A whopping 190 runners were accommodated at Walsall for the £300 Freezeout - surely a record for Walsall.
And it started on time, & the breaks were kept to schedule - well done to the Walsall Team. 7k starting chips, blinds began at 25-50, 45 minute clock all the way.
I believe First Prize is just over £20,000, & I THINK that 10th to 18th will all get £300, but I'm not 100% on that.
26 return at 3pm Thursday, & heres the overnight counts, in Table & Seat Order. I believe average is around 50k. Blinds are 1,500-3,000 for another 15 minutes.
Table 1
Gorg Collins 31,000
Andy Wilson 61,000
A Lytras 39,500
Y Umari 107,000
Nick Clarke 84,000
Wally Alcci 53,000
Craig Wildman 40,500
G Butler 30,000
Table 2
Ed Giddens 30,000
R Harman 51,500
P. Jackson (NOT Action Jack!) 50,000
G Rees 25,500
I McFarlane 34,500
ActionJack 85,000
J Morgan 47,000
F Audla (?) 31,500
D Phipps 110,000
Table 3
P Jongs 32,000
Matt Cartwright 23,500
D Shearer 22,500
I Shaw-Binns 59,000
Thewy 26,500
tikay 28,500
J Stitcher 70,000
Red-Dog 25,500
A Nunn 105,000
Mini Report
Team blonde were represented by Tighty, Red-Dog, spoony & Tighty. Tighty & sonopy busted early, sonopy claimning a bad beat. Guess he had J-8 or some similar jiunk.
Red-Dog was still there at the end, grimly determined as ever. You have to prise chips off Tom, he really is tenacious. For the 4th time in a row, he & I shared tables pretty much all night.
Other blondes? Too many to mention, remember or even recognize. But I do recall Thewy, Lucy Rokach (a very early faller) Micky Wernick, I Know It, b4Matt, Boodereham, Nick Gibson, the slim-line Rumit, Iwan Jones, ActionJack, Joe Grech, Ash Pervaiz, J P Kelly (out very early), Flushy (though not playing), Action Man, John Hewston, Mel Lofthouse, Hotdog, Ed Giddins, Racing Ronnie, &, well, I'm sorry, but so many more I can't recall at this late hour.
PRO President & Pie-Man Colchester Kev was on the rail, always a welcome if large sight, though frquent "come on Pops" did little to please me.
Thewy was dancing as only he can. At the first break he had his starting stack,( 7k,) at the 2nd break he had 24k, next time I saw him, 5 tables out, he was down to the felt. He moves in on the SB for about 4k with the impressive
& gets called by the shorty BB with
, & in true Thewy style, his Ten high was good. Then he does a real Thewy, in the BB with
on a Q high flop, the SB with the dominating
set him in, & he calls, only to end up praying for a split pot, which did look 99% certain on the turn, but a pesky
rivered!
A guy called I. Shaw-Binns - nice fella - was down to 900 early, & ended the night with 59k!
Stuart Rutter made THE most astonishing laydown. This guy can play - deep in the Final at Helsinki, & a couple of results since, he held
on a flop of
. Turn & river of
& some robust betting saw his pass his flopped House, only to see his oppo show the straight.....WOW!
Tourney Reports in which the author plays are by necessity largely self-centred, but I'm gonna run through my evening in brief, as it was a most un-tikay like evening.I fiddled about early & eased my 7k to 9k easily with the help of a few kind flops. I was in good heart, having (chirp alert) won the $200 entry $6k Guaranteed on Blue Square last night for a handy $2,810.
Then the first of umpteen hands featuring QQ arose. I pick up
& R to 800, mid-position man makes it a RR to 1,500, I RRR to 4k, & he sets me in, & now I've stupidly left myself pot-stranded, so I call & he shows the best I could hope
- .
on the flop gets me nicely doubled up. to 17k or so.
The VERY next hand I find
again! This one was ugly ugly ugly for my poor oppo, as I kinda like the
flop & bet out, he calls, I bet the blank turn, he calls, I check the paired
River, he checks too, & turns over
. What a horrible coup for him, but he hangs in because I did not bet on the end.
Next I catch 2 pairs in the BB against top pair for SB Andy Johnson & bag another 2k.
28k & loving it!
Now Mr Shaw-Binns makes it 1,500 UTG, shorty to his left moves all-in for 6k, & I wake up with - you've guessed it -
.....! I make what turns out to be, by my standards, a good play here, because I don't really have much information on what Shaw-Binns might have, so I just call the 6k. He RR's to 12k, I let go, & he shows.....
. Luckily I had resisted the "R to isolate" plan....but I've done 6k on this hand.
Now, astonishlingly, I find
yet aagin - that's a record, surely, & R it up, I get called by the table calling-station who is deep-stacked, & a guy on 11k, who also calls. Not happy here.....
The flop is a safe-looking
, & I bet 10k, deep-stack calls again, & short stack moves in. Me & Mr Deep-Stack check the safe turn, & I bet the safe River, only to find Mr Short-Stack netting the Main Pot with a set of fours, damn, that was a HUGE pot, & I get the consolation of the side-pot to minimise my losses.
Next hand another shorty moves on for 7k, I have
& quickly call, he has, yup, it's that hand again -
....! And what's more, he not only goes on to catch quads, but he NEEDED quads, as I rivered the staight. Another 7k down the pan, oops.
O the Button now, I call a mini-Raise from Andy Johnson - he could have ANYTHING - with
, Big Oz Mustanoglu calls too. Andy bets 700 on the
flop, I call, Big Oz shoves his last 3,700 in, Andy passes, & I think I'm marginal favourite unlsss Oz has 2 hearts, so I call, & he shows
, & I miss, & my brief giddy spell with a tall-stack is over, & I;m back in the pack.
It quietens down after that, & I sink into sub-average mediocrity, eventually ending up next to Thewy - to his left - with a red-zone 14k, but I double-up with my
v
.
So, there it is. I fancy either Thewy or me will double-up/bust if we get to play the blinds alone. He's gonna bully me for 100% sure, & I can't sit & let him make a fool of me all afternoon, so I'll take my chances if he does not stay in line. Some chance of HIM behaving......And it's 4/7 Thewy bustd me, & 2/1 I bust him. But you never know, but me & His Blessed-Ness don't do same-village, so it could well turn nasty with 2 very weak holdings.
Great night, & fair play to Walsall - 190 runners - WOW!
Author