20.21

FINAL DAY 3 CHIP COUNTS

This is how the players will line up when they resume tomorrow.

1,271,000 1 6 Safina, Giovanni
720,000 1 8 Quoss, Fabian
685,000 2 6 Thorsson, Kristoffer
538,000 1 7 Cody, Jake
520,000 1 1 Teatum, Gareth
386,000 2 3 Dwyer, John
367,000 2 2 Mohammed, Barkatul
363,000 2 8 Khosa, Sandiep
356,000 1 2 Patrick, Philip
295,000 2 1 Mattsson Saarisilta, Nichlas
250,000 1 5 Schultz, Jorg
215,000 2 5 Shakerchi, Talal
209,000 2 4 Pavlou, Mario
207,000 1 9 Atkinson, Bruce
186,000 1 4 De-Mel, Priyan
142,000 1 3 Bajarian, Bahman
105,000 2 9 Martin, William
59,000 2 7 Limbert, Karl

And these are the prizes they will be playing for when they return.

1 – £273,783
2 – £176,979
3 – £93,316
4 – £56,311
5 – £42,233
6 – £34,189
7 – £26,144
8 – £18,100
9 – £12,871
10 – 12 – £10,457
13 – 15 – £9,653
16 – 18 – £8,848

For now though, that’s it from us!

Thanks for following and make sure you join up with us tomorrow at 12 p.m when we will determine our final table line-up.

There’s plenty of poker to play before then though! We’ll see you then.

20.04

Bubble Bursts!

Well it was a sick exit in the end to finish off the bubble.

And it was the man most under pressure who fell, the shortstacked Victor Ilyukhin finally taking a stand, shoving with for only around 30k when Sandiep Khosa limped in from the button for 8k.

“Well I’m live,” said Sandiep before calling with just 3-2 for one of the worst hands in poker.

Ilyukhin, sporting a “Jesus Died For Our Sins” T-Shirt stood up and watched the board deliver a harsh beat, coming to give the fortunate Khosa two pair and send him crashing out just a smidgen short of the payout spots.

We expected histrionics given his outburst to the dealer earlier but he just shrugged, resigned to his fate, and left the arena.

Meanwhile everyone else was in highly buoyant mood, having all secured a payday at least, they can start looking toward the prospect of a WPT final table and perhaps the title.

Well we’ve had another intriguing day play out here at the Palm Beach and it has come to an end with 18 still in the hunt. We’ll be posting up final chip counts shortly but for now, thanks for following and make sure you join us tomorrow at 12 as we play down from 18 to the final table.

We’ll see you there!

19.50

Adam Carroll has been throwing his chips around with abandon – unlike most with a big money payout looming.

He just threw them one too many times however…

Giovanni Safina has been relatively quiet as of late compared to his earlier antics so it was a surprise to see Adam Carroll tangle with him for his not inconsiderable stack of 330k or so preflop.

Safina had him in big trouble however – his pocket kings leaving Carroll’s tens drawing at two outs and by the time the river had come and gone…he had none.

“I had a rush of blood to the head…” he said as he zipped out of the casino the 20th place finisher.

Meanwhile Giovanni Safina pads his stack to the tune of 330k, meaning he now has close to 1.2 million chips and is back in the chip lead.

19.38

Bubbling With Rage

With twenty players left, and just 18 paid, things are getting more than a little tense.

Most players have tightened up considerably at this point and for some of the shortstacks, tempers are beginning to fray a little in the intense pressure.

Take Victor Iilyukhin.

With just 40k, he was into the big blind for 8k and he watched the button – Philip Patrick – raise it up to 21k.

He looked at his hand and sighed and threw it away – only to take umbrage at some perceived slight from the dealer.

“What is this? I play for three days and you think it’s ok to laugh at me? It’s so unprofessional. ” He continued the angry exchange with one of the floor staff, but then suddenly…we had an allin!

Following shortly…

19.16

Kamal’s Got The Hump

Obvious joke, but true. Because he’s out, having three-bet an opening raiser for his stack with ace-ten, he didn’t realise Jake Cody would wake up with kings behind him.

Run better Jake!

Cody knocks another out and suddenly we’re down to just 21…Cody up to 550k+

19.11

From Tiny Acorns, Mighty Oaks Grow

John Dwyer is a prime example of why you should never give up in poker. He’s battled with a shortstack seemingly most of this tournament but has hung in there and is just starting to reap the rewards…

He doubled up twice – firstly shipping his 85k stack with ace-seven over the top of an Adam Carroll raise (Carroll called with T-7) and was delighted to be dominating his opponent’s weak hand.

The board blanked out and suddenly he had 170k…

Next up he became embroiled in a big pot with Saarisilta Mattsson, the last of Dwyer’s chips going in on the turn of a board.

When asked to flip their cards, Dwyer showed pocket sevens for a set and Mattsson just mucked his cards.

“I’m drawing dead,” he said.

Suddenly John Dwyer has made a Rocky-esque recovery, battered and bruised and almost out, he has found a way to get back into this contest.

Soon, he’ll be shouting “Adriaaan,” across the poker room. We can feel it…

19.02

Shak Attacked

Talal Shakerchi has been dealt a potentially fatal blow, having seen Adam Carroll move in pre-flop, he was busy considering his options, whilst Carroll just covered his face with his baseball cap so as not to give off anything.

Shakerchi tried to interrogate him but the cap wasn’t budging and Carroll gave nothing away.

Eventually Shakerchi said, “I call” decisively, although when the cards were flipped he was decisively behind – his A-Q well behind Carroll’s pocket aces.

There was no redemption on flop, turn and river and suddenly Carroll was on close to 300k whilst Shakerchi was crippled.

Not fatally so however, and moments later he doubled up to get back to 150k or so…

18.54

James Sullivan has just busted. Making a shortstack shove with A-7, he was always likely to be looked up by somebody and indeed Adam Carroll made the call, committed from the big blind with J-5.

Nominally ahead, Sullivan’s advantage didn’t hold, Carroll spiking a five to send Sullivan to the rail.

“Good luck guys,” Sullivan offered graciously as he bowed out of proceedings.

18.52

Here are the chip stacks of the remaining players as we home in on glory – 30 minutes into level 17 – 4k/8k/1k.

The average stack is currently 311k and there are 22 players left.

Giovanni Safina 915000
Kristoffer Thorsson 740000
Saarisilta Mattsson 500000
Philip Patrick 430000
Jake Cody 410000
Gareth Teatum 405000
Fabian Quoss 300000
Jorg Schultz 262000
Barkatul Mohammed 255000
Priyan de Mel 205000
Bruce Atkinson 198000
Talal Shakerchi 195000
Adam Carroll 170000
Mario Pavlou 170000
Richard Ashby 155000
Karl Limbert 151000
Kamal Choraria 115000
William Martin 105000
Bahman Dajarian 90,000
John Dwyer 80000
Victor Ilyukhin 75000
James Sullivan 50000

18.26

That elimination of Huck Seed saw Jake Cody’s stack rise over the 350k mark and he is now starting to look like a threat.

18.12

John Dwyer has chipped up what was becoming an increasingly small stack – taking a shot at a double-through with and Kristoffer Thorsson giving him that opportunity – calling Dwyer’s 60k shove with .

A board seemed to have wrapped up the double for Dwyer and thougha on the turn opened up the possibility of a very sick outdraw, the on the river shut that door firmly, giving both players aces-up, but Dwyer the better hand.

He’s back to 120k…

18.04

Fabian Quoss has had a pretty good day, although moments ago his stack faced a small set back.

Having called a raise from Philip Patrick, the pair saw a board peel off, Patrick betting out 16k and Quoss making the call.

The turn was the and Patrick raised the price to play, 30k now. Quoss again called.

Come the blank on the river, Patrick bet out a very small 20k which Quoss felt he had to call, only to muck on being shown Patrick had A-A.

Quoss down to around 400k…

17.56

Get The Huck Out

Sadly one of the big names left flying in the tournament is flying no longer – Jake Cody making short work of Huck Seed.

The hand saw a limp in front of Huck, who made it 21k, only for Jake Cody to re-pop to 70k.

In moments the limper had folded, Huck had announced all-in for 170k and Cody had made the call…and guess what ladies and gents. We had a race!

for Cody, for Huck and a board of was more Cody-friendly than Huck-friendly – a set on the river overkill for the englishman.

“I was surprised you called so fast with that,” said Seed as he left. “Nice hand. Good call.”

“I thought you were isolating pretty wide,” said Cody as he swept up the pot that has put the cherry on the cake of what has been a recent recovery for the EPT winner.

That means we are down to 23 players with just 15 minutes remaining in level 16.

17.33

The Fantastic Five

These five lead the way right now in the bid to take down this inaugural WPT London.

Kristoffer Thorsson – 910k
Giovanni Safina – 890k
Fabian Quoss – 480k
Jorg Shultz – 390k
Philip Patrick – 370k

17.15

LEVEL 16

3,000/6,000/500

17.14

Bruce Atkinson is down to his last 100k and change after running his against Bahman Dajarian’s pocket tens.

A two-club flop looked like it was tailor made for Atkinson to get there, but when the turn and river blanked, he’d missed all his outs.

“I am sorry,” said Dajarian.

“You were ahead. You can’t be sorry when you’re ahead,” replied Atkinson.

“Yes but we can all be nice to each other can’t we.”

17.12

Just as a quick aside from the poker for a moment, you might be interested to hear the ever controversial Tony G’s thoughts regarding the recent controversy between Annie Duke and Daniel Negreanu.

Never one to pull his punches, Tony G wasn’t about to start now…

Have a look at what he had to say.

16.45

The Million Dollar Man

It’s been one way traffic for Kristoffer Thorsson today – his stack has just grown and grown throughout the day and he finds himself as the chip leader with over a million chips at this point.

That £273k first prize will be a big incentive for success obviously but Kristoffer Thorsson has even more reason to do well – the last remaining candidate of the PartyPoker $1 million promotion which will see him win an additional $500k should he take the title.

The other eligible PartyPoker players will be cheering on every pot he wins, given they will split the remaining $500k amongst them.

He’ll have some excited railers on the sidelines!

16.33

A reminder of the payouts awaiting the final eighteen players.

25 players remain in contention as we stand with the tournament just about to enter level 14.

Greatness awaits for the players who can muster enough run-good juice to boost them to the title.

1 – £273,783
2 – £176,979
3 – £93,316
4 – £56,311
5 – £42,233
6 – £34,189
7 – £26,144
8 – £18,100
9 – £12,871
10 – 12 – £10,457
13 – 15 – £9,653
16 – 18 – £8,848

16.26

Broke-stack Mountains For The Cowboys

Kings have been a troublesome hand over the last few minutes – Praz Bansi going out a few minutes ago and he’s been joined by two more players who have similar bad beat stories to tell.

The first was David Light, whose kings were busted by Adam Carroll’s ace-queen – an ace on the flop enough to send him packing.

Next up Allyn Shulman tasted the bitterness of cracked cowboys – her kings undone by ace-jack, this time the critical card making its appearance on the river to end her day just shy of the money.

Speaking of which, the payouts are coming up momentarily…

16.08

Bansi Banished

Praz Bansi must feel a little sick – running flush into flush then moments later being dealt kings and getting them in against Patrick Philip on a J-T-x flop, only to discover that Philip had flopped a set of tens.

His WPT London future hanging in the balance, Bansi watched a jack peel on the turn to give him a few more outs.

“A jack would be alright,” he said.

However it wasn’t to be, the river blanked, Patrick collected a big pot to boost his ever growing stack yet further and it was all over for Bansi.

Another deep run won’t hurt his reputation at all but he won’t be adding a WPT title to his fulsome resume…just yet at least.

Good game sir.

16.02

Kristoffer Gets Richer

Kristoffer Thorsson has has an incredible day. He’s knocked people out and won key pots on every level – his stack now up around the 750k mark…

Praz Bansi was the latest to feel the pain of his run-good, making a flush on a board of with and betting out around 70k – only for Thorsson to call…with a better flush!

for Thorsson mean he swept up another big pot and Praz was starting to look in a bit of trouble although if Thorsson had been less conservative on that hand, he could have gone broke…

However moments later…it was all over for Praz…details to follow.

15.17

Ciao Chau

Christopher Chau’s day is done and he can feel aggrieved about his exit.

He got his chips in in very good shape against the recently rising Fabian Quoss – pocket jacks superior to Quoss’ pocket tens but a ten on the flop shifted the dynamic of the hand considerably and when Chau couldn’t re-spike he was heading out of the door – Quoss’ recovery now in full effect – up ot over 300k.

15.07

What The Huck Is That??

Huck Seed was looking like making a run at the chip leaders but moments ago, he handed over much of his stack to Saarisilta Mattsson.

We think the money went in preflop which must have been galling for Seed, seeing as his A-K was comprehensively out-flopped by Mattsson’s A-9 on a 9-9-5 board.

There was no miracle recovery meaning Seed had to give 130k of his stack to Mattsson, who looked sheepish as he counted up his new 280k+ chips.

Seed looked a little droopy.

15.01

Fab Quoss Back In The Game

Fabian Quoss hasn’t seen much go his way today but he finally won a pot, moving in with pocket kings and eventually being called by a reluctant Bruce Atkinson – who was right to be wary with his ace-ten.

There was no further misery for Quoss, whose hand held to get him back to a still-below-average but workable stack of 160k.

It’s now Atkinson who is under pressure and feeling the heat…

14.58

As well as Giovanni’s monster stack, Kristoffer Thorsson is also going very well with 710k and Philip Patrick also has a good stack – 485k at present.

Other notable stacks include:-

Gareth Teatum – 290k
Praz Bansi – 255k
Richard Ashby 215k
Talal Shakerchi – 210k
William Martin – 200k
Jake Cody – 130k

29 players remain, the blinds are 2.5k/5k/500. The pressure is ramping up now as the final table gets closer and closer.

Every pot is crucial now for some of these players – especially for the under the cosh short stacks…

14.40

Safina is really dominating at present; he has 815k and is the runaway chip leader as we speak.

Recent hands saw him play for O’Leary’s stack with on a J-T-x board, O’Leary’s J-9 undone when a king rivered to send him to the rail and there was some PartyPoker on PartyPoker action when he took on tablemate Fabian Quoss.

The hand saw Quoss raise it up and Safina call from the blind with the speculative J-5 offsuit.

Quoss was in trouble with his pocket aces when the flop fell with two jacks and come the river, Safina led out for a big bet of 80k which Quoss pondered for a long time – eventually having the clock called on him.

With the time ticking down, there was just one second left when he put his chips over the line, only to be shown the harrowing truth – Quoss down to just 60k and Safina padding his already monstrous stack.

14.25

Ariel Snapped Off

Ariel Adda is no longer part of proceedings and Jorg Schultz was the man who delivered all the pain.

First off, Adda became entangled with Schultz holding king-queen on a queen-high board – only to look pretty miserable as the all-in Schultz showed him pocket kings.

No 2 outer arrived to bail him out and he was left with dust which went in moments later and once again Jorg Schultz did the damage, his jack-eight making two pair to finish Adda off.

14.12

Seed Binks Off Wink

Huck Seed has just taken a big pot off PartyPoker qualifier Sebastian Winkler, flopping a set of sevens on an ace-high board, and unfortunately for Winkler, he was unable to avoid paying off the American in full with ace-king.

“Ace-king and a flush draw on the board, that’s tough to get away from,” offered Seed in sympathy as he raked in a big pot that sees his stack up to 370k now – amongst the chip leaders. Meanwhile a disconsolate Winkler sadly handed over around half his stack, leaving himself with less than 150k now.

13.39

Our strong journalistic instincts compelled us to get to the bottom of this cryptic comment from Luke Schwartz and finally it seems we have.

Brace yourselves, it isn’t pretty.

It seems Luke was spending a fair amount of time yesterday at the felt with his hands down his trousers “adjusting himself” and one of the players had complained on the basis of hygiene – not happy to touch chips that had been touched by Schwartz after touching himself.

Unsurprisingly, this led to Schwartz being asked if he could refrain from putting his hands down his pants. Apparently he didn’t take it well hence the antipathy he was showing toward one of the members of staff today.

Ahhh, it all makes sense now…

13.22

PartyPoker Team Update

Here’s news of the Partypoker team and how their respective days have gone so far.

We know PartyPoker.it Team Pro Giovanni Safina has been unstoppable so far – his stack over 650k.

Here are the PartyPoker qualifiers and their respective stacks:

Talal Shakerchi – 290k
Sebastian Winkler – 400k
Tonio Roeder – 230k
Kristoffer Thorsson – 500k
Fabiuan Quoss – 140k

Good luck guys!

13.16

Wheel’s Come Off As Oli Fails

Oli Sanderson just took a plunge down the chip standings, raising it up with pocket tens, only for Mohammed Barkatul to shove all-in for just under 70k.

It was the bulk of Sanderson’s chips to call, and he did so – only to discover that he was in dire trouble, Barkatul flipping up kings.

No ten arrived to bail him out and suddenly he was on the cusp of elimianation with just 10k whilst Barkatul was sporting an altogether more impressive 150k.

Since that hand, Sanderson has been unable to find a way back in and has joined the rail.

13.06

Priyan de Mel may have been allin for his last 45k against Jake Cody moments ago but he’s back amongst the contenders again – his stack up to 250k.

“I played aces really well to win a big pot,” he told us. After four-betting preflop, he led the nine-high two-club flop, then checked the turn in a bid to induce some river action.

Come the river, his opponent bet 85k and de Mel said, “I couldn’t put him on the set so I made the call…he mucked instantly.”

12.46

Early casualties include Josh Fields and Wayne Boich – though chip leader Giovanni Safina just goes from strength to strength – up to over 650k now.

His latest hand saw him heads up with Fabian Quoss, Safina betting out 6.5k on the board – only for Quoss to make a raise to 23.5k.

Safina was undeterred by this however, cutting out a large stack of 5k chips before making it 76.5k…

Quoss didn’t look happy and after a few moments, he found a fold, leaving Safina sweeping up yet another pot.

12.34

Priyan’s Headache Cured by Cody de Mel Delivery

Priyan de Mel was well placed as one of the chip leaders yesterday before the wheels fell off and he finished the day in a bit of trouble. Things had hardly got better today and moments ago he found himself all – his tournament life on the line.

With just 46k left, he committed the last of his chips with ace-king against the pocket nines of EPT Deauville winner Jake Cody, but the poker gods were smiling on him and he won the race, hitting trip aces, to take his stack to back over 100k again.

De Mel celebrated with a big ear-to-ear smile.

12.24

Schwartz Goes Out Kicking And Screaming

Luke Schwartz had some work to do if he was to make a reasonable run at the title – but his chances just expired and he refused to bow out gracefully.

The hand saw an early position raise and a shove from Mattsson Saarisilta for over 60k – enough to cover Schwartz. It was folded to Schwartz in the big blind, who tanked for a long time considering his options, causing many of the other players to come and watch what was proving such a perplexing decision.

Schwartz usually loves lapping up all the attention but this time, he seemed upset by one of the hotel staff for some unfathomable reason.

“I just want to call so I double up and p*** you off,” said Schwartz to the hotel staff member.

“Why would that upset me sir?”

“You’ve been staring at me for five minutes!” said Schwartz, going on to refer to some sort of incident yesterday, mumbling slightly, although we did catch the words “hands down my pants” intriguingly. What could he have been referring to?

Finally Schwartz made a decision.

“Ok F*** IT!” he said angrily, dramatically putting his hands behind his chips and shoving them all into the middle, a sea of chips cascading across the table.

“I’m going to lose anyway,” said Schwartz who turned up pocket tens but was in reasonable shape as Saarisilta held ace-queen.

A blank flop looked good but a queen on the turn left him clutching at two outs.

Schwartz was in no mood to hang about when his micro-redraw missed on the river.

“Fuck it yeh I’m banned, yeh, yeh I’m banned, I’ve heard it all before,” he said, storming out of the casino before we could ask him what the strange “hands down my pants” comment could have referred to.

What drama!

Anyway the net result is Saarisilta has an increased stack and Schwartz is on the sidelines. The game continues.

12.08

DAY 3 – WPT LONDON

Day 3 is about to begin, the Tournament Director has directed the players to open their bags and unload their chips and WPT London is about to be in effect once more.

PartyPoker.com qualifier Italian stallion Giovanni Safina took the tournament by the scruff of the next yesterday despite having to fight off the combined efforts of Phil Ivey, Luke Schwartz and Erik Seidel but having done so admirably he finds himself as the chip leader with the day about to begin.

It’s been a great tournament for PartyPoker qualifiers, Safina joined at the head of the leaderboard by Tonio Roeder and Talal Shakerchi and all will be harbouring realistic amibitions of shipping their first WPT title and writing their names into the history books.

With players such as Praz Bansi, Josh Fields, Huck Seed and Luke Schwartz lying just a little down the leaderboard however, they won’t be able to rest of their laurels as a tough road lies ahead between here and the WPT final table.

The players have just kicked off, the familiar echo of chip clicking and shuffling is resounding round the room, so good luck one and all.

Let’s get it on!