WPT London – Live Updates Day 4

23.44

And also, we spoke to Kristoffer Thorsson, who has an additional reason to be very excited about tomorrow – apart from the fact he will come back 2nd in chips.

Thorsson is part of the special PartyPoker million promotion, that will see him net an additional 0k if he manages to win this WPT title.

That’s more than the first prize!

There are several other players eligible for a windfall if he wins too as they will split 0k between them if he takes the title.

Again Tatjana caught up with Kristoffer to hear his thoughts before what will be a memorable occasion when they resume tomorrow.

23.23

Safina Speaks

It was a big day for Giovanni Safina and the biggest day of his life beckons tomorrow when he will vie for his first WPT title.

He’ll have all of Italy behind him but so far he has managed to deal with the pressure.

Our very own lovely Tatjana Pasalic spoke to Team PartyPoker Pro Safina…and here’s what he had to say.

16.05

The final counts:

Giovanni Safina 1,546,000
Kristoffer Thorsson 1,317,000
Fabian Quoss 1,068,000
Saarisilta Mattsson 805,000
Jake Cody 786,000
Bruce Atkinson 535,000
Sandiep Khosa 397,000
Gareth Teatum 387,000.

It’s been a whirlwind day with 10 busts in less than three levels, bringing us to that magical number of eight.

These are the men with WPT glory in their sights and the aggression the players have shown throughout the tournament bodes well for a fast-paced final that should prove to be good viewing.

So that’s it from Day 4, thanks for following and we look forward to seeing you join us tomorrow at 12 p.m. as we return to crown the champion.

It should be an amazing day – we’ll see you then.

15.49

De Mel’t Down

As one of the shorter stacks, Priyan de Mel was going to have to gamble sooner or later, and his opportunity came up moments ago, getting his chips in preflop with versus the of Kristoffer Thorsson.

“I don’t feel as lucky as I normally do,” said de Mel pessimistically.

His premonitions of doom proved accurate as a king spiked to give Thorsson the advantage, and when no salvation in the form of a third six arrived to turn the tables, Priyan’s day was done, finishing up in 9th spot, agonisingly short of the final table – with £12,871 his reward for a deep run.

So that leaves our final eight!

They are just tallying the chip counts which we will have shortly but for now, that finishes off what has been an incredibly fast day and with out final table set, we can now start focusing on who the next WPT champion will be.

Chip counts to follow…

15.35

Current chip counts:

Giovanni Safina 1650000
Kristoffer Thorsson 1350000
Saarisilta Mattsson 845000
Fabian Quoss 768000
Sandiep Khosa 585000
Gareth Teatum 430000
Jake Cody 415000
Bruce Atkinson 258000
Priyan de Mel 205000

There’s been a few interesting hands in the last few minutes. Fabian Quoss has had a tough time with Giovanni Safina over the tournament and he just tangled with him yet again.

Raising it up to 30k preflop, Safina made the call, as did Kristoffer Thorsson from the big blind.

The flop saw Thorsson and Quoss check to Safina, who led out for 85k. Thorsson disappeared but Quoss made the call.

The turn was the and now when Quoss checked, Safina also checked behind.

The rivered saw both players check once more and when Quoss tabled , Safina tapped the table in defeat, his no good – for once Quoss getting the better of the Italian.

15.03

LEVEL 20 – BLINDS : 8k/16k ANTE : 2k. AVERAGE STACK: 760k

14.52

Kristoffer Thorsson is now second only to Giovanni Safina in the chip counts – his 1.1 million stack coming mainly as a result of that Talal Shakerchi double – Safina remains on top although his 1.4 million stack has taken a few small hits over the last level.

We are now on the bubble of the official final table meaning one more elimination will end the day for the WPT London Main Event and the players have just been sent on a 15 minute break following the end of nineteen.

We’ll be back in a moment to determine who those lucky final tablists will be…

14.37

Elvis Lives Baby

Bruce Atkinson, who likes to do an Elvis impression or two from time to time, just fired his remaining 136k into the middle following a raise to 30k from Sandiep Khosa.

Khosa took little time to call the additional 106k with but was in trouble as Atkinson had him wrapped up as snug as a bug in a rug with .

The first card turned over looked like trouble for Atkinson – the spiking to give Ghosa the advantage.

However the next two cards told a very different story – the and the appearing to turn the tables for Atkinson.

“That’s better baby,” said the veteran Elvis impersonator, even doing a little fist-pumping dance to punctuate the action.

The turn and river ran out the and the , meaning his trips were best and he is back in the game with 285k.

14.16

That’s Tal-al Folks!

Talal Shakerchi is the first man to be removed from the 10-handed last (but not final) table.

His demise saw him raise with pocket tens, only for Kristoffer Thorsson to re-raise him.

He’s been constantly re-raising me on my left and I thought he had air again… so I went all-in.”

Unfortunately Thorsson had kings this time, and crippled, Shakerchi’s last 10k went in the next hand with – unable to overcome his tormentor Thorsson once again, whose pocket fours remained ahead on flop, turn and river.

So Talal Shakerchi finishes up in 10th spot – £10,457 his reward.

We continue nine-handed.

14.05

Curse Of The Cowboys

Kings have been a fatal hand for many players during the latter stages of the tournament.

Once again they have proved cursed, this time Bahman Dajarian pummelled out of contention in a very sick hand.

Holding black kings on a board, he looked certain of a double-through when he check-raised Giovanni Safina’s 200k bet for his 308k remaining.

Safina made the call for the additional 108k with and the single red suit was to prove crucial.

The on the turn opened up the possibility of a backdoor flush draw and when the appeared on the river, it was complete – Dajarian’s chances crushed by a cruel turn and river and Safina winning the almost 1 million chip pot to steady himself at the chip lead after a wobbly start.

So Bahman Dajarian is out in 11th spot for £10,457 and the players have now been combined on a 10 seater single table.

So close now – pulses must be racing but the remaining players look remarkably relaxed.

13.52

We spoke to Gareth Teatum during the break and he wasn’t surprised at the incredible pace of the early exchanges.

“I had a feeling it would go quickly,” he said.

“The payout jumps are pretty small between 18th and 10th so I thought people would gamble their stacks up.”

Gareth came to London to play in the WPT with his father Richard – who busted earlier – but the pair have some pedigree between them – Gareth winning one of the Bellagio Cups during the summer and his father finishing third.

“If we’d have finished 1st and 2nd it would have been a record,” said Gareth. “And I actually knocked him out!”

Gareth going well with 550k at this stage despite losing a third of his stack in the opening stages when his kings were undone by sevens.

“One or two key hands can make all the difference at this stage,” he said.

13.34

Priyan de Mel has managed a double-through, his holding versus Saarisilta Mattsson’s similaryly-suited .

A board of [K] gave both players a flush but de Mel’s ace-high flush was superior, leaving him with a nice double through to 350k.

“Lucky I had the back-up!” said de Mel as he swept up the pot, referring to both players hitting that back-door flush.

“You can pick on this guy now,” he said to Mattsson, indicating Talal Shakerchi. “He’s shorter than me!”

13.22

Here’s how they stand right now..

Giovanni Safina 1800000
Saarisilta Mattsson 900000
Sandiep Khosa 792000
Jake Cody 742000
Kristoffer Thorsson 711000
Gareth Teatum 538000
Bahman Dajarian 474000
Fabian Quoss 371000
Talal Shakerchi 312000
Bruce Atkinson 216000
Priyan de Mel 195000

13.13

LEVEL 19 – BLINDS: 6k-12k.

11 players remain and they are just back from a break following level 18. The average stack is 621k and Giovanni Safina remains the chip leader with almost 2 million.

Full chip counts to follow shortly…

12.58

Cody Gets Some Lady Love

It’s been a bad start for Jake Cody today – his stack dipping to around the 250k mark, but he made the start of a comeback moments ago, getting his pocket queens in against Giovanni Safina’s moments ago.

A board of had seen the pair go to war and Cody comically asked the dealer for the on the turn for the sickest card.

Instead turn and river came then leaving Cody with a 550k stack and Giovanni with a relatively small dent in his whopping 2 million stack.

12.51

It’s not all bustouts here however.

We’ve also seen Bahman Dajarian double to over 300k versus Fabian Quoss – Quoss cruelly coolered with pocket kings versus Dajarian’s aces.

Also doubled is Sandiep Khosa who managed to get his 360k stack in preflop in great shape versus Kristoffer Thorsson.

Thorsson has run well so far but this time his couldn’t topple Khosa’s .

Khosa up to 750k and Thorsson down to roughly the same, perhaps a little more.

This is carnage ladies and gents!

12.48

Tough to keep up with this brutal pace.

Two more bustouts!

First off Philip Patrick got to a jack-high flop with Giovanni Safina with pocket aces and shipped the last of his chips in.

Safina made the call with king-jack and is running so well he was nailed on to get there, which he did by hitting a king on the river.

Another man hits the rail (we think Patrick finished up in 13th spot for £9,653) whilst also out almost simultaneously was Mohammed Barkatul in 12th spot for £10,457.

This is exceptionally fast. Can the incendiary pace continue?

12.43

Mario Pavl-ou’t

Also out is Mario Pavlou – his taking on Kristoffer Thorsson’s dominating .

“I knew I was in trouble when I saw a queen,” said Pavlou. “I just fancied the hand.”

Well moments later his concerns proved justified as Pavlou busted out, unable to turn around his equity deficit.

“That’s poker,” he said with a resigned grin, as Mario Pavlou finished up in 15th place and moved off to collect his £9,653.

14 left…

Dywer Down!

Sick beat for John Dwyer who managed to get 500k in preflop with kings versus Kristoffer Thorsson’s pocket nines.

A million chip double-up surely?

No way. Poker’s a sick game and when the nine came even the uninvolved Priyan de Mel winced at the misfortune.

Dwyer couldn’t beleive his luck and nor could Thorsson.

Dwyer bows out in 14th spot for £9,653 and we continued 13 handed…although not for long.

12.25

Three rapid-fire eliminations!

Firstly, William Martin was knocked out by Saarisilta Mattsson in 17th place, although sadly we missed the details as at the same time Jorg Shultz was busy getting his pocket sevens in on a board.

Oops, he should have known Safina would have him beaten and when he showed a sneakily player pair of aces (he just flat-called preflop) Schultz was busted in 16th place.

Good game! An incredible, attritional start has seen three bustouts already. We’re down to 15 players.

This could be fast…

12.14

Safina Lays Smack Down On Quoss

Giovanni Safina has just taken a couple of big steps toward the title.

First off he played out a big pot with Fabian Quoss. The hand saw Quoss call a raise by Safina to 22k preflop, the lead for 45k on the board.

Safina made the call and the pair continued to a turn.

Again Quoss bet out – this time 86k and against Safina called.

Come the river, Safina now led out for a whopping 270k…

Quoss looked all at sea, so confused about what Safina coulld hold. He had been in this situation before against Safina, and last time had called on a similar board, only to be shown trips.

This time he made the fold after a long think. Safina rubbed salt in his wound by showing him for air!

What a play – Safina up to 1.73 million chips now and playing his A game.

11.59

Bluffs and Flips

Two of the PartyPoker contingent remaining, Team Pro Giovanni Safina and qualifier Talal Shakerchi have just had an excellent start.

Talal has doubled through courtesy of John Dwyer.

He took his shot with – facing off against Dwyer’s pocket jacks preflop.

The board looked unpromising at first, coming out but the on the turn opened up many more outs for Talal, the flush draw now a possiblity.

Finally a popped out on the river and he had got there at the bitter end to double to over 300k.

“Sorry,” said Shakerchi.

“You’re not sorry, you just doubled up! You’re happy!” tablemate William Martin disagreed with a laugh.

“I was sorry it came on the river. But you’re right. I’m ecstatic,” the deadpan Shakerchi responded.

11.40

It’s been a frantic start with a host of all-ins.

The latest to get involved was William Martin who tangled preflop with Mohammed Barkatul – his pocket aces way too good for Barkatul’s ace-seven and a board was decisive, doubling Martin through to 140k.

Also doubled is Bahman Dajarian, who shoved his 113k stack in over the top of a Jake Cody raise to 22k from early position.

Cody considered his options for some time before making the call with , flipping against Dajarian’s

“Let’s see a ten,” said Dajarian to the dealer – but he needn’t have worried – the closest Cody got was a on the river as Dajarian’s hand held and he doubled through to 230k.

Cody still going well with over 400k…

11.25

Karl Crushed

Karl Limbert was always going to move fast with his short stack and he did that moments ago, shoving for 46k over the top of a John Dwyer raise to 20k.

Limbert had pocket jacks but Dwyer was priced in to call and did so with .

Looking to double through and hit 100k, Limbert’s chances were dashed when the flop fell and he picked up his coat, resigned to his fate.

There was to be no escape on the turn and river so Karl Limbert finishes up in 18th spot, collecting £8,848.

Good game sir.

11.11

Day 4 WPT London

We’re about to go here at the WPT with 5 minutes of level 17 (4k/8k/1k) left to play.

18 Players remain…and here is how they are lining up with the title in their sights.

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, Will

Good luck one and all!

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

Jorg Schultz - starting to look threatening.

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 million promotion which will see him win an additional 0k should he take the title.

The other eligible PartyPoker players will be cheering on every pot he wins, given they will split the remaining 0k 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!