Friday, 29th March 2024 11:41
Home / Uncategorized / UKIPT4 London Day 1B: Level 5-10 updates (600/1,200 ante 100)

11.55pm: Done for the day
That’s it for Day 1B, roughly 153 of the 501 runners have progressed, joining the 70 who made it through from Day 1A. They’ll all be back at noon tomorrow, as will we. But before then a full wrap of the day’s play is on its way and overnight chip counts and seat draw will be available before play begins tomorrow. — NW

11.45pm: Four more hands
Dealers have been instructed to deal four more hands. Then that will be it for the night.

11.45pm: Payouts
The full breakdown of the prize pool was announced right at the end of the night, and it seems the winner of this thing will get £136,875. Not at all bad. A min-cash, the first of which will go to the player out in 111th, is worth £1,180.

It seems we reached 501 players by the end of the day, which included ten no-shows, ie, people who bought in or won a package then didn’t arrive to play the chips. That means we had 747 total. — HS

11.40pm: Late night exits
It’s a case of so near but yet so far from making Day 2 for the following notables as: Fergal Nealon, Max Silver, Andre Akkari, Max Greenwood, Nacho Barbero, McLean Karr and Dominik Nitsche are all out. — NW

11.30pm: Late night chip counts
There’s just 20 minutes left in the day, here are a few chip counts of some of those still in: Sin Melin (47,000), Nick Wealthall (80,000), Jason Tompkins (40,000), Nicolau Villa-Lobos (141,000) and Craig McCorkell (67,000) — NW

11.20pm: Doubling up, not going home
A last level double up to tell you about now for Matthew Davenport, he three-bet all-in for 30,000 with pocket tens and picked up a call from Daniel Laidlaw, who was the original raiser. The latter had A♠ Q♠ so it was off to the races, it turned into a very one sided affair as the board ran 5♦ 10♥ 5♥ 5♠ A♥ .

Watching all this action was Lasse Frost, he’s got 135,000 and is up there with the chip leaders. — NW

11.10pm: The lament of the late night exit
It’s not a nice feeling getting knocked out of a poker tournament on the final level of the day. You grind all day for no reward apart from you get to beat the rush for the exits, a reward you don’t even want.

That’s the fate that just befell Darren Lyttle and at the end of his exit hand he let out one long syllable that summed up all his frustration. He had moved all-in from middle position for 7,300 with 4â™  4♥ and been called by Jordan Bamford who had A♣ 5♣ .

Lyttle was out of his seat after the flop fell 6♣ 6♠ 2♣ resigned to his fate that Bamford was going to get there one way or another. The 5♠ turn was enough, but he got there the other way to as the 7♣ completed the board.

166 of 491 players remain. — NW

11pm: Underestimate this man at your peril
Almost no one paid any attention to Dimitar Danchev during the PCA in January. Then he went and won it. Danchev has been going about his business in customary understated fashion here in London too, but was recently seen raking in a pot that takes him to 210,000 in chips.

One table over is another EPT champion who doesn’t tend to attract an enormous number of headlines. Kevin Stani, this time at least, also has fewer chips. He just got involved in a battle of the blinds with Antonio Lafosse which cost him about 6,000 chips and left him ruing a missed bet on the river.

Lafosse raised from the small blind, Stani called from the big and they saw a flop of 8♣ 3♥ 2♥ . Lafosse checked, Stani bet 2,400 and Lafosse called. The turn was 2♦ and Lafosse checked again. Stani bet 3,200 and Lafosse called, taking them to the 8♠ on the river.

Lafosse checked again. Stani dwelled for a while and then checked himself. Stani showed K♠ 7♠ and although Lafosse could muster only the A♣ 4♣ the ace high was good.

“Should have bet on the river,” Stani said. — HS

Blinds up: 600/1,200, ante 100

10.45pm: Does a bear run up a big chip stack?
Yes, yes he does. Well he does if that bear is Barry Greenstein. The Team PokerStars Pro has 130,000. — NW

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Greenstein – lol’ing his way through Day 1A of this donkament

10.40pm: Czech me out
The reign of Dario Sammartino didn’t last long he’s been ousted by Antonin Duda, the player from the Czech Republic has 220,000. That’s good for the chip lead. — HS

10.35pm: Hand to the left of me, hand to the right here you are stuck in the middle with me
It’s a blogger’s worst nightmare, two all-ins simultaneously at two different tables. There I was looking for one hand when two came along like once. Now which city’s buses are known for that…

In the first Marcin Wydrowski raised it up to 2,200, there was a flat call only for another player to squeeze to 7,900 with just 15,000 back. Back of Wydrowski he re-raised to 14,000, the flat caller got out the way, the squeezer moved in and Wydrowski called off the extra. He was in front with pocket queens to his opponents pocket jacks and it stayed that way on the A♥ A♣ 6♠ 3♠ K♦ board.

Meanwhile… on the adjacent table there was a raise to 2,500 from Leon Campbell, a three-bet to 7,200 from Max Greenwood and then an all-in for 8,700 from Thomas Elitok. When it folded back to Campbell he got out the way and Greenwood put in the extra.

Greenwood: Q♦ Q♥
Elitok: A♣ 10♣

There was no sweat in this hand either as the board came Q♦ A♥ 5♥ 6♥ A♦ to elimiante Elitok. — NW

10.30pm: Welcome our new Italian overlord
Dario Sammartino is out new chip leader. He has about 180,000, which is the most at this stage. — HS

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Dario Sammartino, leading the way

10.25pm: Touched on the shoulder by the Grim Reaper
There’s no easy way to say this, but Mudasser Hussain, Mark Shepherd, Thomas Elitok, Martin Lourido, Jack Ellwood, Sam Greenwood, Anthony Gardner, David Pishvafar, Wojtiech Barzantny, Sebastian Gohr, Nicholas Galtos, Antonis Poulengeris, Siyu Sha, Georgios Zisimopoulos, Ryan Straub, Menikos Panagiotou, Martin Diaz, Sam Lunt, Manuel O’Shea, Chuc Khuu, Jen-Yue Chiang, Jeff Rossiter, Weikang Wang, Toby Robinson and Bryn Kenney should ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for them. — HS

10.15pm: Final numbers
Registration is now closed for UKIPT4 London, and today’s field weighed in at 491. If you add that to yesterday’s 241 that brings us to a total field of 732. That’s pretty good, especially considering the buy in went up to £1,000 this year from £750 last time around.

The tournament staff will now look at how that’s going to be chopped up, details of which we will have first thing in the morning. Right now, it’s all about watching which of the 198 still in the field can get close to Richard Trigg’s chip total from yesterday. — HS

10pm: Frost sets in
Lasse Frost just thawed Sam Cohen, winning a race for his tournament life. Ben Phillipps had got things started, opening to 2,000 from under the gun. Cohen called on the button and Frost made it 6,300 from the big blind. Phillips folded, but after Cohen asked for a count, learning the maximum is could cost her/she could make was 48,500, she announced that she was all in. Frost called immediately.

Frost’s A♦ K♥ versus Cohen’s Qâ™  Q♥ represented the classic race and the K♣ on the turn proved decisive. Cohen is cut right back as Frost bites. — HS

9.55pm: Huttel doesn’t get married to tens, survives car crash with Docherty and Straub
It’s getting towards the end of the night and the wrapping is well and truly off the chips. Players are getting them in much more readily now, the result of stippling blinds and a long day of attrition. That and the standard two big hands going up against one another.

Moments ago, Jonas Huttel opened to 2,200 from mid-position and Ryan Straub shoved for about 9,000 chips from the button. David Docherty, in the small blind, seemed interested and asked for a count. I’m not sure he actually even got it before he announced that he was all in, covering both Straub and Huttel.

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Ryan Straub

Huttel folded, saying: “They looked pretty.” And after Straub tabled 7â™  7♦ , Huttel repeated, “They still look pretty.” When Docherty tabled Aâ™  Q♣ Huttel said it again, adding that he had folded pocket tens.

The board ran 6♣ 6♦ 3♦ Qâ™  K♣ and Docherty knocked out Straub. Huttel, who folded his “pretty” hand lived to fight another day. — HS

9.50pm: Notables not so lucky
It’s better luck next time for these notables who have all taken their leave of UKIPT4 London: Ben Jenkins, Martins Adeniya, Ana Marquez, Chris Dowling, Alan Gold, Ben Vinson, Joe Kuether, Charlotte van Bradander, Richard Toth, David Vamplew, Niall Farrell, Marcin Horecki, Martin Jacobson, Sofia Lovgren, Tim Finne, Ben Martin and Kevin Williams. — NW

Blinds up: 400/800, ante 100

9.40pm: Lucky, lucky seat
Around about this time yesterday, Richard Trigg went on a charge that took him all the way to the overnight chip lead. He was sitting in a chair towards the far side of Tournament Room B, which is also one of the few in the Grand Connaught Rooms close enough to an air conditioning unit to mean face towels are not required.

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Alex Lindop, sitting in the lucky seat

That cool seat also seems to be lucky for another reason. It’s a chip magnet. Today it is occupied by Alex Lindop and he has at least 120,000 chips already. — HS

9.20pm: Duda with all the dough
Antonin Duda is looking at PokerStars Blog on his iPad — and well he might, because he’s got 170,000 chips (approx), which must put him near the chip lead. Here you go, Antonin. Here’s where we tell the world of your success. (Duda has previously made the final table on the EPT, so no one is surprised to see him with all the chips.)

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Antonin Duda: Leading the UKIPT (and PokerStars Blog fan)

If Duda looks just to his right, he’ll see the back of a head with cropped hair and white headphones dangling from its ears. That guy, Luke Tatum, is probably Duda’s closest rival. He has 160,000 approx.

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Luke Tatum: chipped up

To Duda’s left is Pablo Rojas, famed on the Estrellas Poker Tour for his remarkable chip sculptures. He’s so far showcased the bridge and the tree (pictures are imminent) and has enough to make even more as the week goes on.

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Pablo Rojas, with the tree formation

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Pablo Rojas, with the bridge formation

— HS

9.05pm: Chip counts of the rich and the famous
These players haven’t busted as they’re still in with varying degrees of chips: Niall Farrell (10,000), Morten Mortensen (25,000), Kevin Williams (18,000), David Docherty (60,000), Barry Greenstein (40,000), Chris Dowling (25,000), Nacho Barbero (39,000), Julian Thew (65,000), Marcin Horecki (8,000), Emmett Mullin (47,000), Kevin Stani (83,000), Craig McCorkell (45,000), Nicolau Villa-Lobos (24,000) Vladimir Geshkenbein (87,000), Andre Akkari (48,000), Dermot Blain (24,000), Wojtek Barzantny (11,000), Jason Tompkins (47,000), Neil Raine (44,000), Nick Wealthall (47,000) and Sinem Melin (26,000). — NW

8.55pm: Silver’s lining his chip stack
An ironic hand took place at the end of the last level involving Max Silver, where everyone at the table bar the UKIPT champion was privy to more information than he was.

From under-the-gun he raised to 1,200, it folded to Waldemar Essig in the small blind and he shoved for 7,975 total. However, Essig hadn’t seen that Silver had raised. The big blind folded and action was back on Silver, he had around 15,000 behind, but hadn’t seen that Essig hand’t seen that he’d raised (still with us?).

“There’s a lot of green chips to win,” said Essig who had a lot of the T25 green chips in his stack. “It’s also a lot of green chips to lose,” said Silver. “Sorry guys,” said Silver who knew the maths of the situation, “I’ve got a pretty bad hand.” Eventually though he called and showed K♦ 10♦ and it was a race against Essig’s pocket eights. “He didn’t see your raise, but I wasn’t going to tell you,” said Mattias De Meulder.

The Kâ™  5♦ 4â™  10♣ 5â™  run out saw Silver prevail and both he and Essig had a good laugh about the situation. — NW

8.45pm: Call a doctor. Thew folds pocket tens
“I just open-folded pocket tens to a single raise,” said Julian Thew which is, if you know Thew, not something he tends to do. It’s like PokerStars Blog’s Rick Dacey saying he doesn’t want the last sausage roll on the plate.

“Are you unwell?” I asked.
“No, it was an accident,” Thew said. “I accidentally flipped the cards over. Pocket tens,” he continued, with the kind of rueful tone that PokerStars Blog’s Rick Dacey would say, “There’s no more sausage rolls left.”

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Julian Thew: he’s all right

Thew is doing just fine though, with about 65,000 chips. And if I know PokerStars Blog’s Rick Dacey, he’s doing all right too. I bet there’s a plate of steaming sausage rolls in front of him right now. And a pint. — HS

Blinds up: 400/800, ante 100

8.36pm: Matti catching fire at the right time
Team PokerStars Pro Matti De Meulder has been grinding a short stack all day, he’s finally got some chirping chips though and wanted the world, well Twitter and Instagram at least to know.

8.35pm:Two pair nice for Nealon
One of the regulars on the UKIPT is Irishman Fergal Nealon, he was second only to Dara O’Kearney in terms of seats won to UKIPT’s last season, but as of yet he hasn’t been able to translate that into UKIPT success with a 33rd place finish at UKIPT3 Cork his best result to date.

Well, he just got a much needed double up through John Haigh when a raising war broke out on the flop. There was already around 4,000 in the pot when the flop came down 7♠ 10♣ 8♦ 7♦
Haigh: K♣ K♥

The 5♦ turn and 7♣ river kept Nealon in front and doubled him to around 36,000. — NW

8.30pm:Heimiller and Gavin get the boot
Two exits, two big name players on the proverbial poker scrapheap, well at least for this tournament…

Dan Heimiller was the first to lose his stack, he was all-in for 32,300 pre-flop in a five-bet pot holding A♣ K♥ , his opponent – Haitao Wu – held pocket queens. The pair held up on the 2♣ 2♥ 5♥ 3♣ 10â™  board and Wu just had Heimiller covered.

As for Gavin he got his final 10,000 in holding Q♣ 8♥ on a 7♥ 8â™  5♥ flop against Mathew Perry who held the drawtastic 10♥ 9♥ . The 7♦ was mostly a blank but the 6â™  river filled Perry’s straight and eliminated Gavin.

After that hand Perry is up to around 105,000 and one of the chip leaders. — NW

8.20pm:Boeree gets big boost
I don’t mean she just took delivery of an oversized chocolate bar rather that she’s now up to 70,000 after winning a (kit kat) chunky pot. “I opened with 6♣ 5♣ and got five callers! The flop was K-10-5 and it checked round. The turn was a six I led for 4,000, the big blind check-jammed with 4-3 for around 15,000 I called and held.”

After that hand the Team PokerStars Pro is up to around 70,000. – NW

8.10pm: Fasano departs
Liv Boeree has been sitting in the same seat all day, quietly going about her business and building a stack close to 40,000. In a bid to report a hand involving the Team PokerStars Pro, we actually ended up seeing the elimination of William Fasano. Boeree’s impact on this was minimal.

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Liv Boeree, on day 1B in London

Fasano opened to 1,200 from early position and Chris Gordon called from one seat to his left. Boeree also called from the cut off and Daniel Plattern came along from the big blind.

The flop came 6♠ 9♣ 8♣ and Plattern and Fasano checked. Gordon bet 3,150 and that persuaded Boeree out of it (told you her impact was minimal). Plattern also passed. But Fasano moved in for something like 5,000 more, which Gordon called in a flash.

Gordon had 6♥ 6♣ for bottom set. Fasano had 7♣ 7♥ for a higher pair but now, predominantly, a straight draw. The 2♦ 2♥ on turn and river did not help him, and off he went. — HS

8pm: Lappin and Tompkins fly the Irish flag
Although Dara O’Kearney revealed before the dinner break that he was out, some of his countrymen are still going strong. David Lappin remains well above average with something like 60,000, and Jason Tompkins just moved up to about 50,000, eliminating his neighbour in a battle of the blinds. Tompkins flopped trip queens with his Q♣ 6♦ – the board was 10♣ Q♦ Qâ™  – and he check-called all the way until his opponent, with Kâ™  10♦ , was all in on the end. Tompkins called and that was that.

7.55pm: Busted
There’s no easy way to say this but: Alfonso Amendola, Luca Moschitta, Paris Dedes, Kyle Maguire, Paul Berende, Jamie Burland, David Barnes, Jack Sambrook, Diego Arbuello, Andrzej Zakrzewski, Rumit Somaiya, Raymond Caabay, Arash Rastegar, Dara O’Kearney, Madis Muur, Oliver Simpson, Christophe Malaurie, Thomas Muhlocker, Daniel Shapiro, Nicholas Stylianou, Davide Magnan, Jose Galindo, Ajay Kejriwal, Albert Kenny, Dean Hutchinson, Filip Dahlin, Kevin Vandersmissen, Jonas Ferrut, Michael Jones, Nicholas Farnborough, Robert Glen, David Foldy, Robert Schiffbauer, Diego Ventura, Bela Toth, Daragh Davey and Richard Evans who won the UKIPT Champion of Champions are all out

Dara O’Kearney tweeted about his demise.

could’ve tucked into a gargantuan 12 course meal favoured by the Edwardians a century ago as they’re all out of the UKIPT Main Event.

7.45pm: Bellies full, action continues
The players are now back in their seats and level seven is underway.

Blinds up: 300/600, ante 75

6.40pm: Melin takes chips to dinner
Sinem Melin’s dinner will taste a little bit sweeter than many of her opponents as she doubled up just before heading to the break. They were at the turn and Melin was all in for about 20,000. The board was Q♥ 10♦ 8♥ 5♦ and Melin turned over 10â™  10♥ for the flopped set.

Melin asked Nicholas Galtos, who had called Melin, “Any outs?”
“Two,” he said, and rolled over Aâ™  A♥ .

But the river was the 6â™  and so Melin’s hand held. That takes her to 48,000 and off to dinner with the rest of them. — HS

6.20pm: Pastor out; Blain might be the worst
An incredibly interesting hand just played out at the table we called the ‘table of death’ and it saw Team PokerStars Pro Juan Manuel Pastor eliminated. The action was started by Niccolò Caramatti, he made it 800 to go from under-then-gun, two seats along Dermot Blain called, Pastor called from the cut-off and Knut Silseth did likewise from the small blind.
On the 10♦ 9♣ 3♣ flop Silseth checked, Caramatti did likewise but before Blain could act Pastor checked out of turn. The dealer went to deal the turn but Blain stopped him. After about ten seconds Blain bet 3,200, Pastor then moved all-in for 7,325, Silseth made it 15,000 from a stack of 33,000 and after tanking for ages Caramatti folded.

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Pastor – thought his opponent made a ‘loco’ play

“What the hell is going on here,” said Blain. He thought it over and eventually folded 10-9 face-up, Pastor showed Q♥ J♣ for the up and down whilst Silseth opened A♣ 10â™  . The turn and river fell 5♣ 6♦ and Pastor got up from the table muttering loudly, my Spanish is pretty rusty so the only word I got was ‘loco’ (crazy).
As for Blain he was bewildered, “What the hell just happened, the two tightest players at the table just went nuts. You (Silseth) don’t play a hand for two hours then you find the A-10. I might just be the worst though.” — NW

6pm: Juicy squeezes Horecki
Sixiao Li is a familiar face on the Asian poker circuit, where she goes by the moniker “Juicy”. She has occasionally made the journey to the United States and Europe too, and the UKIPT seems to have been too much of a draw to resist.

She is on one of the toughest tables in the room, however, alongside Julian Thew, Marcin Horecki and Bryn Kenney, the latter of whom registered about ten minutes ago and so has a starting stack only. Li has more than that and just helped herself to some more from Horecki’s stack.

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Marcin Horecki of Team PokerStars Pro

Horecki raised pre-flop from mid-position and Li called from the small blind, followed by Andrzej Zakrzewski in the big. The three of them took a flop of A♣ J♠ 4♣ . Li checked, Zakrzewski checked and Horecki bet 1,575.

Li now raised, making it 3,700 and after Zakrzewski folded, Horecki called. The turn was 4♦ and Li checked again. Horecki bet again, this time 2,925, and Li check-raised again, making it what looked like 10,900. We never got a precise count because Horecki wasn’t interested. He mucked. — HS

5.50pm: Floored
Sam Cohen came up with a novel way of making her opponent show his cards, namely calling the floor so that showing the cards is far quicker and less painful than a drawn out decision making process.

In the hand in question Salvatore Bonavena, who was in seat one, bet 3,175 on the river of a Qâ™  3â™  K♥ 3♥ 2♥ board, Cohen tanked and then folded. As he was being shipped the pot Bonavena lifted his cards up to head height and turned them towards him so he could take one last look at them. Given his actions its entirely possible that seat two and perhaps seat three would’ve seen them.

The dealer and even seat two suggested otherwise, but Cohen asked the dealer to call the floor so the ‘show one, show all’ rule could be enforced. However, before the floor had arrived Bonavena, who clearly subscribes to the ‘a good game’s a quick game,” school of thought, flipped pocket nines for all to see. — NW

Blinds up: 200/400, ante 50

5.35pm: Out of chips
As the blinds go up the number of players continue to fall and around 406 of the 484 registered players remain. Sadly the following players chip stacks have fallen all the way to zero: Alexandros Papadopoulos, Steve Warburton, Clayton Mooney, Lee Taylor, John Bousfield, Hassan Dahmani, Sergej Barbarez, Esben Guenther, Anthony Forsyth-Forrest, Nir Malka, Adam Reynolds, Emil Mattsson, Deborah Haddad, Jake Schwartz, Ori Hasson, Krzysztof Nega, Rory Timlin, Marvin Lee, Vera Kelleher (deep breath)…

Jack Stokes, Fabrice Soulier, Dinesh Alt, Ariel Celestino, Kevin Monroe, Cesar Garcia, Fraser Macintyre, Robet Auer, Paul Leckey, Tamer Kamel, Rudolf Zintel, Jason Wheeler, Simeon Naydenov, Marcos Mateos, Iqbal Ahmed, Gerald Karlic, William Kassouf, Michael Fawbert, Mark Norman, Kristian Balslev, Daniel Heskett and Nathan Gallagher. — NW

5.20pm: Heimiller gets heroed
The total number of entrants has ticked up to 484, one of the last to enter thus far is Dan Heimiller. The American is an all-round poker legend with results going back to 1992. He’s final tabled the PCA and has one WSOP bracelet to his name thanks to victory in a half hold’em/half seven-card stud event in 2002.

I chose an opportune moment to drop in on Heimiller’s tournament as his stack of 11,900 was across the betting line. There was a flop of 3♣ Qâ™  8â™  on the felt, a bet of 1,400 in front of Giacomo Fundaro and around 4,300 in the pot from pre-flop betting. After a bit of a tank the Italian elected to call and put Heimiller at risk.

Heilmiller: Aâ™  9â™ 
Fundaro: 10♦ 8♦

The expression on Heimiller’s face said that he couldn’t believe what Fundaro had called him with and he basically said as much. The K♥ turn card was a blank but the 9â™  was bullseye for Heimiller and as he sat back down he said, “Ooh that was close.” – NW

5.05pm: Tournament room Too Far
They are still playing in three different rooms here, named tournament rooms A, B and C. There’s no two ways about it, room C is getting far less attention than the others as it demands a walk up an additional two flights of stairs. There are a few notable names in the room, however, including Nacho Barbero, Kevin Stani, Charlie Coombes, Sofia Lovren, Dara O’Kearney and Mattias de Meulder.

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Tournament room C

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Nacho Barbero notices a lesser-spotted reporter

The latter, the Team PokerStars Pro from Belgium, was just involved in a small pot against Paul Reaney, which Reaney ended up winning after De Meulder gave up with whatever line he was taking. Reaney opened to 700 from early position, De Meulder raised to 1,700 and Reaney was the only caller.

The flop came 10♦ 10♥ 6♣ and Reaney check-called after De Meulder bet 1,500. The 5♠ turned, which they both checked, and they also checked the J♠ river. Reaney showed A♠ Q♣ and De Meulder mucked.

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Matthias De Meulder: gave up

No doubt there’s better action occurring up there, and we’ll try to get some more of it as the evening wears on. And by that, I mean I’ll send Nick Wright up there to get it.

4.50pm: The anguish of a poker player
Ryan Straub and William Kassouf had a break that was six minutes briefer than everybody else. The reason was a huge move Straub made on the river, looking at a board of 4♥ Q♦ 10♣ K♣ A♣ . “What a move,” Kassouf said. “You check the river to induce the bluff, but it’s not a bluff.”

Putting the pieces together, Straub had raised pre-flop, bet on flop and turned and then check-raised all in on the river after Kassouf had bet 5,250. Straub’s all in at this stage was 13,925 more, which all but matched Kassouf’s total stack. Kassouf was therefore facing a call for his tournament life.

“If I had two pair, I’d have folded by now,” Kassouf said as the clock ticked down. “If I had a set, I’d have folded by now. You’re repping the royal flush?”

Kassouf, in increasingly anguished conversation with himself, went on to admit that he had a jack in his hand, but was now genuinely scared that he was second best. “Queen jack or jack nine of clubs? Why would you check raise?” he said. Straub was silent.

The other players at the table realised that they were going to see another hand in the level and so gradually filtered away for their break. Sinem Melin wandered over from another table to talk to Kassouf, who said, “I’ve just been check-raised bluffed on the river, I think. He then contradicted that assessment with, “I think he’s only doing this with a royal flush. Sorry guys.”

The one-sided conversation continued: “You know what I’ve got, don’t you. Do you want me to call?”
“It’s up to you,” Straub said, having now taken off his sunglasses.
“I know it’s up to me, but you can help me out here. We can go on our break…You’ve got it, queen ex of clubs. Or you’re turning your hand into a bluff? You flop a set? I don’t think you’d make a move here. For you to make that move, you must have it.”

Eventually, Kassouf said, “I fold.” The dealer scooped up his cards. Straub vehemently resisted Kassouf’s demands to show the bluff and they both, eventually, headed out of the room for their break. — HS

4.40pm: Twitter tales
There are lots of ways to spend the 15 minute break in between levels, telling a bad beat story is a frequent if not popular way to pass the time as is, it seems, tweeting. A quick glance at the twittersphere reveals the ups and downs of a few of the players in the field today.

As mentioned at the end of the last post Jeff Kimber is out, he tweeted his exit hand:

Joining him on the rail is Owen Robinson, the Irishman made three deep runs on the UKIPT in 2010 but won’t be making another this time. He’s headed to the pub across the road from The Connaught Rooms, if he hangs around for an hour he’ll be joined by plenty of office workers.

Better news for David Docherty, the Scotsman who finished eighth at UKIPT2 Dublin is going well.

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Cards are back in the air. — NW

All photos are copyright of Rene Velli

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