Speech! Speech! Not Really. Bring on the Big Cheque!

Little interviews are conducted in front of the snapping paparazzi. It turns out Luke Trotman only just snuck in as an alternate with 5 mins to go and has turned that into an impressive 2nd place finish.

Congratulations too to Martin Silke, who says, "I love heads up and this is the hardest heads up I've ever played...Feels very good now, to be honest, not just the money but the trophy!" I am sure he will be gracing the tour later on - and definitely for the Grand Final to which he's won a seat by outlasting this monster field.




Silke Cuts Through Field - Over And Out From the Black Belt Poker GUKPT Update.

MARTIN SILKE LONDON GUKPT CHAMP!

About 8 small skirmishes later, there's been almost no change to the chip stacks; they're very even. Until THIS happens:

Martin Silke raises 170k preflop, called by Luke Trotman. Trotman checks the As-7h-9d flop - Silke bets 180k. Call. The turn is the Jc. Again, Trotman checks; again Silke bets - 450k. Pause as the action goes back to Trotman, who moves in...

... Silke makes the call and is ahead with A-K vs. Trotman's A-4. The river bricks the Ts and after a long agonising countdown...


... it is determined that Martin Silke has him covered and is therefore the 2009 GUKPT Vic Champion winning - officially - £172,850) and Luke Trotman is Runner Up winning - officially - £103,000. It's definitely a shedload of money apiece, however.

Presentation Ceremony awaits...

They Think It's All Over; It's Not.

Straight after losing that pot, Silke limps in for 100k and Trotman checks.

The flop is 8h 7h 5d and Trotman checks while still stacking that huge amount of chips he's just won. Silke bets 190k and Trotman continues to stack...and still stacking...and still stacking...and he calls. The turn is the 8d and again Trotman checks with Silke instantly firing out 370k, Trotman asks Silke how much he has behind and it's roughly 900k more.

Trotman announces, "I raise all-in."

Silke looks perplexed and slightly upset but then begins to laugh, which is bizarre but then looks at Trotman and says, "Ok, I call."

Trotman shows Qd-6d for the straight and flush draw plus overcard, and Silke shows Kh-7c muttering, "I knew he had a draw...I knew it." Trotman's railers are shouting, "Monster number of outs...Come on!!!"

The river is the 7d completing Trotman's flush and he screams in delight, hugging the equally ecstatic Josh Tyler and John Tabatabai. Martin Silke looks pale as a sheet, but then suddenly sees the real truth, "Full house!" he shouts as the dealer pushes the two sevens and two eights on the board up. Trotman transforms before our eyes and hands on head slumps back into his chair. The Irish in the crowd suddenly pipe up once more and the chip stacks are dead even again.


The question is now whether Trotman can recover from having his victory snatched away at the point of ecstasy or if Silke can manage to maintain his momentum. Either way, pray the limpathon ends.

See-Saw Suddenly Slides in Favour of Trotman

After literally half an hour of mainly flopless small pots, a couple of interesting hands come along at once, like buses. The first saw them get to the turn (7s-6d-5c-7h) as Luke Trotman called a Martin Silke bet on the flop, but he gave up when Martin bet 470k on the turn.

Next, Trotman raised to 190k pre, called by Silke. They both checked the 3d-3s-5h flop. Silke checked the Qc turn, but instantly called when Trotman bet 300k. On the Jh river, Silke now led for 420k. Into the tank for Trotman. Eventually he made the call - and Silke didn't really want to turn his hand over. Made to by the dealer, his A-4 was well behind Trotman's Ad-Jd, but I wonder what would have happened without the Jack on the river.

Just 1.5 mil for Silke now, double that for Trotman.

Too-Hot-To-Trot

After the initial frenetic pace of raises, reraises, 3-bets and the act of "jamming in one's eye", it's all got very slow again. The two are about even and the pots have mostly become limped, the only one of note being when Trotman raised Silke's 160k bet on a 6c-3d-8h to a suspicious 320k which was called before betting 500k on the 5d after Silke checked to him. The Irishman looked particularly uncomfortable at this point, and decided to let it go. Trotman enigmatically showed the Ac and Silke smiled and nodded his head. An odd hand since many of Trotman's friends were whispering he had the straight.

Trotman Outkicked

Pretty quickly the two remaining players' stacks even out... Luke Trotman limps on the sb, and Martin Silke checks. The flop brings an unassuming looking 8d-Jd-4h, but a flurry of action. Martin check-raises to 300k, and Trotman asks for a count on his opponent. It's 1,020,000. He sets him in, and Silke calls!

They both have top pair - Jc-7d for Silke and Jc-5c for Trotman.


Turn: Qs... River: 3h - Trotman looks understandably disappointed that the river didn't bring a split, but pays the double up. Now a slight edge to the Irishman.

Shark on the Rail

Doesn't it look like the GUKPT branded shark is railing the tournament alongside photographer Q? This looks even funnier in real life, if you can believe it. Sometimes the background of mediocre photos yields something special.

OK enough break-time filler, they're off and running. Two hands of heads-up so far, one walk and one raise from Luke - +440k which takes a preflop pot.

S.O. Far, S.O. Out! Oatley 3rd (£100k)

And suddenly, with the blinds going up to 40k/80k, we have an all-in! Button Luke Trotman raises to 210k, and Sam Oatley just moves all in. It's counted down and turns out to be exactly 1,134,000. A bit of a think, I pause short of bandying about terms like 'nitroll' though, and Trotman calls this large bet, creating the biggest pot of the tournament!

Oatley: Th-Td
Trotman: Jh-Js

A third Jack on the flop - 4c-8d-Jd - brings a shout of delight from his railers, while the Qs-7c turn and river avoid any straightening for the Tens.

We're heads-up now as Oatley shakes hands all round and takes his leave.


Now here's the board at the end of the hand, and see the stack half on the right and half in the middle? OK add that to the BIG stack at the bottom and you have Luke Trotman as at least a 2:1 chip leader.

Quaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaads!

OK I've totally given the game away with the title, but it has to be said, and said loud and gloatingly. Sam Oatley raises to 180k on the button, re-raised another 240k by Martin Silke on the big blind. Oatley makes the call.

The flop of Ad-2c-6s is checked by both players. On the 6s turn, Silke makes a little tiny 150k bet. "Aergh," says Oatley, or similar. He says, "Are pocket Eights good?" before eventually making a reluctant-looking call.

On the river is the As. This is an interesting card. Silke considers for a while, and makes a 402k bet. This too is interesting, as he only has about 250k behind. Full tank for Oatley. He gets up from his seat, takes a pace back, counts his stacks, they have a hushed conversation which was too hushed for me to pick up. Meanwhile everyone in the press area is convinced that Silke has not a lot. "Will you show if I fold?" asks Oatley, getting an affirmative response. So he folds.

Silke shows the Ah-Ac. The crowd goes wild.

OK there is a mild ripple of "oooh," but even this drama isn't enough to really wake up the crowd who haven't seen an all-in situation for two levels.


Oatley in foreground, now on 1,430,000. Nutz TV's stars and producers in background, looking like souls leaving bodies.

Sam Floatley

Raise to 180k from Martin Silke, some Silke skills are what's needed now for us, the action is painfully slow. Call in the big blind from Sam Oatley.

6c Tc Ts

Silke immediately bets 70k, which is odd because A) It's like 1/6th of the pot, B) He bet so fast that it's very unlikely he has anything and C) It's like 1/6th of the pot.

Sam Oatley calls the bet.

Js

Check from Silke immediately. Oatley bets 170k, Silke thinks for a moment. Call.

6s

Silke looks a bit sad, like he's lost his pet puppy. He checks and Oatley bets 210k now, Silke folds. Oatley shows Qs-8s.


Soon after Luke Trotman raises to 140k on the button, call from Oatley. Oatley leads out for 210k on the 9d-7d-2c flop, Trotman folds, Oatley shows the 9s.

25k/50k Level Almost, But Not Completely, Fully Uneventful

It's very hard to translate cagey, measured, thoughtful, showdown-free poker into something entertaining. I could describe the action on one hand like, "Martin and Sam in pre, unraised, check-check, check-check, check-check, King-high wins at showdown," but really what would be the point.

Only one medium-sized chunk of change has moved stacks recently - after Sam Oatley called a Luke Trotman 60k preflop raise he led 200k on the Kh-Ah-Jd flop. Trotman then raised him a further 260k, and after a bit of a dwell, Oatley let it go.

Martin Shaken, Not Stirred

Three handed now, and although there's no real big stack/short stack it looks like Martin Silke has been the man involved in most hands post break. A couple of note - once button Sam Oatley flat called, Trotman raised to 150k but then passed when big blind Silke made it 450k.

When it came to be Silke's button, he raised to 170k and it was his turn to get re-raised - this time by Sam Oatley in the small blind. He made it 400k - eventually Silke called. The flop came 3s-Ks-Jh and after a little pause and a mini chip riffle, Oatley made the wavey sign signifying "all in." Silke smiled and nodded, and I assumed this meant he had called, but he'd mucked so fast I didn't see the cards leave his hand.

Chip Counts:

Samuel Oatley -- 1,470,000
Luke Trotman -- 1,545,000
Martin Silke -- 1,742,000

Blinds are going to be 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 ante.

Break Time Conference Ends in Agreement

Oh yes, a deal is afoot. Tightly bunched together on re-entering the tournament area, all three players were nodding enthusiastically and shaking hands, ringed by lots of randoms who all seemed very interested in what was going on. This only ever means one thing - Chop The Monies!

£100,000 each - leaving £44,000 plus the GUKPT Grand Final seat to play for...

Jamie Brown Eliminated In 4th (£45,350)

Jamie Brown pushed his last 400k or so in on the button and Martin Silke made the call from the big blind with Ad-Th dominating Brown's Ac-6s. And with a board of 6s-8c-Td-Qs-9c hitting the table, we are down to three. Brown, who dominated so much of yesterday, might well rue that earlier call with A-6 against Oatley.

Just three players left. Chip counts to come in a second, we're on a short break.

Brown Gets Quacked

Jamie Brown makes it 100k on the button, Luke Trotman calls from the small blind.

Jh-4d-Js

Trotman leads out for 120k. Call

3d

Check check.

Th

Trotman checks a second time, Brown makes it 240k. Trotman tanks and calls, Brown mucks. Trotman shows 2d-2h but it's good enough! Jamie Brown now is the shortest of the four remaining players.

Really Bad Picture, Right Before Oatley Double

LOL at my photography skills. The final four players in the tournament look like extras in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest.

Moments after this, a huge coup went down with cutoff Jamie Brown raising to 100k, repopped to 340k by button Luke Trotman only to find big blind Sam Oatley moving all in for just under 700k! Brown had totally lost interest by this point, but Trotman called.

It was Oatley's Tc-Th vs. Trotman's As-Kc - tension held as the Tens did...all the way to the river, at which point Oatley's railers had a small celebration and he scooped in a hefty 1,400,000.

Cuong Tran Eliminated In 5th Place (£33,450)

Martin Silke raises to 125k and Cuong Tran again moves all-in, Silke shakes his head and says, "That's the 4th time you've moved in on me..." He shrugs and asked for the count but then calls anyway with Ad-8s, Tran shows Kd-Qs. The 2d-8h-5d-Jc-9c board favoured Silke and Tran leaves us with four remaining.

Oatley Dominates Brown

Yes, after a good 14 minutes of the 20k/40k level, a simple all in preflop hand changes the table dynamic considerably. With just over 400k, Oatley moved in and Jamie Brown decided to take a shot at him with Ad-6c. Unfortunately for him, Oatley had him dominated with Ac-Qh, spiking a Queen on the turn for added emphasis. Oatley up to 900k - no one's running away with this final yet.

Cuongstantly All In

The last minutes of the 15k/30k level were pretty much entirely taken up with Cuong Tran shipping it in preflop. Three times in very quick succession - open shoving, then blind on blind vs. Silke, and then over the top of Luke Trotman, who didn't feel like calling either.

In the only other newsworthy pot, Jamie Brown extracts a 100k value bet from Sam Oatley who check called on a 4d-Qs-8s-As-Qh board but mucked seeing Brown's A-T.

Brown Laydown

Quite a few battles have been sparked blind-on-blind - this time Jamie Brown and Luke Trotman saw a flop of Js-2s-3d (unraised). The both checked. On the 7c turn, Brown bet out 40k, called.
The river was the Qd. Now Brown bet out 100k, but after a long think Trotman made it 270k. A very deep think later and Brown passed - flipping J-3!

Next time something big happened it was Sam Oatley raising pre, getting two callers, but just moving all in on the 2s-6h-Jh flop immediately when it checked to him. The others didn't even think about it, just released.

Then button Luke Trotman made it 75k to go, re-raised by small blind Martin Silke. He called the 215k total bet to see a Ah-Kh-9h flop. Silke instantly bet out 100k. Trotman slowly, neatly counted out 500k, but in the end only called. The turn, the Jd, was checked by both. The river was the 3d. Silke checked again, staring all the while at Trotman, who dwelled up for ages before wussing out of betting and showing Td-Th. Silke's Kd-Qs was good.

Chaz Chattha Eliminated In 6th Place (£27,450)

After a couple of hands since the restart, Luke Trotman raises to 75,000 from second position. It's passed to Chaz Chattha who debates for a second before just calling with 135,000 behind. Then Samuel Oatley reraises all-in for 278,000 more. Trotman thinks but folds and Chaz sighs, "I have to call," flipping Ac-Th behind to Oatley's As-Qd. The Hitsquadders chant in vain for a Tc but the board helps neither player coming 6d-Kc-9c-2d-Ks and we're down to five players.

Players Returning To The Table

We're just about to restart with the blinds at 15,000/30,000 with a 2,000 ante.

Cuong Tran -- 498,000
Chaz Chattha -- 227,000
Samuel Oatley -- 466,000
Jamie Brown -- 550,000
Luke Trotman -- 1,706,000
Martin Silke -- 944,000

Although the players are ready, not everyone is...

Dinner Break:

Players now on a 1 hour dinner break. We recommence at 19.30 GMT.

Andreas Hagen Eliminated In 7th Place (£21,500)

Andreas Hagen raised to 65k from the hijack, and Luke Trotman set him all-in from the big blind. "I raised to get someone to shove on me, but the only person I didn't want to do that was you." He sits and thinks for ages once more. "Perhaps I have the best hand, but perhaps I need to get lucky. If you do knock me out can we still go out and party tonight?"

Cuong Tran calls the clock on him, "This is so tough," says Andreas. With the countdown on seven seconds left, Hagen makes the call with 9s-9c against Trotman's As-Kh but a board of 7s-3c-Ad-Jc-5h sends the Norwegian to the rail. 6 players remain.

Get Up, Get on Up

Small blind Jamie Brown raises when it passes round to him, probably 65k which seems the Thing to Do now the blinds are 12k/24k/2k. Big blind Luke Trotman makes the call. The flop comes 7d-9d-4d. Brown bets out 85k, called pretty quickly by Trotman. The turn is the 3s and Brown now bets 130k. Trotman looks at the raggy board, his opponent, and leans back, considering.

"If I fold will you show?" Zero response from frozen Jamie.
"Hmm 130 into 250... You want me to come over the top?" Still nothing. But he was on to something...
Trotman apologises for tanking, which is always neighbourly, although it hadn't been too long. Suddenly he snapped, announcing, "All in," but the decision he'd come to wasn't right this time. Brown instacalled, flipping Ks-Kd. Trotman's Ac-4s stayed behind and a million + pot just headed over to Brown (pictured).

Tran-Tastic

A double up for Cuong Tran against Andreas Hagen, he's all-in with Ad-Js against Jc-9c of the Norwegian and survives the 6c-7h-4d-6d-Ah board.

Simon Eastwood Eliminated In 8th Place (£15,500)

Simon Eastwood pushed for about 250k on top of Luke Trotwood's initial raise. Trotwood began the verbals, "Do you want me to call? I'll let you decide."

Eventually though, he made the decision himself and called with Ks-Qh, really up against it as Eastwood flipped Ac-Ah

But Luke was too-hot-to-trot, the board came Kc-6c-5s-6h-Kd and a house for Trotwood eliminated another player.

Dave Colclough Eliminated in 9th Place (£11,950)

Jamie Brown raises to 60k and Dave Colclough reraises all-in behind. Luke Trotman then announces all-in and everyone elses folds.

Dave Colclough shows As-Qh, Luke Trotman shows Ad-Kc to dominate.


The board is 4h 6h Js 2s 3h and Dave Colclough is out, he shakes everyone's hands but Andreas Hagen's, looks like there's a little bit of bad blood there. Especially since Andreas seemed quite happy at Dave's demise.

Hagen Says No To Brownie

Andreas Hagen raises to 55k from midposition and Jamie Brown makes it 172k in the small blind. Herein follows a 5 minute sonnet from the Norwegian with excerpts as follows:

"Maybe it is value for me to fold because there are so many bad players left..."

"Maybe it is good for you, I see the relief in your hand and I know, I know I have the best hand."

"You know the phrase 'TV time?' I have nothing."

"I have the best hand but I'm folding, because I need to have enough chips so I can knock Dave Colclough out!"

He then has the clock called on him which counts down to zero and his hand is declared dead. He shows 8-8 and continues to chat...

Ship It! Hagen Finally Gets All-in Caller

Martin Silke raised to 70k on the button. Andreas Hagen moves all-in for 155k more in the big blind, called - with Ac-6s. Hagen holds Ah-Ks. The board comes 9h-2h-Kd-4s-6c and having been quiet for about 20 minutes shouts, "That's what I'm talking about! Ship it! It's all over now."

Finalists Given Sedative Pre Final

That's how it appears - so little action for over half a level. There have been highlights, in amongst the passing-to-one-preflop raise - one was when Andreas Hagen shoved pre over Martin Silke's raise to 50k (no call) and once when Luke Trotman called a Hagen raise pre and then checked-raised the exciteable Norwegian all in on the Ac-4d-2c flop. He passed. Here's Luke post win:


Frankly, I was getting ready to post my reserve picture of Snoopy's pole-dancer socks just to keep the blog flowing. Oh what the hell, it can't hurt:

Nothing Happening....Yet

It's all still very cagey at the table, no hands have really gone to showdown. Andreas Hagen has been all-in three or four times but yet to receive a call. We're still awaiting the first casualty...

Steady Eddies

The last fifteen minutes of the 8,000/16,000 level were very cagey. Simon Eastwood took the first pot of the final with a 56k raise on the button.

Jamie Brown won the next one from early position with a 40k raise.

Martin Silke next, 42k raise wins the blinds.

Dave Colclough calls a Sam Oatley raise but check/folds on the 8s 4d 3c flop.

Andreas Hagen raises to 42k from midposition, Chaz Chattha thinks about it but folds.

Last hand sees Luke Trotman and Martin Silke see a blind-on-blind flop of 9s-7s-4s which they check, Trotman bets 16k on the 6d turn with a call. On the Kc river Trotman checks and Silke quickly bets 40k and gets snap-called by Trotman's Jd-7d.

Shuffle Up and Deal

But not before they do that funny thing where they play veeerrry quiet rave-sounding music and introduce the finalists one at a time to a crowd which has seemingly just materialised out of thin air for the purpose of applauding them. It must be weird parading down a stretch of Vic carpet with a pocket of press taking pictures while Raab tells everyone your chip count. Some people luvved it up more than others:

Hold Your Horses

Play has yet to restart - cameras and video gents abound, and everyone's doing a small media round pre-final. So here's a picture of FT bubbler Julien Legros to keep you going - the quiet Frenchman played a solid game and I wouldn't be surprised if we saw him around the UK circuit getting le gateau...

Also Snoopy has arrived, all keen as mustard to get involved in the £100 scalp tournament later today. There's a 20% chance I qualified for this myself at the GUKPT launch party - maybe a little less (Jon Raab introduced me to Black Sambuca - so wrong). Anyway I will know shortly, while Snoops is definitely in it. Proudly sporting the Black Belt Poker colours he even made a valiant attempt to backslap Dave Colclough in hearty greeting thereby transferring the patch to him (he is backed for this tourney after all). But wily DC saw straight through him...eyes in the back of his head that man.

Final Lineup!

Seat 1: Simon Eastwood - 421,500

Seat 2: Andreas Hagen - 206,500

Seat 3: Cuong Tran - 331,000

Seat 4: Chaz Chattha - 308,000

Seat5: Sam Oatley - 604,000

Seat 6: Jamie Brown - 636,000

Seat 7: Dave Colclough - 545,500

Seat 8: Luke Trotman - 878,000

Seat 9: Martin Silke - 945,500

LeGros-s

Andreas Hagen manages to double through Cuong Tran, pushing with 8c-3d and getting called by Ah-9h. Tran flops an Ace but by the turn there are four diamonds on the board and it's enough. "Flush!!!" shouts Hagen, "I have a flush! Flush! Flush!"

Then on the other table, Julien Legros gets his stack in against Luke Trotman on a Js-3d-Td flop holding the drawtacular 9d-8d but Trotman flips the drawtacular-killing Ad-Jd leaving the online French star drawing very thin. The Kc on the turn reduces Legros' outs to just three Sevens and the Qs river is not enough now that Trotman can make an Ace-high straight. There's a countdown and the Frenchman is just covered, "It might have been a slightly bad call preflop..." he says.

Andreas Hagen comes over and gives him a hug, "Bad luck, I really tried to get knocked out first for you, but I hit a flush."

We have our final table, pictures, chip counts and seating plan to follow.

To Call or Not To Call?

Two big hands to report - without bustout, but full of drama:

Luke Trotman is put to the test, seeing a flop of Kh-Kd-2s with Jamie Brown. Brown puts in a stack big enough to cover his opponent, who tanks for ages... and calls with 5h-5s. Brown taps the table, acknowledging the nice call of his, er, 3d-7d - it holds and Trotman doubles up nicely. We can't be all flattering about his play AND put a good pic up, though, of course.


Over on Table Colclough, a blind on blind battle gets big between sb Martin Silke and bb Dave Colclough. While passing pre, Andreas Hagen accidentally exposes the 4h. This is going to be important. Silke completes, Dave checks. Flop: 4c-8s-4d. Silke leads 20k...call. Turn: 3c. Now a bigger bet... but still nothing huge. Call. The river brought the Th and a swift bet of 80k from Silke. Colclough thought and thought... and called, mucking in slow motion when Silke showed down the 4s-Qh.

"Probably didn't help that the 4h was exposed," comments perpetrator Hagen. "Nice play!" he adds. "The Force is with You!"

"Maybe you should take better care folding," says DC with a smile.

Brown Gets Jacked

Samuel Oatley raises to 40k from second position and Jamie Brown reraises to 175k from the small blind. Oatley thinks hard for about two minutes, his thought process surely something along the lines of, "He can't bloody have it everytime!" Finally he moves all-in and Brown casually says, "Call," flipping Ad-Qd. Oatley mutters an expletive and shows As-Jc but the board is 2c-6d-7c-Jh-Kc and Brown loses about 40% of his stack and the chip leader status is transferred over to Oatley.

Like Buses...

First off, we lose Sunny Chattha in 13th who was all-in blind after that huge pot loss to Simon Eastwood. Eastwood and Martin Silke checked down a Th-9h-8h-Ah-3s board and the former flipped As-4h, Sunny couldn't find a bigger heart in his hand, only Qs-8d and was knocked out.

Next to fall was Kevin Jenkins in 12th who moved all-in from early position with 4s-4h and Dave Colclough made the call with Ad-As the board coming 6c-6d-Qc-8c-Qh.

Finally, short stack John Baughman succumbed in 11th place pushing with A-5 but running into Sam Oatley's Kings.

After all this frenetic action I think, like Andreas Hagen, I might need a drink.

One more player to bust and we'll have a final table!

Backlund Busts (14h)

Erik Backlund was the first casualty of the tournament, shoving over another Jamie Brown raise (it's like he was just on Pause all night and has carried right on steamrollering his table) with pocket Fives - no match for the mighty Nines of Brown.

Elsewhere Sunny Chattha's been eliminated following a huge confrontation (button to big blind) with Simon Eastwood. Chattha's Qs-5d was up against the As-Kh - four spades on board by the river... Homer has the final hand details, but his expression after the crippling pot says it all...

El Blondie Gets Atomic Double Up

The blinds start today at 8,000/16,000/1,000

Dave Colclough has doubled through Andreas Hagen, the latter limped in the small blind and Andreas raised an additional 36k more from the big blind having asked Colclough how much he had started the day with (260k), Colclough now pushed and Andreas quickly called with Ah-Qc ahead of Colclough's Kh-9h. The board favoured the Englishman coming 6c-4c-5d-Ks-Kc.

Andreas took a deep sigh, then an even deeper drink.

Martin Silke pushed Kevin Jenkins off a pot, moving in over the top of the latter's 35k raise while on the other table Jamie Brown is business as usual, tangling with Julien Legros and winning both pots so far.

About To Start

Players are just unbagging their chips. A sober-looking Andreas Hagen says,"Wait one second, I just need a beer..."

Our dark horse tip for the day is the Frenchman Julien Legros, he's currently the number one online ranked tournament player in France although this is only his second live tournament.

Chip Counts:

Jamie Brown - 797500
Martin Silke - 786000
Cuong Tran - 480500
Julien Legros - 448000
Charles Chattha - 319000
Andreas Hagen - 306500
Luke Trotman - 288500
Samuel Oatley - 263000
David Colclough - 257500
Kevin Jenkins - 232000
Sunny Chattha - 196500
Simon Eastwood - 190500
Erik Backlund - 138000
John Baughman - 82500

Last Five Hands

Dave Colclough gets to pick from the three cards how many more hands we're to play at the end of the night.

As Dave goes betweem thecards, Andreas Hagen shouts "Nineball!!!"

"There's a four, five or six."

"Nineball! One time." shouts Andreas again.

Dave picks out a five.

"Awww man, well at least you didn't pick out an Ace..."

Nothing of interest happens in the last hand, although Hagen picks up the very last pot with the quite memorable quote, "If you don't win the last hand, you're a loser baby!!!"

14 players will return tomorrow from 2pm. We'll see you then.

Final 15 Minutes; Final 15 Players

Well, the evening is winding down, in fact it's officially 2am instead of 1am, which it is really. I'm pretty sure that however you look at it I'm getting less sleep tonight. Daylight savings tilts me.

Dave Colclough is on about 150k and still hanging in there, most recently moving in over the top of a raise from Silke (that's going to happen more, I reckon, given his awkward stack size) but no call. Likewise on the other table Sunny has taken down a Samuel Oatley button raise by moving all in (the hours of his stack-dominion are past, currently).

But what I've mainly been doing as the action slows is fulfilling another of our readers' requests. Snoopy noted that the fine glass of wine I am about to drink very fast bought by John McGrane was misspelled by Homer as McCrane which sounds a bit like a mix between the McClane guy from Die Hard, John McCain from the recent US election, and McGrane, generous poker player, himself. So here's my photoshop as requested: McGrane/Cane/Clane wishing the very best for Black Belt Poker Players Sunny and Chaz Chattha!

Lowering Of The Tone

Tony Dobson pushed all-in soon after from the cutoff and Chaz Chattha made the call from the small blind with Th-Tc flipping against Dobson's Kh-Qd. The Hitsquadder allowed himself a little fistpump on the river of the Ah-3c-7d-3h-Ts board before shaking his unfortunate opponent's hand.

On the other table, Erik Backlund pushed his short stack over Jamie Brown's early position raise, resulting in an autocall from Brown's Qd-Td, Backlund had Ad-Ah but no-one would've been surprised if Brown binked after the board was reading 8d-8s-Js-Jd by the turn, but the river was the 5s helping neither resulting in a little knock for the chip leader.

Dobson's Choice

Although the rate of play on Andreas Hagen's table has slowed down somewhat, there is still the odd big clash going on. Both Sunny Chattha and Tony Dobson have taken back a little of the chip profits made by the inebriated but gregarious Hagen - the latter betting out on the river of a 4d-Ts-Ks-6h-8d board after calling a preflop raise, a flop c-bet and they'd both checked the turn.
"That was bad playing by me," Hagen offers as he passes on the river.

Then Julien Legros, hitherto pretty quiet, takes his turn preflop raising to 31k (the blinds are 5k/10k ante 2k). Tony Dobson calls in the cutoff. The flop comes Jd-6c-Qd. Legros leads out for 47k, and both players look at each other's stacks. A good think later, and Dobson raises his slightly shorter-stacked opponent all-in. He sort of shrugs eventually and calls: Kings for the French tournament pro, Fives for Dobson. The river actually brought a King for good measure and Legros out of nowhere now has around 400k while it is Dobson in critical chip condition.

Hagen The Tension Breaker

Andreas Hagen continues to be the most 'relaxed' person in the cardroom, after raising preflop he fires 36k on a Q-9-4 flop against John Baughman who calls. On the 7 turn Hagen bets 48k and Baughman folds with a sigh.

"I wasn't folding!" said Andreas, telling the table, "I was going all-in, I was committed, I had A-Q. If you had a set, then that would be enough."

After stacking up his chips he walks past me and says loudly, "Shhhhh, don't tell anyone but I had A-5. Hahahah...Have you seen one of my friends? I want another beer."

He then spots a beer at the table, "Is this mine? No? Ahh, I'm having it anyway..."

Two minutes later Henning Granstad brings him another beer and says, "You only have to last one more hour...."

Stack Tran-sformation - Cuong Triples Up

Down to 106,500 exactly, Cuong Tran had to get some chips from somewhere, and as it turned out it would be from two players at once. He moved in preflop, called quickly by neighbour Jamie Brown, as well as by Martin Silke. Tension mounted as the exact amount was sliced off each of the big stacks and put into a tasty pot in the middle.

The flop: Js-Qh-9h. At this Tran gave a little whoop, and in a breach of regular table etiquette flashed everyone behind him his hand and celebrated for just a second - Qc-Qd for the flopped set. I can't imagine the two big stacks in the hand with him missed this, or the fact that he sort of settled down when the turn paired the Nine, and they just checked it down all the way to the river when Tran showed down what everyone gathered he had.

Following on from this he's hardly been out of a pot - check-raising Jamie Brown on a 5d-Qc-6h-8c board after Jamie gave it a 70k shot last I saw of him. Brown instantly passed, btw.

Fake Aces: Even Better Than The Real Thing

Vic Kanwar is the latest to fall beneath Jamie Brown's sword, all-in on the river of a K-2-4-2-4 board, Kanwar showing A-A but Brown's A-4 had got there by the end to eliminate his opponent.

Meanwhile, although Brown is running the best, Andreas Hagen's drinking habits might just be the greatest, he can't stay in his seat, keeps running over to the rail to chat to his Norwegian friends and keeps trying to proposition the very lovely TD Dena into a date...

"Will you have dinner with me? But only...ONLY...if I win the tournament...If I'm second then...no way...I tell you what...just think about it."

Lundberg Busto; Hagen Now Drinking for Norway!

Another Tony Dobson raise found an over-the-top shove - this time it was Jan Lundberg who had raised 46k further. With over 80k in the pot, another frowny call ensued: Dobson's 8c-7c was up against Lundberg's As-Qs.

The flop brought two pair straight away for the suited connectors, and it all eventually came Jd-7s-8s (flush draw hope for a minute) -5c-9h to bring the player number to 17. Lundberg gets £4,500 for his efforts.

Meanwhile tablemate Andreas Hagen appeared to have shown up tipsy and continued drinking all day. The normally reserved Hagen is chatting to everyone, and at the end of this hand exhorted Dobson, "I like that hand!" before fist-bumping him and saying "What did he have?"

Phil from AWOP was filming it all and may have mentioned the phrase 'drunken monkey' in relation to Hagen, whose hearing hasn't been dulled by beer whatsoever.

"Drunken monkey!" he said, "OK but I play good! I play the best when I'm drunk."

Jamie Brown Wins It All Blah Blah Blah. Part XVIII:

Yes, this blog is becoming very much a broken record.

Warren Wooldridge moves in over the top of Jamie Brown's raise, the latter calls with Twos, Wooldridge shows the pair below, A-A for a pair of Ones. The Twos hold, spiking a set on a Jd-3h-2d-Kd-7c board. The Brown bandwagon bounces on, heaving in a stack over 1 million chips now.

Kevin Jenkins has doubled up and then some, he was all-in with Aces against Dave Colclough's Queens and Matthaios Armeftis' Kh-Jc. A board of 2-2-T-9-T left Armeftis bereft and without hope while Colclough has a rather sizeable dent in his stack.

Two tables are left now.

Brown Golden

Jamie Brown gets the boots AGAIN but no action. He advertises anyway, deadpanning, "I need 'em." Cuong Tran says, "Can we have a ruling? You have another deck in your pocket."

Chip Counts before the exit flurry after the break (OUT players with X after them):

Jamie Brown 807500
Martin Silke 637500
Samuel benjamin Oatley 409000
Charles Chattha 338400
Luke Trotman 330500
David Colclough 239000
Vik Kanwar 234500
Julien Legros 197700
Tony Dobson 187500
Cuong Tran 177000
Simon Eastwood 140500
Ramsey Ajram 140300 (X)
Kevin Jenkins 132000
Erik Backlund 123200
Andreas Hagen 122900
Jan Lundberg 108300
Warren Wooldridge 104900
Matthaios Armeftis 98000
John Baughman 80200
Sunny Chattha 72000
Bjorn Li 71200 (X)
Michael Tse 25000 (X)

Exits Aplenty

Ramsey Ajram is out after running As-Js into Martin Silke's Ah-Qd with the board running out Ts-6c-3c-Qh-Ad.

Mikey Tse is out after making a short stack shove with 7-2 and running into Jan Lundberg's Kings with a predictably blank board.

Sunny Chattha has doubled through Vik Kanwar with A-2 vs A-7 blind on blind catching a duck on the 2-J-T-Q-J board.

Yin 'Bjorn' Li is the latest sacrifice to 'He That Runs Like God' Jamie Brown, Jh-9h was no good for Brown's As-Ks.

Time For A Kitkat Convention...

We're on a break.

Jamie Brown has 800k, more than double anyone else, his latest victim was Dave Penly who pushed with Td-9d, Brown of course, holding Aces holding on the 7s-Qc-6h-Js-Qs board.

All the Chips in the Tournament Now On 3 Tables

And here's the spread of them on two tables (in seat order):

Tony Dobson - 215k
Luke Trotman - 320k
Jan Lundberg - 120k
Andreas Hagen - 130k
Chaz Chattha - 300k
Mike Tse - 30k
John Baughman - 86k
Dave Penly - 65k
Warren Wooldridge - 110k

Dave Colclough - 315 (definite Climber of the Day)
Matthaios Armeftis - 130k
Kevin Jenkins - 105k
Simon Eastwood - 128k
Sunny Chattha - 68k (I think - only saw one side of his stack, which has def. shrunk)
Gino Desiena - OUT (He had just 50k and Samuel Oatley busted him with AJ spiking a J)
Vik Kanwar - 145k

Brown-ie Time!

Jamie Brown has switched gears from 'regular lagtard' to 'epic chip getter' in the last ten minutes. First he and Tore Lagerborg go to war with the Norwegian 4-betting all-in preflop with A-Q and Brown snapping him off with A-K. The rollercoaster board coming Q-8-5-2-K to knock Lagerborg out.

Two hands later and he's raising again, Chris Bjorin flat-calls and then Julian Legros moved all-in behind. Brown moved in behind and the Bjorin called all-in with pocket Jacks, Brown flipped Queens and Legros showed the Aces! Legros trebled up while Bjorin was knocked out as Brown took the side pot.

Next to suffer his wrath was Ramsey Ajram who reraised preflop and bet the flop and river of a T-8-4-2-K board, Brown calling with Jacks which were good while Ramsey angrily mucked his cards, having lost 200k in the process.

Andreas Hagen has doubled up to about 140k with Jacks against Dave Penly's Fours, an unneeded 6-card straight for the last remaining Norwegian on a K-9-8-T-Q board.

Connee's Hooks Lose Their Grip, Unlike Tran's

Tony Dobson has found that even though he doesn't raise that often, he seems to get people moving all in or re-raising him almost every time he gets involved. Unable to steal a blind uncontested, he has gamely kept trying despite feeling like, "I have a sign on my head saying whatever you do, just try to beat me." Just now, however, he raised to 20k preflop and found Cathair Connee (trust us if we'd seen him involved earlier there would have been some great puns) moving all in from the small blind.


It turned out that to call was just 24,100 more, and Dobson made it reluctantly, muttering something about hoping Connee didn't have a bigger Ace, as he flipped As-8d. Connee actually had Jacks, but the flop of Ts-Td-Ad suddenly sent them into last place. A third Ten and no rivered Jack meant that we lost 29th place and the prize money for the next exit inches up to £3,000.

Cuong Tran, on the other hand, rejoices in his Jacks as they just doubled him up to 220k after he got his whole stack in pre...against Tore Lagerborg's Queens! Harmless rags until a Jack on the river. Ouch.

Back To Back-lund

Erik Backlund might just be crowned king of crucial flippaments, he's just beaten Trevor Reardon's A-Q with pocket Tens on a K-7-7-6-K board then a couple of hands later he cripples Josh Gould holding 5c-5d vs Ac-Qs on a Kd-Kh-6d-9c-Js board. Gould is the first cashee receiving £2,250 in prize money.

Andreas Hagen has doubled up, his Qs-9s managing to find another lady on a Qd-4s-4c-2s-3h board. "I don't care about money, I just want chips!" cries a man who clearly didn't mind going out drinking until 11am this morning.

Donal Norton = Bubble Boy!

Oh, how hard it is to play for two straight days and be the last player whose exit doesn't involve a trip to the cash desk. With five or six stacks in Desperation Mode, it was actually Donal Norton who got it all in shoving on the button with K-8 (around 40k - very short with the blinds at 4k/8k). As soon as a call was announced by Dave Colclough, the table was surrounded by players and I'm going on second-hand info that Mr. C. had K-3... A Three appeared on the board and a gutted Norton headed for the rail. To get it in not only live when autopushing but dominating only for that mean kicker to pop out is pretty harsh - but the rest of the players are delighted as they're now guaranteed at least £2,250 and safely in the money.

Bubble: Or How I Stood Around For 30 Minutes Waiting For...Something

It's been a very slow process so far, the only action really being between a couple of the big stacks. Jamie Brown - who shows no sign of dropping speed, raising to 14k and then calling Martin Silke's reraise to 33k. Silke bet 45k on the Qs 3s 5c flop which was check/called before firing 85k on the 7s turn. Brown folded this time to these silky skills and got shown As-4c for his troubles.

Other than that, very little is occuring and many of the short stacks are just hanging on despite the fact the blinds have just moved to 4,000/8,000/500. Also, we will be playing 10 levels tonight.

Balancing on the Bubble: The Action Which Brought Us Here

Chip counts from the last break:

Ramsey Ajram 455200
Martin Silke 422700
Jamie Brown 324900
Samuel benjamin Oatley 323300
Luke Trotman 246500
Charles Chattha 218600
Tore Lagerborg 204000
Sunny Chattha 199800
Matthaios Armeftis 157800
David Colclough 150300
Jan Lundberg 147900
Cuong Tran 120300
Joshua Gould 117200
Donal Norton 115900
Christer Bjorin 113300
Tony Dobson 111900
John Baughman 108800
Simon Eastwood 105000
Cathair Conneely 104700
Kevin Jenkins 97100
James Renehan 92800
Erik Backlund 90700
Man Chan 90700
Warren Wooldridge 85100
David Penly 75000
Vik Kanwar 73800
Sami Yusuf 64700
Julien Legros 63500
Michael Tse 57300
Gino Desiena 56300
Hoi Chow 54300
Trevor Reardon 51900
Paul Kerr 47400
Yin Li 43500
Andreas Hagen 42100

Well we're already down to just 33 players here at the GUKPT Vic Main Event, but only 32 get paid. That is known in poker terminology as The Bubble. While Homer tenaciously rails to see who the unlucky 33rd place finisher will be, I bring you some key hands which saw players take shots at doubling up or going home:

The biggest pot without a doubt has gone to Tore Lagerborg, who's been dancing with in-position Jamie Brown for a while. A few hands earlier, Lagerborg had raised to 15k preflop only to be reraised to 41,200 (precisely) by Brown; he instapassed. This time he raised to 15k, was repopped and shipped it all in - called by Brown holding Ac-Kc. Lagerborg's Kd-Ks hit the Q-K-A flop harder than Brown, and although an Ace would have sneaked victory, the Kings held and gave the Norwegian a stack of around 300k - right up there with the leaders.

Dave Penly also doubled up short stack Trevor Reardon (that's mainly what he's done today, double short stacks) with Eights coming up short against Queens.

Both Andreas Hagen and Chris Bjorin have been taking turns shoving when it passes to them in the sb, with the result that they're still in, but undoubled.

Sunny raises in late position and finds short stacked Gino Desiena moving in next to him (the cutoff). Although it's just 29k to call, he hesitates, clearly having raised with air and unhappy about the odds the pot is giving him to take a shot. He takes it - with Qc-6c, and Desiena tables As-Ks, expressing horror at Sunny's raising range. The flop is an emphatic K-J-K-J-Q and Desiena doubles up, letting the table know once again, "He is calling me Queen-Six!!"