Day 1b Chip-counts
With 72 players still active on the big screen, we have confirmed numbers and chip-counts for you, with Sam Macdonald the overall chip-leader across the first two flights.
Who else has survived? Read on…!
Sam Macdonald 145000
David Gassian 125700
Kenneth Lemchi 124800
Julien Sitbon 113800
Dervis Sam 101000
Shefali Depala 94500
Edgar Drozdov 93600
Timotheos Timotheou 92700
Jamal Gormati 88100
Benjamin Boulden 87300
Berivan Dag 82800
Stuart Bromley 81100
Paul Newland 73200
Yaron Kuznik 73200
Detelin Hristov 73100
Philippe Ewert 72100
Wei Mian 71000
Graziano Pirovano 69300
Thomas Eaves 68000
Ali Enver 61900
Xuan Nguyen 60000
Simon Green 58900
Amir Brizman 55900
Antto Sober 55800
Graham Hiew 55400
Graham Wilson 55100
Angelo Milioto 54700
Yung Cheung 53600
Peter Jaksland 52100
Mikkel Lind 51700
Daniel Hardy 49700
Chinthaka Fernando 48700
Andreas Nordbek 47500
Chan Ha 45100
Christopher Richards 44600
Margarita Stoycheva 43500
Daniel Lowe 41500
Richard Baker 40500
Paul Russell 39100
Demetris Theophanous 37800
Jen Chiang 37400
Baktash Parsa 35300
William Funnell 34900
KONSTANTIN SAGANIS 34100
Dean Craddock 32900
Tsz Ho 32200
Gilles Perez 31000
Charles Akadiri 30500
Roei Dahan 30200
Daiva Barauskaite 29200
Anooj Sareen 28800
Carl Harris 28000
Christopher Gordon 24300
Eric Ramkeesoon 23500
Timothy Dearing 22800
James Gray 22000
Jan Hansson 21000
Thomas Edwards 20800
Bogdan Gheorghita 19900
Mudassar Khan 19800
Etai Muallem 19500
John Thompson 15400
Nikolaj Zeuthen 14200
Vladimir Marchevici 14000
Granville Mitchell 11800
Andrey Dimitrov 4300
Edmondson Hits Bottom
Richard Edmondson qualified for this tournament via partypoker, so he has one of the most valuable seats in the room. He’s just been involved in a big pot, too. We joined the action on the turn, as Sam Macdonald bet 13,900 into an 18,000 chip pot on a board of 
. Edmondson was the only caller, and the river came 
.
This time, Macdonald checked, but so too did Edmondson, whose decision was proved very wise when Macdonald turned over 
for the rivered nut flush. Edmondson loses a biggie, but breathes a sigh of relief, turning over 
. Given the way Macdonald played that hand, Edmondson just made a terrific fold.
You can join Richard and many other in the forthcoming Powerfest festival of online poker on partypoker. Why not read all about it right here?
Hardy Boys Enjoying the Adventure
Dan Hardy is playing this Day 1b flight, and so too is his famous father, known as ‘The Booky’, Anthony Hardy.
While Daniel has been in his seat for a while and is up to 45,000 and merrily playing his usual game, Tony has only been in play since the end of late registration. He went all-in against the short-stacked Margarita Stoycheva, but she had aces while Tony only 5’s, and she held to double. That put Tony in trouble, but he just got back to starting stack after shoving pre-flop with 
and being called – for their whole stack – by a man with 
. Hardy doubled without trouble, and is back up to 20,400. Stoycheva currently has 24,000.
Elsewhere, James Akenhead is out of the second flight after flopping a straight, but seeing Kenneth Chukwuemeka flush him away on the river. Ken has 80,000 now, one of the biggest stacks in the room.
‘Who’s the chip-leader?’ is a popular question in the room, but the answer changes so frequently at the current level, there’s no answer that is correct for long.
Pole Position
From mid-position, Chris Richards raised it up to 1500, a standard raise both at this level and his table. Albert Sapiano in the small blind and last year’s runner-up Simon Green in the big blind were the only two to call his bet, and the trio saw a flop of 
. Albert and Simon checked to Chris, who led for 2,600. This time, only Albert called, and the two players saw a turn card of 
. Both men checked that card, but on the river of 
, Albert tossed out a big bet of 8,000 chips.
Chris called and Albert turned over 
with a slam of his fist onto the table. Chris flipped 
and collected a very nice pot indeed.
Albert now has 19,000 chips, but Chris sits behind 52,000, well above the 30,777 average.
Rolled Macdonald
Fresh from a massage, Sam Macdonald had plenty of chips at the start of this hand and it was a case of Sam vs. Sam as the former took on Dervis Sam at new blinds of 300/600/75.
Pre-flop, Dervis re-raised to 3200,with only MacDonald in the small blind, calling to see a flop of 
.Dervis made it 4700, with Macdonald calling slowly. On the turn of 
Dervis made it 9,000, again, Macdonald calling it off. On the river of , both players checked, but not before Dervis Sam had checked what Macdonald’s stack was. Dervis himself had slightly more, just 37,000 (still well above the average 28,000) and elected to go to a free showdown. Macdonald turned over 
, which was good.
‘I should have shoved. You call?’ asks Dervis Sam. the Macdonald variety nods with a grin. Macdonald has over 74,000 chips and is in complete command of his table.
We have 122 players still in seats from a confirmed number of entries this flight of 169, two more than in last night’s flight. We will need 219 entries in tonight’s final Day 1c flight to hit the guarantee of £100,000.
Chipcounts at the Break
With the first four levels in the past, here are some selected chip-counts from Day 1b players. They’ll play 4 more levels (if they can!) before Day 1b ends and there is an hour’s clear break between Day 1b and the start of Day 1c.
Chip-counts:
Enzo Del Piero 64,000
William Funnel 56,000
James Akenhead 55,000
Charles Akadiri 54,000
Tim Tim Timotheu 53,000
Angelo Milioto 37,500
Sebastian Rojek 28,000
Joe Laming 25,000
Simon Green 23,000
John Thompson 22,000
Chris Gordon 20,000
Albert Sapiano 16,000
Daiva Baruskaite 12,500
Mike Panteli 8,100
Jordon is Conquered
Terry Jordon has busted his second bullet in this WPT Accumulator, having departed early on Day 1a last night as well as Day 1b this afternoon.
‘I had a set of queens cracked.’ he told us, before getting his last 5k chips into themiddle with 
. Up against two callers, he could treble up, but on a board of 
he somehow found a way to lose, with one of the two enemies shoving all-in on the river and eventually getting a fold before showing 
. Ouch!
Nong Makes Hay
On a flop of 
, James Akenhead, Albert Sapiano and Quoc Nong were three of five players who check round with around 5k in the pot. The turn card of 
stirred a bet of 1800 from Akenhead, which was raised to 7,000 by Sapiano. Quoc Nong re-raised to 15k from a 17k stack, and Akenhead and Sapiano got out of the way.
Huge Three-Way Pot
There is plenty of action at a table involving Charles Akadiri, Daiva Baruskaite, and one of the most successful Day 1a players, Sonny Tant.
Pre-flop, the action was raised by Sebastian Rojek to 1050 after some limping, and Daiva, Akadiri and Tant all called that raise, along with the big blind, who was getting pot odds of around 9/1 just to see three community cards. When they came 
, everyone checked to Rojek, who continued for 1600. That was called by just Tant and Akadiri, and the trio saw a turn of 
. Again, Rojek took the lead, betting 3300 which was again called in two spots. A furrowed brow from Rojek suggested either strength or weakness, and everyone seemed tense before the river of fell.
Now the momentum swung, with Tant changing tack, leading out from UTG with a chunky bet of 6600 (just under half his remaining stack) going into the middle. Cool as ice, Akadiri in the next seat raised all-in for 11,600, and Rojek snap-called for a third of his stack. Tant now clearly had a horrible position to extrapolate himself from. Call and he would in line for a 50k+ pot. Fold, and he’d have just 24 big blinds to his name. But in the end, he thought better of calling, and threw away his cards face-down. Akadiri
Akadiri quickly showed 
for the rivered flush, enough to beat Rojek’s hand, , which he too turned over. While Tant has just 6800, and Rojek just over starting stack with 21,000, Charles Akadiri may have taken the lead in the room, up to just over 50,000 chips.
Smirthwaite Totalled by TimTim
Gareth Smirthwaite already took a stack through to Day 2 in last night’s first flight, but he’ll have to enter tonight third flight if he wants to add to that stack after losing all of his Day 1b chips.
Open-shoving pre-flop with 
, Gareth was re-raised all-in for around 15,000 by Tim Tim Timotheu , with 
. The flop was immediately fanned 
to which Timotheu moaned ‘Why didn’t everyone call?!’ but when the 
landed on the turn, Smirthwaite gave thought to returning to his seat, one of several players to call for a king on what has been a fun table, shared with the likes of Vinnie Anderson and Angelo Milioto.
The river crushed Smirthwaite’s dreams, however, at least until 8pm when the third and final Day 1 flight begins.
Akenhead vs Albert 2: Niners Revenge
It isn’t that the only action going on is at their table, but all the action there is so good. Albert Sapiano with chips is not just a dangerous opponent, but he’s wet dynamite on the rest of the table, seeming to spark wild play among others.
On a board of 
, Akenhead calls Albert’s bet of 5,000. On the river of 
, Akenhead led for the same amount, and when Albert quickly called him, showed for flopped trips.
Albert tossed 
towards the dealer and sighed, Akenhead is all smiles and over 30,000, faring much better than he did yesterday…so far.
Also sitting down to late reg this £100,000 guaranteed WPT Accumulator National event are Sam Macdonald (who finished as one of the higher stacks of Day 1a) and Daniel Hardy, who is playing his first flight of the tournament so far. Both are up to around 25,000 already.
Tant vs Lohia
Sonny Tant made it through last night’s Day 1a flight with over 90,000 chips, enough for a Top 5 stack of the 67 players who survived. He’s undeterred from the action and resting on not a single laurel as he is back at the baize today for Day 1b.
We joined Sonny as he was pondering an interesting hand. With a pot of 11,000 in the middle, Sher Lohia led for 2,325 on the river, with Daiva Baruskaite also in the hand, until she folded on the river. Tant could not resist calling, however, and was shown the nut flush by Lohia, who held 
. Tant mucked his cards, but looked disgruntled to lose the hand. He still has more than the 20,000 chips he started with, however, and with 146 entries so far this afternoon, blinds are up to 100/200 in Level 2.
Albert & Akenhead
James Akenhead shares the felt with Albert Sapiano this afternoon, who has been involved from the get-go, as you might imagine. As a loose calculation, there’s been a very high VPIP % at their table, and Albert is chief amongst the players for trying to control what is an entertaining group to watch.
Having already won small pots from Akenhead and Kyzysztof Pregowski, Albert calls only from the big blind, and is up against the blinds. On a flop of 
, all three players check, so Albert bets 700 on the turn of which is only called by Sam Hurlock in the big blind. On the river of Albert check-calls a bet of 1800 from Hurlock, who, once called, turns over for the turned straight (and straight flush draw) . Albert nods in approval.
Hurlock is above the average of 20,296. Albert Sapiano may be our chip leader in the room of 132 players on around 41,000 chips.
Green is Back For More
We already have 95 players in their seats on what we’re sure will be a busy Day 1b, with luminaries such as James Akenhead, Danny Laming, TimTim Timotheu, Angelo Milioto, Raheem Tadj-Saadat, Vinnie Anderson, Gareth Smirthwaite, John Thompson, Chris Gordon and Simon Green all in their seats.
‘Has last year’s winner turned up?’ Green asked us. Simon was runner-up to Irina Nikolaidi of course, with both of them winning their career-high scores after their eventful heads-up.
‘It was a great final table, I met the guy who finished third and he was also knocked out yesterday,’ Simon continued. ‘I have a few things to do later, so I’d love to just get through this flight.’
Everyone at the felt will be hoping the same.
Back to Stack
Welcome back to Aspers Casino in Stratford for the second flight of three on this Day 1. We’re in the heart of East London, the Westfield Shopping Centre, where you can follow the action from the felt as a fresh batch of players join several playing their second flight in trying to accumulate as bigger stack as they can in the WPT National Accumulator format.
Players can buy-in for £200 (£180+20) and play all three flights if they like, with any chips they survive each eight-level flight with growing into their Day 2 stack. From yesterday’s 166 entries, 67 players survived the day with chips, including Chris Gordon, Alexis Savvides and chip leader Paul Damian.
Who will win this afternoon’s flight?
