-K

Eames and Tafur hit the rail, and Phillips looked to be in decent shape.

But...

Disaster!



As I understand it, Phillips had become involved in a hand with Guy Steel and they had by some means or other made it as far as the turn of the board at which point Steel had possibly hovered some chips over the line or done something a little dubious that could have been interpreted as a bet, although he swore he hadn't meant to bet. It was eventually ruled that he could check, and at this point Phillips got his chips in. Steel called and turned over for two pair, Phillips turned over a weak for a gutshot draw, the on the river didn't change a thing, and Phillips was out.

Phillips was clearly most disgruntled and although Steel apologized and didn't seem to me as though he'd done anything controversial on purpose, Phillips left in less than excellent spirits.

[Djinn]

Talal Shakerchi just doubled through courtesy of Praz Bansi, the button raiser who gave him a spin when his 650 was raised to 3,325 all in preflop.  He didn’t like the suit of Shakerchi’s , or the rank either considering he was spinning with the .  A King on the flop and the short stack’s double was confirmed, while a semi-penitent raised eyebrow and smile was all he got out of Praz.  Oh, and 3,325 chips.