WSOP Main Event - Day 1D

"Blue... Blue... Blue... Blue Belts! Hooooo!"

Neil Channing may not quite possess the physical attributes of Lion-O, but when he lifted his sword aloft earlier this week, two Black Belt warriors snap-called. Looking for a little bit of extra value at this year's World Series, Black Belt Poker co-founder Neil Channing shocked Facebook users when he posted a message offering to buy people into the $10,000 Main Event. The only condition? You had to be a Blue Belt.

Having successfully completed this year’s Grading process, Blue Belts Kevin Williams and Jamie Burland bit Channing off at the arm like alligators with toothache and swiftly booked a last-minute flight to Vegas. As a result of Channing’s generosity, they found themselves seated in the Pavillion Room at 12pm this afternoon, freerolling for the chance to become the 2010 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion.

“This is just one of the many perks of being a player on Black Belt Poker,” commented Channing. “We can’t necessarily compete on the scale of the top two cardrooms, but we look after our players and we hope that Black Belt Poker is just a bit different to other poker sites. This is one of the ways we prove that. Our sponsored pros often get the benefits of my sudden moments of madness. They have shown loyalty to us and I like to invest in them.”

Despite this being the second largest field in history with 7,391 (2,391 for Day 1D) competing over a total prize pool of $68,798,600, Jamie ended up on the same table as two notable players: Shawn Sheikhan and Layne Flack. "I didn't know who Flack was at first," confessed Jamie. "It wasn't until Owen [Robinson] told me that I realised. He played a pretty strange game but was good entertainment value."

With one hour to spare, Jamie had just over 40,000 (starting stack of 30,000), and was brooding over a hand in which he doubled up Sheikhan. "He raised to 800, I made it 2,300 in the big blind with Q-Q and he immediately called. I then check-called his 7,000 ship on a K-9-3 two hearts flop and he turned over K-T. I thought that was pretty bad for him to call off a quarter of his stack preflop with that hand."

Not too far away, Kevin was busy battling Jack Ury, who, at 97-years of age, was breaking his own record of being the oldest player in WSOP history to play the Main Event. Despite the threat of Ury five-bet snap-jamming for da crazy dimes, Kevin managed to maneouvre his way up to 34,000, but then lost a pot at the 100/200 level with Q-T on a K-J-3-9-K rainbow board to sink to 20,000. Later on, he doubled up with a set of queens and headed into the dinner break with 42,000. Sadly, and despite a peak of 48,000, Kevin found himself warming up the rail when he ran pocket jacks into a flopped set of eights on a ten high flop. For Kevin, the dream was over.

Also participating in the final starting day was former Grader Eoin Kennedy, and current Blue Belt Chaz Chattha. Whilst Eoin is confirmed busto - "Last three hours did not go well. I lost a series of posts and went out on the last level" - Chaz was still alive with one hour remaining with a respectable 48,000. During one of the breaks, he retold an interesting hand involving Michael Binger. With a limper before him, Chaz opted to limp A-K before calling a raise to 1,000 from Binger. The flop came 9-6-3 with two clubs and Chaz check-called a bet of 1,800 before check-calling 4,400 on the K turn. On the 9 river, Chaz led for 4,000, Binger raised to 13,000 and Chaz called, only to catch Binger bluffing with A-J. "I put him on that type of hand on the flop. When he raised the river, I thought he thought that my bet was a stopper bet with a small pair and that he could push me off it."

Finally, we had our two online qualifiers: Mandy Card and Alan Vinson who survived the day with 34,500 and 5,400 respectively. Obviously, Alan didn't experience a fruitful session, and at one time felt obliged to release pocket kings preflop. Meanwhile, Mandy, who was making her debut in both Vegas and WSOP having earned her seat for just $8.80, enjoyed a steady day, her stack peaking at 43,000 and hitting a low of 19,000. "I have a friendly table," she reported early doors, "Just a couple of aggressive players. I went down to 21,000 pretty early on when this guy called my raise with A-K preflop, then called me down on an A-4-x-K-4 board with just a 4 for trips on the river."

Fortunately, Mandy managed to battle back, and was able to use her tight image to good effect. With a raise and a reraise before her, she decided to apply the pressure with pocket tens by four-betting. Just the reraiser called. Both players checked the A-Q-J flop, but then Mandy took it down with a bet on the 2 turn, her opponent - somewhat arrogantly, perhaps - revealed pocket kings face up and declared confidently, "I know you have aces."

"At the start," she continued, "I had an Internet pro to my right and if I three-bet him, he would just fold, so I got away with a few bluffs. Later on I got tired and made some bad moves out of position, but then I woke up and started chipping up gradually again."

Tomorrow, the survivors from Day 1A and 1C will combine to form Day 2A, meaning that there are a plethora of UK players who will be flying the flag including the likes of Jeff Kimber, James Mitchell, Dan Carter, Jeff Duvall, Steve Jelinek, Tim Flanders, James Dempsey, John Kabbaj, Roland De Wolfe and Laurence Houghton to name just a few. Also returning will be Blue Belt Owen Robinson, looking to build on his 14,250 stack and get that one step close to a November Nine seat.

Official (known) UK Day 1C counts:

Barny Boatman -- 144,050
Christopher Brice -- 69,975
Padraig Parkinson -- 64,100
Andrew Teng -- 63,650
Dale Phillips -- 61,150
Terrence Cook - 60,075
Adam York -- 56,425
David Ulliott -- 55,000
JP Kelly -- 53,075
Deepak Bhatti -- 52,725
Sunny Chattha -- 51,625
Richard Grace -- 49,050
Andrew Seden -- 44,175
Jack Powell -- 40,800
Tim Blake -- 40,075
Karl Fenton -- 39,750
Dave Colclough -- 39,325
Paul Gourlay -- 35,825
Nicky Power -- 33,925
John Conroy -- 29,750
Dara O'Kearney -- 27,650
Jerome Bradpiece -- 23,300
Warren Wooldridge -- 19,525
Kevin O'Leary -- 22,675
Mike Ellis -- 22,575
Joel Ettedgi -- 22,300
Eoin Olin -- 20,750
Tristan McDonald -- 19,900
Christopher Brammer -- 14,125
Tony Salmon -- 12,200
Ben Roberts -- 7,725
Michael Greco -- 5,850

Previous WSOP Reports:

Employee of the Month
Fairytale Endings
Must Be Nice
Make Mine a Double
Blonde on Blonde
Summer of Sam
Chuft to Bits
Under the Radar
Taking Notice
BBP Braced for WSOP Main Event
WSOP Main Event - Day 1A
WSOP Main Event - Day 1B
WSOP Main Event - Day 1C

Vegas Blog:

May 23: My Old School Teacher
May 31: Welcome to America; Let the Institutionalising Begin
June 1: Pleasure & Pain
June 5: 100% British Beef
June 9: Alphabetti Spaghetti & Giant Meatballs
June 13: Colour Me Up
June 14: The Crying Game
June 20: Last Gasps
June 25: Dancing With the Devil
June 30: The End of a Streak
July 6: Tournament of Famous People