Reid Em and Weep

Mystery of the day is Adam Reid, who left his stack untended through the entire day and finally blinded out. However his 42k, while right at the bottom, managed to see him all the way through to 31st place, where he earned $300 in the 3rd pay bracket! You can't say Black Belt structures aren't pretty good...

G.P. is Tournament Doctor

G.P. of course being Giovanni Pennetta. Racking up a 655k stack and the chip lead here in level 19. He just busted both Priyan de Mel and Jerome Bradpiece - in the last 15 minutes! That must be a record for busting GUKPT champs - vs. de Mel he flopped the nut straight, apparently, while he took a while to get it in preflop against Bradpiece.

Purple Belt Jerome had moved in for a further 95k into a pot of now 75k from the blinds and was busy talking him into something... "I'm obviously winning, let's see how lucky you are.." Pennetta sat back, arms crossed, and considered his opponent (whom he'd given plenty of credit earlier in the tournament, apparently).

"I don't know, I have a strange feeling," said Pennetta.
"Fold then, please!" replied Bradpiece, "When anyone says they have a strange feeling they tend to flop the nuts..."

Well, he did get a call from Pennetta's Q-K off, and his As-Js was instantly outflopped by a Queen. No help, and he hits the rail in 26th.

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.

Playing The Pham Game

Neil Channing, definitely the most thematically dressed Black Belt player, has finally been eliminated, just when it was starting to look like a deep finish for the original poker blackbelt might be on the cards.

A couple of pairs, namely 77 on the button (out-raced by small blind Karim Louis' AK) and then TT the very next hand (which ran smack into Kings) were responsible for his elimination. Winning $250, he displayed the same crestfallen response to busting out as Nik Persaud did yesterday. They compared notes on the rail before his attention started being pulled in two directions - the remaining 36 players battling for the title here, and the cash game nestled in the far side of the room...

Chips at First Break

Who's vying for the lead now? Why - it's Day 1B chip leader Neil Suarez, almost doubling his stack in these last three levels to a half mil position.

Neil Suarez - 519,000
Joe Laming - 315,500
Jeremy Bakes - 252,000
Scott Mcgovern - 238,500
Daniel Laming - 226,000
Giovanni Pennetta - 220,500
Toby Lewis - 212,500
Dean Aldred - 192,500
Priyan de Mel - 188,000
Robert Stain - 169,500
Pratik Ghatge - 169,500
Jack Mcdermott - 169,500
Peter Wigglesworth - 166,000
Nicholas Aly - 161,500
Warren Wooldridge - 160,000
Douglas Hogan - 158,000
Jerome Bradpiece - 151,000
Hugo Martin - 142,000
Craig Wakeham - 126,500
Glenn Laming - 125,000
Shane Dewsbury - 124,500
Michael Hyam - 121,500
Gregory Bert - 115,500
Neil Channing - 110,000
Daniel Williams - 110,000
Paul Pham - 109,000
Roy Farranat - 108,000
Tim Magnus - 104,000
Chun Law - 103,500
Stephen Dickson - 102,500
Nicholas Stinson - 100,500
Karim Louis - 94,000
David Sparks - 92,500
Paul Zimbler - 87,500
Stephen Draper - 86,000
Jamie Roberts - 71,000
Richard Willoughby - 57,500
Tomasz Jedlecki - 51,000
Jon Neale - 42,000
Adam Reid - 41,500

This Just In.... Busted players in the money so far:

41 Diane Ambler $250
42 Ermyas Birru $250 (pictured below)
43 Lesley Kumar $250
44 Hassan Uddin $200
45 Wilson Chan $200
46 Lewis Higham $200
47 Tom Drew $200
48 Antonis Poulengeris $200
49 Mark Norman $200
50 Darren White $200

Bubble Near-Misses, then Bubble HIT

Action on table 6! Antonis Poulengeris just put Joe Laming to a big decision, moving all in over the top of three-betting big blind Jack McDermott. Laming tanked, then passed, going a bit mental when Poulengeris revealed Jacks vs. McDermott's A-K off. "Move all in with Jacks!" he fumed, "I passed Kings, what you do that for...?" Regardless of this eyebrow-raising fold, the AK hit an Ace anyway and doubled him up to 140k.

Then.... Jacks no good again, Henry Stafford getting them in against the AQ of neighbour Lewis Higham. That's it, the bubble bursts, everyone left of the 50 still in their seats is guaranteed at least $200 for their efforts!

Orange Belt Last Longer WON!

By Craig Wakeham, Toby Lewis, Tom Drew and Giovanni Pennetta.







































Congratulations gents and enjoy your extra $500! Pictures coming soon, and of Orange-bubbler Simon Morris (below), to whom our condolences go as the regular prize bubble stretches out like it's made of rubber...

Joe Laming Picks off Bounty Dave Colclough

Well, it's easier when you flop top set on a 3-6-8 flop and your opponent (who's been pretty active, I saw him all in pre (no call) twice earlier, and setting Tom Drew in on a Jh-8s-Js flop with no further action) holds a set of sixes. Dave Colclough in the big blind had seen the flop along with a second caller, and Joe Laming's lucky 888 won him a decent pot and sent El Blondie to the rail. Laming up to a respectable 230k and we're nearly bubbling, with 52 players remaining...

"Ship It To the Old-school Dinosaur!"

So said Neil Channing, after a strange hand gave him a good few thousand. "There were seven limpers. That's what we have on this table," he mused, "Seven limpers!"

Paul Zimbler and Phil the Tower overheard this and were shaking their heads. Phil said, "Wow, seven limpers in level 14..." while Zimbler complained, "I don't know how he gets away with it!"

Seconds later and we hear he's doubled up to 112k, running pret-ty good on Day Two.

Possibly on the flip side of this hand, now severely stacked Man Kit Tung moved in preflop for just 11,400, looking callable (the blinds 1.5k/3k) even to big blind Karim Louis with his Jd-2h. Tung was in good shape to double up to just super-short with his dominating Ks-2d but the deck had other ideas. The board came Ts-7d-Tc...6c... Jc and the river sent him packing.

Day Two Combines the Field, Chews it Up, Spits it Out

70 players reconvened to play first to the money (at 50th place) and then on to a winner, who'll get a $15,000 top prize, extremely impressive trophy, and place in Black Belt history as the first live event Champion!

Already we're on a bubble of sorts - the Orange Belt Last Longer is in its final stage, with just five players playing for four $500 last-longer bonuses. Hitting the rail in the first exits of the day were two of the remaining Orange Belts - John Hayes and Andrea Bocchiero, leaving in contention Simon Morris, Craig Wakeham, Giovanni Pennetta, Tom Drew and chip leader Toby Lewis!

Day 1B Concludes

At the close of Day 1B, it's Neil Suarez (pictured) who leads the way.


Neil Suarez -- 293,200
Priyan de Mel -- 176,000
Chris Wood -- 164,000
Dean Aldred -- 158,700
Jeremey Bakes -- 152,900
Daniel Laming -- 129,600
Glenn Laming -- 122,400
Robert Stain -- 121,900
Joe Laming -- 110,400
Michael Hyam -- 108,800
Mark Norman -- 100,500
Paul Zimbler -- 100,100
Warren Wooldridge -- 90,700
Lesley Kumar -- 90,700
David Sparks -- 77,500
Daniel Williams -- 77,200
Dianne Ambler -- 75,600
Jamie Roberts -- 77,100
Steve Dickson -- 76,500
Jon Neale -- 69,900
Paul Pham -- 69,000
Richard Willoby -- 63,200
Paul Garnham -- 60,900
Roy Farranat -- 57,600
Tim Magnus -- 41,700
Martin Taylor -- 40,700
John Hayes -- 39,100
Mike Tse -- 33,500
Frank Lippitt -- 32,400
Simon Morris -- 31,800
Harry Stafford -- 28,100
Gary Graham -- 27,300
Simon Tung -- 26,800
Jay Patel -- 26,500
Gregory Bert -- 25,900
Jason Lam -- 24,200

Play resumes tomorrow at 12pm, sharp... unless Channing gets on the mike.

Ghazi Down the Kazi; Stoned to Death

Deep into the final level of the night we witnessed a double whammy that bore witness to another couple of exits. When I joined the action, the hands were on their backs with two players - not coincidentally, I expect, the two with the inferior hands - all in and their tournament life on the line.

Joe Laming had both opponents by the short and curlies with Ac-Ad versus Javed Ghazi's Ks-Kh and Elizabeth Stone's 7h-7d. Despite the "one time" demand of Ghazi, the board ran out a rather dry and uninspiring 8s-5h-2c-2s-5c to give Laming the pot, and his two foes the door.


On the same table, but several hands later, we finally lost bounty Marty Smyth. Despite a dogged will to survive that would have had Bear Grylls applauding from the sidelines, he was eventually put down by Steve Dickson, the Purple Belt desposing of his man with pocket jacks holding up against threes.

A Lot of Action

The last level saw more action than a Die Hard boxset with the following players left to hail down a taxi:

Robert Weston
Simon Girling
Azzy Asghar
Simon Herrick
Gladys Long
Patryk Wlodarski
Del Snelling
Nick Mazur
Gerald Ringe
Warren Jackman
Simon Fossat
Richard Hurst
Dominic Harrison
Tristan McDonald
Gerard Harraghy
Darren Sprengers
Chris Ambler
Richard Eatock
Alan Steer
Christopher Andreou
Joel Hughes
Maxcel Verdugo

Of those, I was able to witness Girling's exit, Kd-Qh unable to topple the As-Kc of Gregory Bert on a 7s-9c-9s-2s-3d board.

One player who did evade the list though was Dianne Ambler. She was able to crack aces with pocket queens, a third lady on the turn making her push for 26,400 a lucrative one and increasing her stack two fold.

Steve Dickson is also still in with 45,000.

It's a Funny Ol' Game

The room has been on absolute tenterhooks these past few moments as final bounty Marty Smyth has been poking his feet over the edge of the cliff and looking odds on to fall. He wouldn't be anywhere near the coast, however, if he hadn't been dealt a blow by the Poker Gods.

With a short stack pushing all in from early position with Ah-7h, Smyth made a brave, but justified call with As-9s, only to have the board come 6c-Jd-Kh-Qh... 7d for a rivered pair. A few hands later, and down to several thousand, he was all in himself, on the verge of departure wih 9h-6s versus Ad-Qc. Again, I'm going to need the dots, as the board came 4d-Js-4s-3h... 6d to keep the Irishman alive, and save the bounty from the jaws of defeat.

Meanwhile, chip leader Warren Wooldidge just raced over to the press area with an excited look on his face matched only by his offspring on Christmas Eve: "Snoops, Snoops!" he exclaimed. "You have to listen to this pot. I limped under the gun with fours and there were no fewer than six callers. It got round to the big blind who then pushed all in for 20,000."

"Tell me you folded..." I inquired.

"I made it 100,000," continued Wooldridge, "... and the limpers folded. When I turned my hand over he said, 'I've got one overcard' and showed 6-2, but the board came five straight cards to split the pot!"

Graded Down

We're two Graders - and two Irishmen - down: Gerard Harraghy and Marty Rice.

The latter was the victim of the rampaging rhinoceros that is Warren Wooldridge who is sucking up chips like a Dyson on speed. Rice was, of course, the latest recipient, three-betting Wooldridge's open of 3,000 to 11,000 from the big blind with kings, before getting his remaining 29,000 in on the jack high flop. Wooldridge, however, had flopped a set of eights, which duly held up on a cowboy-less turn and river.


Harraghy, meanwhile, had a slightly less formidable holding, calling a three-bet with K-Q before check-raising all in on a raggy flop. Unfortunately, his foe had bullets and shoved his chips in quicker than a pack of wolves on a three-legged cat. As for Gerard and his miracle runner-runner? Well, that failed to arrive, and he ended up like the three-legged cat - battered, brusied and slightly stunned.

Post-Dinner Hospital Queue

The dinner-break steaks are normally enough to leave people bloated and reluctant to move their chips upon return, but not so today as players have been falling like whippets from a plane. Within just a few hands we lost both Annabel Jones and Keir Fitzgibbon, whilst not long later Mandy Card followed suit. Faced with a min-raise (from pocket threes, it later emerged), Card shoved all in with A-J, but ran into both A-K and A-A to leave her in a situation that not even Houdini could have escaped from. A dry board later and yes, she was indeed gone.


In fact, as I write, we are still losing players. The current post-dinner hospital queue now looks like such:

George Frangeskou
Simon Wing
Samuel Fossat
Adam Frampton
Amanda Card
Dennis Vanmaanen
Laurence Houghton
Rita Gilroy
Keir Fitzgibbon
Annabel Jones
Philip Taylor Milden
Gareth Cash
Michael Carr
Paul Harrison

Dinner Break Chip Counts

Warren Wooldridge - 131,000
Neil Suarez - 102,200
Priyan De mel - 88,300
Dean Aldred - 81,800
Chris Wood - 81,500
Joe Laming - 77,700
Jeremy Bakes - 74,700
Del Snelling - 73,900
Rory Liffey - 72,800
Jason Lam - 71,600
Martin Rice - 69,900
Lesley Kumar - 66,200
Jon Neale - 62,700
Paul Zimbler - 62,600
Robert Stain - 60,400
Jay Patel - 59,900
Michael Hyam - 55,900
Gary Graham - 53,700
Richard Willoughby - 52,000
Mark Norman - 51,200
Azzy Asghar - 51,200
John Hayes - 51,100
Daniel Laming - 50,400
Keir Fitzgibbon - 46,800
Thibault Richard - 46,700
Elizabeth Stone - 46,400
Patryk Wlodarski - 46,400
Dominic Harrison - 46,100
Gerard Harraghy - 43,800
Glenn Laming - 43,600
Roy Farranat - 41,600
Chris Ambler - 41,100
Nick Mazur - 39,800
Gerald Ringe - 39,600
Kashif Shirazi - 39,100
Paul Garnham - 37,600
Jason Tennant - 37,100
Javed Ghazi - 36,100
Alan Steer - 35,300
Michael Tse - 33,400
Daniel Williams - 31,400
Jamie Roberts - 30,200
Chris Poutashi - 29,400
Rita Gilroy - 27,900
Gregory Bert - 26,900
Martin Taylor - 26,400
Robert Weston - 25,500
Marty Smyth - 24,800
Stephen Dickson - 24,100
David Sparks - 22,400
Richard Hurst - 21,600
Henry Stafford - 21,000
Frank Lippitt - 20,300
Warren Jackman - 20,000
Tim Magnus - 18,900
Simon Wing - 18,800
Man kit Tung - 18,400
Simon Fossat - 17,900
Diane Ambler - 17,300
Christopher Andreou - 17,000
Tristan Mcdonald - 16,700
Amanda Card - 16,200
Samuel Fossat - 15,400
Simon Girling - 14,800
Richard Eatock - 14,000
Joel Hughes - 13,900
Gareth Cash - 13,600
Annabel Jones - 13,400
Darren Sprengers - 13,400
Philip Taylor Mildon - 13,300
Gladys Long - 13,000
Paul Pham - 12,900
Simon Herrick - 12,200
Adam Frampton - 11,900
Dennis Vanmaanen - 11,600
Simon Morris - 11,100
Laurence Houghton - 10,900
Maxcel Verdugo - 5,100
George Frangeskou - 4,100

Persaud Runs into a Warren

As we crawl towards the break, the third bounty of the day falls in the shape of Black Belt Poker co-founder Nik Persaud. It was CEO Warren Wooldridge who lit the opening spark, raising to 2,200 from early position. Persaud (hijack) and Marty Rice (big blind) both called. After a 9c-4c-6d flop hit the felt, it was checked round to Persaud who sat back in his chair, undertook a quick count of both his chips and the pot, and nonchalently announced all in for 19,500.

Rice folded without hesistation but Wooldridge, perhaps influenced by the obvious lure of a belt and signed photo of his colleague, was less hospitable and dipped into the tank. "You can work out what I have," claimed Persaud. "I have an open-ended straight draw. I'm a favourite, so you can call it off now." "I call," replied Wooldrige flipping Qc-6s. He wasn't lying, confirmed the dealer as Persaud tabled 8c-7c.


"It's not coming," smirked Paul Garnham shaking his head as the 4h turn hit the felt, and he was right to be synical as the river came a Qd to give Wooldridge two pair and leave Persaud with little more than a missed monster draw.

Speaking of monsters, Wooldridge's stack has grown into a beast!

And on that note, we head into the dinner break. Back in 45 minutes.

De Wolfe in Da House

Senseis Persaud and Channing joined by Roland De Wolfe and Black Belt Poker League III winner David Meuiner.

The two jokers in the pack.

Bounty Check

Both the scalps of Nik Persaud (35,000) and Marty Smyth (26,500) are in tact, meaning the prize belts remain firmly in my grasp.



David La Ronde has been less fortunate and is now a member of the ever-incraesing list of walking wounded after running "A-K into aces" and "kings into queens."