Easy Game in Theory, Tough in Pratik

Even though it looked like Pratik Ghatge had threebet shorterstacked Richard Willoughby with Jc-Js preflop, he still took his time thinking about the call when Willoughby moved in on him for 105k more. The chips were neatly laid out, and when he finally threw in the call, he was probably relieved to see Ah-Jh in his opponent's hand. No Ace for Willoughby and he exits in 32nd place, not looking too disheartened with his $300 and performance overall.

Meanwhile, Jon Neale moved in preflop with a shortish stacked A-K, only to find Scott McGovern giving him a spin with Ad-5d. That was looking good until the flop came Ac-8d-5h, and with no help from the Jh-Qs turn and river, a disappointed Neale said that although making it to the $350 pay bracket was nice and all, "It wasn't really what I was going for at this stage."

With Neale's elimination, I believe we're down to just three high Belts here: Jerome Bradpiece, Steve Dickson and Warren Wooldridge are Purple Belt and eligible to win $15,000 extra if they capture the top spot. They're currently on the same table (along with Priyan de Mel and Craig Wakeham) and it's an interesting one to watch.


Bradpiece: From short stack exit-teeterer yesterday, to 130k and a tableside steak sandwich today.