The Amazon Room has foregone a transformation of late. Once an endless sea of tables heaving with thousands of salivating poker enthusiasts, just 20 or so tables have been sucked into one segment of the room as the remaining 205 combattants set their sights on a November Nine seat. As for the Pavillion - the room is as barren as the Nevada desert with the only semblance of what occurred over the last two months being the empty stage which played host to the bracelet ceremonies.
Five Brits entered the battlefield today, but when the smoke had cleared and the dust had settled, we were left with just the one lone soldier in Redmond Lee. Whilst all eyes were on established UK talents such as JP Kelly and Praz Bansi, Redmond quietly passed under the radar, his lack of mention in the mainstream updates not only highlighting a reserved persona, but also his ability to play the silent assassin and scale the ranks unnoticed.
I've only met Redmond a couple of times. He's a 24-year old online pro from, I believe, London, who almost participated in the inaugural Black Belt Poker Grading. He's a friendly, amicable lad, and when I crossed his path at the Sports Deli in the Rio, we had an interesting chat about his progress. Redmond revealed that he hadn't been involved in too many hands, and that the most crucial one was his triple through the day prior when he was down to half a million, his queens holding up against A-Q and A-T.
For most of Day 6, he was steadier than a spirit level, inching his starting stack of 998,000 to 1,500,000 where he spent much of the day. He seems to have evaded the big pots, and his only elimination was of Tony Brace, who moved all in for 97,000 with sixes. Redmond picked up pocket jacks and hit a third on the flop to virtually seal the deal.
"I don't know too much about my opponents," he revealed. "I played Bryn Kenney for a while and he's really good, made my life tricky. Jean-Robert Bellande makes some strange plays that you see some live players make. He's not bad or anything, just that there isn't always logic to what he does. He loves to talk and reminds me of Hellmuth. He called a 22 big blind shove with K-7 and spent the next 10 minutes trying to explain why he called. He's entertaining, though."
Just as the day was drawing to a close, Redmond increased his stack to 2,200,000. I didn't catch the hand, but the timing was perfect, his last ditch double through taking him out of the danger zone and in with a great shot of making a serious impact on this year's Main Event. He's still a step or two off the pace, but another double up and he'll be right up their in the chasing pack.
In all, though, it's been a disappointing showing from the Brits. JP Kelly, in particular, seemed to be picking up momentum at precisely the right moment, but today he just couldn't get going and was eliminated in a disappointing 111th place for $57,102 when his tens were out-gunned by Theo Jorgensen's A-J on an A-A-9-3-Q rainbow board.
The killer hand, however, came the level previous. I caught the action on the turn of an 8d-9h-Jh-Ad board. It looked as though JP had led, his neighbor raised, and JP called. On the Ts river, JP bet 500,000. "Sick," said his opponent holding his arms aloft. Judging by his reaction, I thought he was going to fold, but he ultimately made the call with Tc-7h for the flopped straight. JP mucked to leave himself with under 600,000. It was a deficit he was unable to recover from.
Also suffering an early exit was Jamie Brown, a high stakes pro who plays as high as $25/50 No Limit Hold'em. Jamie only plays tournaments at local festivals and the World Series, but nevetheless has won more money than most with two GUKPT finals, 14th in a WPT for $60,080, and 89th in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $57,991.
Jamie was short for most of the event, but had a good Day 4 to bring himself into contention. On Day 5, he really started to excel. Many who have played him will know how dangerous he is. Yesterday he called a three-barrell king high bluff with pocket threes and, before that, he called a donk shove from a short stack in a five-way pot with a jack high flush draw. His opponent held 7-3 for a gutshot straight draw and Jamie's hand held up to knock him out. Of course, he's received the occasional spot of good fortune, and was lucky enough to win an A-K versus A-K encounter when he hit runner, runner for a diamond flush.
Unfortunately, Jamie couldn't better his feat from last year, finishing in 180th place for $48,847. On his final hand, he pushed all in with A-K and was called in two spots: Damien Luis and Pejmanpatric Eskandar. The board came Qc-Th-2s-3d-4h, but despite getting it in ahead, Jamie exited to the Ah-Qd of Luis whilst Eskandar just missed out with Kh-Qh.
The other two Brits playing Day 6 were Javed Abahams and Justin Tzelaar. Described as a "solid player" by Praz Bansi, Javed sung his swan song with As-Qs versus the Jd-9s of Alexander Kostritsyn on a jack high two spade flop. Both turn and river were blanks. Tzelaar, meanwhile, was equally unfortunate, his As-Qh unable to improve all in on a 3s-6s-2s flop against the Ts-Td of Meenaskshi Subramaniam. Once again, a lack of spades proved the UK's downfall.
And so, the November Nine beckons. With just 80 remaining, we're within touching distance of creating nine more millionaires. Current favourite to join that elite club is Theo Jorgensen with 9,295,000, but breathing down his neck is Michael Mizrachi on 7,535,000. We may have lost Johnny Chan, Phil Galfond and Juha Helppi, but if the wind blows the right way we can still unearth a star-studded final with Johnny Lodden, David Benyamine, William Thorson, Scott Clements and Jean-Robert Bellande all still alive.
Day 7 starts at 12pm. 27 will survive. The shit just got serious.
James Fennell -- 3,225,000
Redmond Lee -- 2,200,000
111th JP Kelly -- $57,102
123rd Justin Tazelaar -- $57,102
147th Javed Abrahams -- $57,120
180th Jamie Brown -- $48,847
232nd Richard Ellis -- $48,847
239th Mark Teltscher -- $48,847
240th Praz Bansi -- $48,847
241st Neil McFayden -- $48,847
256th Jan Boye -- $41,967
267th Padraig Parkinson -- $41,967
281st John Kabbaj -- $41,967
285th Tomas MacNamara -- $41,967
332nd Susan Nordsen -- $36,463
370th Ben Blackmore -- $36,463
389th Mark Dalimore -- $31,647
422nd Richard Sinclair -- $31,647
501st Rory Rees Brennan -- $27,519
536th Roy Vandersluis -- $24,079
542nd Matthew Ireland -- $24,079
556th Darren Woods -- $24.079
572nd Simon Taylor -- $24,079
582nd George McKeever -- $24,079
591st Chris Bjorin -- $24,079
652nd Gregory Howard -- $21,327
656th Dan Carter -- $21,327
672nd Mel Judah -- $21,327
743rd Priyan de Mel -- $19,263
Previous WSOP Reports: Vegas Blog:
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
WSOP Main Event - Day 1D
WSOP Main Event - Day 2A
WSOP Main Event - Day 2B
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
July 10: Running on Empty
July 15: An Excuse to Party
July 16: For for Thought
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