It’s all happening here. And I can’t believe that I was sitting in a voiceover booth in Maidstone when Luke Schwartz decimated Erik Seidel’s stack in the WPT and then got called out by Phil Ivey for excessive needling.
But I was there the day before, when Luke was sitting on Ivey’s left for all of Day 1 of the WPT and put the three-bet on him with the eight-four offsuit and then flipping the cards over proudly after Phil Ivey chucked his in.
It was an awesome atmosphere at the Palm Beach casino, what with some of the best players in the UK mixing it up with American superstars and a whole bunch of PartyPoker Qualifiers chasing them all.
Lots to shout about if you qualified online, especially the biggest overlay in recent memory with the $500,000 bonus for a qualifier winning the event. I’d love to see Talil Shakerchi go deep. He has qualified for multiple live PartyPoker seats via online satellites, always knocking on the door but no one has been home.
His efforts were finally answered in a big way during the first two days of this WPT, as a few hands and fine play have put him as one of the chip leaders and a man with a chance for a life changing payday. Plenty of guys have made the trek over this side of the pond for a month of big action, including Brazilian PartyPoker Team Pro Felipe Ramos, who wasn’t about to let lost luggage get in his way of playing good poker. I bet it’s the last time he flies first class, though.
The other night I had a great time in Mayfair eating dinner with Tony G. There was eight of us at a restaurant that was fancy enough to warrant it’s Michelin star. When we sat down, Tony G called over the waiter with a wave of his hand. I’d like to bet it’s the first time they heard this line. “Just bring us everything off the menu,” he said. “I want it all. Everything. Don’t worry, we’ll share…..”
You can listen to all the latest action from the WPT London on Jesse May’s Poker Show podcast.
Live updates from the WPT London can be found here.
