Welcome to Flight 3!
Day 2 updates will appear before your very eyes if you click this link!
Bailey In the Picture As Flight 3 Leader
With action coming to a close here on Flight 3, here are the overnight chip-counts after the third and final chance to grab a stack for Day 2.
Scott Bailey 146900
Egidijus Pukinskas 132300
Dan Spataru 113700
QUOC NONG 110000
James Dempsey 105000
James Akenhead 104600
Nicholas Goff 99900
Jason Lam 96000
Guy Steel 93700
Lukas Dimsa 88500
Isei Okimoto 86700
Joe Laming 83300
Thomas Carpenter 76600
Steven Watts 74700
Irina Nikolaidi 74000
Nayeem Syed 72600
Tomas Gardiner 70000
Matthew Cooledge 69400
Getnet Hailu 68300
GOVINDU DWARAKABHAMIDIPATI 67500
Krzysztof Pregowski 66800
Rodney French 66700
Gholam Torshizi 65100
Antony Yousefian 63800
Paul Russell 62300
Nuno Miguel Duarte 61900
Celal Geyik 61600
Antoine Saout 61000
Robert Drummond 59600
Nicholas Weaver 59500
Darryn Clarke 56900
Ali Sakallioglu 54700
Mark Shelley 54100
Leo Lim 53800
Graeme Nadin 52800
Robert Beatty 52000
Barry Earnshaw 51800
Paul Woloszyn 51800
Andrei-Florin Fanatan 49600
Viraj Patel 49500
Darren Crosby 49100
Philip Butt 48500
VINCENT ANDERSON 48300
Mark David Smith 48200
Usman Siddique 46200
Martin Hanham 44700
Marco Vascencelos 42500
Bernard Okyere Sasu 41400
Paul Gomez 40200
Scott Syer 38500
Colin Guthrie 38300
Liraz Weiman 37100
Vilnis Geidans 37100
Paul Skipper 36500
Mihail Popa 35000
Sam Macdonald 35000
Gareth Smirthwaite 34600
Billy Jones 34500
Oscar Casorran 34400
Christy Anthonypillai 33900
James Roberts 33000
Neil Barron 32900
Darren Hand 32100
Iliyan Kyosev 31800
Robert Lim 30600
Ashique Miah 30100
David Palmer 29800
Bruno Launais 29300
Luke Mcintyre 28400
Giedrius Glikmanas 27400
John Timoney 26000
Marius Zalpys 25700
Andreas Achillea 22300
Karl Guiness 22300
Poul Erik Madsen 21000
Tony Blanchandin 21000
Joern Madsen 20900
Gladys Long 20800
Kyle Mcfadden 20800
Paul Myers 20700
Ismet Salih 20400
Kevin Simpson 19000
Salvador Villaluz 16900
Nicola Montalbano 16700
Graham Amos 15900
Abdelkader Medjahed 14300
Peter Burgon 10900
Yau Ho 7500
Day 2 will be right here on the blog ahead of the 1pm kick-off to Day 2, but we thank you for your company and look forward to seeing you right back here on the partypoker live updates blog tomorrow lunchtime for what should be a fantastic day’s play!
Good night, but most importantly, good luck!
Level 8 – 500/1000/100 – Players Remaining: 117/221 – Average Stack: 37,777
Racing to the Close
While busted players whoop and holler over the fastest lap on the partypoker FastForward Scalextric race – it really is bringing these players into the fast lane – players still in the Main Event here at the WPT National UK Accumulator are accelerating towards a finish.
Steve Watts is cruising along on around 55,000, despite having suffered a couple of unfortunate raise/fold situations. Chaz Chattha has busted, after losing a big flip with JJ losing to AK to cripple his stack and then losing to a 4-outer gut-shot on the river to complete a miserable flight. He was his usual charming, philosophical self about it.
Sin Melin has finally joined her fanbase – ahem, friends – at the rail, having lost her dwindling stack to drop out of the running, and Danny Laming has failed to progress, after a day of hitting crossbars left him without a stack. Not the same story for his brother Joe, however, who endured a tough Flight 1 & 2, but has sailed through the tail-end of this final chance, currently sitting on over 105,000 chips.
Level 7 – 400/800/100 – Players Remaining: 128/221 – Average Stack: 34,531
They Could Be Heroes
As we’ve previously mentioned here on the blog, plenty of big names have turned up to play one, two or all the Day 1 flights here at the WPT Accumulator Main Event, but how are some of them faring on the final furlong in their bid for Day 2 dominance?
James Dempsey (pictured above) is cruising along on around 68,000 chips, controlling his table, giving plenty of friendly banter around the table and mocking James Akenhead for playing too seriously, because…
…Jame Akenhead is killing the field after knocking out the best opponent at his table in Dave Shallow. Akenhead, a former WSOP ‘November Niner’, is up to 170,000 and crushing dreams like the English cricket team!
Chaz Chattha was doing just as well, but just lost an 80k flip to leave himself on around 15k rather than 95k. Having got all-in pre-flop with pocket jacks, he was up against an opponent’s Ace-King, and heard the great news that no less than three people (possibly all named Spartacus) had folded an ace. He only had to avoid kings, then, but that didn’t happen as the board played out a heart-breaking to river his hopes of a top ten stack here on the day. All to do to add to his 38k stack he carries through from Flight 2.
Crosby KO’s Hussai
Darren Crosby launches himself up the leaderboard after taking out Mohammed Hussai in a huge hand. Following an UTG+1 raise to 400, Hussai made it 800 from mid position. Crosby four-bet to 2500, causing the initial raiser to fold and Hussai to call and see a flop. Crosby check-raised from the big blind to 5000, prompting a re-shove by Hussai and suddenly both player’s entire stacks were in the middle.
Hussai showed for top pair, but Crosby had him dominated with . The hit on the turn and it dawned on both players that Hussai could suck out with a runner-runner straight. The dealer dealt the and Hussai punched the air, before realising that this was in fact not one of his outs! Laughing, he walked away from the table, leaving Crosby stacking an enormous pile of chips.
Level 6 – 300/600/75 – Players Remaining: 146/221 – Average Stack: 30,273
Irina Nikolaidai Busts Two, Dances a Jig
Not since ‘The Last Boy Scout’ have we witnessed a hero dancing a jig after victory, and let’s face it, former bartender Bruce Willis probably just did that on every film set for the first few years. Irina (above), has added two more scalps to her growing list of victims, to make her her own personal highlights reel look like the latest draft of Kill Bill Part 3.
Having got to the flop of , all the money went in from her two opponents with and respectively. Irina called it off with , however, and her two-pair held through the turn and river of and to leave her sitting pretty on around 100,000 chips with two levels remaining. Having only played poker live for a year, from what we’ve already seen in the three opening flights, hers could be a name to remember in the game.
A Glass a Day
One table more than any other looks to be having a rip-roaring time here on Flight 3, as we approach Level 6 of 8 in this final furlong of Day 1. It’s probably no surprise that Sin Melin is on the table, and the conversation i about alcohol, but oddly, centres around the popular theory that a single glass of red wine a day is good for you. We wouldn’t like to advocate or refute this theory ourselves, of course, but its certainly got people relxing at the table, which we suspect is the aim of things from Melin’s point of view.
Sin was involved herself briefly in a hand where the flop had come with 5k or so in the pot. The bet of 2500 from Antony Yousefian (pictured, refutes the red wine theory) was calld by Sin, but raised to 6500 by Giedrius Glikmanas, who got an all-in from Yousefian, called then showed – which was way behind Antony’s . That was the way it stayed through the [ and river.
Level 5 – 200/400/75 – Players Remaining 205/221 – Average Stack 21,560
Big Stacks at the Break
There are plenty of people doing very nicely for themselves at the break here in the final flight of Day 1 here at Aspers for the WPT Accumulator – none more so than Sam Macdonald at present…
Sam Macdonald 105,000
Usman Siddique 74,500
James Dempsey (pictured, above left) 70,000
James Akenhead 69,000
Bernard Okyere Sasu 69,000
Nuno Duarte 68,500
Tom Carpenter 63,000
Antoine Saout 57,000
Christy Anthonypillai 54,000
Martin Hanham 52500
Mihial Popa 52,000
Steve Watts 51,500
Ian Otobo 45,000
Irina Nikolaidi 33,000
David Shallow 32,000
Charles Chattha 27,000
Sunrinder Sunar 25,000
Jack Wilson 17,000
Tony Dunst 16,000
James Roberts 13,000
Enzo Del Piero 10,000
Big Pot for Watts
Steve Watts moves up past the 40,000 chip mark, eliminating a player in the process. With the unfortunate short-stacked player all-in on the flop for around 10,000, Watts faced Jerome l’Hostis for the side pot. Following a flop, Watts bet 5,000 on the turn and l’Hostis called. The appeared on the river and Watts put all of his chips in the middle for the rest of l’Hostis’ stack. The latter folded with a sigh and Watts tabled for top set and the all-in player folded without showing. Power play.
Players Make The Break
We’ll go and gather some chip-counts, but while we do, check out this video featuring some of our WPT Accumulator players in Steve Watts, Charles Chattha and Sin Melin.
As you can tell, it’s been a fantastic atmosphere so far, with everyone having a great time!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXfcl2myU4U&feature=youtu.beLevel 3 – 150/300/50 – Players Remaining: 198/212 – Average Stack: 21,414
Flushy Sets a Trap
James Dempsey has been discussing the merits of playing what was potentially going to be a very short stack if he was to bust this third and final flight here at Aspers in the WPT Accumulator Main Event. Currently only having ten big blinds in the bag for Day 2 has meant he has pulled out all the weapons, including some table talk, plenty of banter and a good helping of humour at his own plight as well as everyone else’s.
‘This is actually the first poker I’ve played since the WSOP Main Event.’ he confessed to us. After this last hand, he might be persuaded to rock up more often.
James raised to 600 pre-flop, getting 4 callers before one opponent re-raised to 3950. Far from being put off, Dempsey four-bet to 8200, before his opponent five-bet to 20,000 or so. Dempsey shipped for 40,000 or so, his opponent snap-called and the cards were on their backs, with James tabling and his enemy – incredibly – showing ! the board of couldn’t dampen Dempsey’s renewed vigour for the tournament as he possibly takes the chip-lead during this flight with around 77,000. Amazing.
Flight 2 Chip-counts
With 94 players making it through the second WPT Accumulator flight this afternoon, here are all the chip-counts.
166 individuals have made it through to Day 2, with just 25 people so far accruing a combined stack of Flight 1 and 2 chips. Who can make it a treble?
Flight 2 Chip-counts:
Man Luk 160800
Rapinder Cheema 124700
Simon Green 102300
Roger O’Selle 102200
Amir Reza Davoudzadehmoghaddam 99600
Antonio German 82300
DAVID SHALLOW 82200
Cathal Young 77900
Daniel Hardy 73900
Dominic Loke 72600
Salvador Villaluz 71200
Nicholas Adams 70300
Peter Stoneman 68700
Martin Miller 67900
David Anderson 66400
James Philip Sykes 62800
Phillip Adams 62400
David Winder 62000
Robert Glen 59100
Darren Kirk 56000
Vivien Ma 55700
Razvan-Vasile Stoea 55200
Jefferson Dike 53100
David Tompkins 52300
Russell Brooks 51300
James Roberts 51000
Mark Thomas 50700
Tristan Chaplin 50600
John Gilbert 49400
Thomas Carpenter 49000
Andrew Brisland 48000
Colin Guthrie 47700
Paul Hizer 47300
Denise Henry 46900
MICHALIS MICHAEL 46100
Tim Silman 43400
Mustafa Dervis 42300
Eric Ramkeesoon 42100
Leon Mills 42000
Bruno Launais 41800
Matthew Noonan 40400
Michael Panteli 40400
Jonathan Weekes 40300
Kevin Crinnion 40300
Kalman Racz 40200
Gen Wong 39900
Paul Woloszyn 39600
Charles Chattha 38400
Laurentiu Radulescu 38400
Vincent Anderson 38400
Terence Simpson 38100
Maxime Foures 37900
Robert Rainhorn 37700
Joern Madsen 37000
Kevin Simpson 36800
Marc Inizan 35600
Michael Nesbeth 34200
William Martin 33200
Gyenge Emod 33100
Jerome Bradpiece 33000
Sung Yun 32900
Graham Amos 32700
Cheryl Pulver 31800
Jason Lam 31500
Charles Akadiri 30900
Ian Otobo 30300
Luke Mcintyre 30300
Paul Skipper 29500
Gabor Matus 28700
Vladimir Marchevici 28500
Neil Barron 27300
Xuan Nguyen 25900
Paul Russell 25800
Poul Erik Madsen 25300
Lisa Tan 23700
Alexander Jager 23400
Nicolai Pedersen 22500
Chinthaka Fernando 22300
Steven Watts 21900
Gareth Smirthwaite 19300
Michelle Gascoine 18400
Tracey Campbell 18300
Mauro Suriano 18200
Elisa Beluze 17800
Antony Simon 16300
Marius Zalpys 14600
Guy Steel 13400
James Dempsey 13000
Jerome L’Hostis 13000
Mark Howard 12300
Benjamin Carpenter 10900
Richard Mcdonald 10000
Vasile Bojoga 8600
Mihail Popa 6700
Brummitt Looking Strong
Bobbie Brummitt (pictured above) has a great record in the WPT Accumulators, and having survived Flight 1 last night with a more than healthy stack of 101,900, he’s playing his second bullet tonight. He’s just eliminated Elise Beluze from his table in a gut-wrenching pot for the French player.
We joined the action with both players all-in, Elize at risk for her remaining 11,125 chips with and Bobbie holding on a flop of . Bobbie was just 34% to win after the flop, but after the turn, he was certain, and Elise rose knowing that she was drawing dead, the irrelevant river of confirming that we say ‘Au revoir’ to her.
In the next hand, Bobbie raised to 2875 pre-flop over an open of 850, and got two callers to a flop. Brummitt imediately shoved all-in for over 30k, easily covering both his opponents. One folded quickly, but the ther asked Bobbie if he wanted a call.
‘Yeah.’ came the eloquent response.
He got a fold. Brummitt has over 46,000 in play, with six figures already in the Day 2 chip-bank. Impressive stuff.
A Happy Atmosphere
We all love a party with a ‘happy atmosphere’, don’t we? And as we tick towards 200 entries on Flight 3 alone (roughly 600 for the tournament as a whole, we look to surpass the mammoth £100,000 guarantee!
With everyone having fun, whether playing the tournament or on the rail, it’s great to see so many partypoker people having fun!
Level 2 – 100/200 – Players Remaining: 184/186 – Average Stack: 20,107
Dempsey Tries to Make Peace
After a slow start to the action, players are now quickly realising that sitting there waiting for action to happen is a fool’s pursuit. Drama is starting to occur, not least at James Dempsey’s table. Players are still queuing to sit down, as you can see above, but James has just ejected Wolfgang Wurzer from his seat after talking him into a call. On a board of , Dempsey bet 4,000 into a pot of around 5,200, and as Wurzer pondered what to do with his – already-damaged – stack of 12,500, his opponent was giving it everything verbally.
‘I think you have the second-best hand here. I think you have King-Queen, maybe with the king of hearts. If you have a club, you have to call. Have to. I think you have King-Queen.’
Eventually, temptation to see Dempsey’s hand got the better of Wolfgang, who shipped his remaining chips into the middle with . Dempsey, already up above his starting stack, made the easy call with for the turned straight, and a blank (and ironic) on the river was the final nail in the coffin for Wurzer’s chances in this third and final flight.
Sitting Fast, Playing Slow
While players are flying into the tournament, this flight has certainly started slowly. Fewer three-bets, less aggression, what this flight currently needs is a shoot-out with Mr. James Bond himself, Tony Dunst (above). He might get it, with Chaz Chattha sat to his immediate right and having taken through a stack from Flight 2, in a mood to add to it!
Taking Their Seats
With 154 already in their seats, Flight 3 is still filling up as players pour into the Aspers Cardroom here in Stratford, London. It’s the final Day 1 flight of the WPT Accumulator and already in their seats we have James Dempsey, Sin Melin, Chaz Chattha, James Akenhead, Steve Watts, Dave Shallow, Danny & Joe Laming and Sam Macdonald. But those top players have not had it all their own way, with many qualifiers – pictured above celebrating! – enjoying the incredible value of winning one, two or even three seats into this tournament via online satellites.
Imagine qualifying for a fiver and going on to win the biggest prize from a guaranteed prize-pool of £100,000… you’d be smiling!
Level 1 – 50/100 – 140 Players Remaining
Final Flight!
With Flight 2’s chip-counts still being counted, we will bring them to you as soon as we have them.
It’s nearly time for Flight 3, however, and with everyone keen to either add chips to their Day 2 stack or make it through with any at all, this is the last chance to get involved before the WPT Accumulator becomes a freezeout.
Who will make it through these last eight levels and challenge our Flight 1 chip leader?
Level 8 – 500/1000/100 – Players Remaining: 115/203 – Average Stack: 33,278
Shallow Waters?
With just one half-hour level left until players finish Flight 2 (and have around an hour off before Flight 3) Shoveland welcomes carefree players, clearly!
Steve Watts has solidified his stack with around 30,000 after being well below starting stack for much of the day until now.
Thanh Trung Hoang doubled up Russell Brookes when Brookes shoved his last 20k or so into Hoang, holding only . Hoang turned over , but the board of paid off for Brookes, whose Flight 2 life is now very much in rude health.
Dave Shallow had the chip lead at one point, with over 100,000 chips, but after doubling up Daniel Hardy’s pocket eights when he lost a flip with , he dropped to 35,000. He’s just moved all-in on the river to elicit a crying fold from his opponent, who even asked for all of Shallow many 25 chips to be counted before folding. We’re not sure he knows ‘Dubai’ too well, having done that, but Shallow took it very well and retained the kind of focus both in the hand and after it that you would expect from one of Britain’s most successful online and live tournament players. Back up to 60k and almost double-average.
Time Running Out?
Roberts at the Double!
James Roberts, a surviving short stack on one of the fierce tables, including 2012 WPT Dublin winner David Shallow, shoves his remaining 11,000 against an early raise from Georg Georgiou. The latter calls with and looking to hit to knock out Roberts, who holds . The board runs out an uneventful and Roberts doubles up with a smile and a polite ‘Thank you’. He continues to remain among the below average stacks, however.
A Swinging Time
Tournament poker is all about dealing with the vagaries of fortune, and never more so than when you have a stack that is ready to shove! Several players have felt the pinch of that this level, with varying success when they made their moves!
Daniel Hardy dropped to 4000 chips at one point, but he’s now up to 38,000 after busting his enemy Lazlo Molnar, who had on a board of Qs]. It was no good against Hardy’s !
Anthony Hardy (Dan’s dad) has endured a less favourable time, busting when his shove with 5-7 on a 6-8-x flop was unable to improve against an opponent’s pocket nines.
Matthew Noonan is doing much better, however, up to 40,000 chips after turning quads and getting his opponent all-in on the river. He’s looking very happy and well he might, the young man, known predominantly for his online exploits previously enjoyed his best live result to date in the award-winning tournament of last year, WPT500 Nottingham, in association with partypoker. Finishing 2nd there for £80,000 was a superb result which announced him on the UK live scene.
Elsewhere,
Tristan Trebles
Tristan Chaplin has previously won big here at Aspers Casino, having taken down the World Amateur Championship just last year. He was looking down the barrel of an early-ish exit here on Flight 2, after getting all of his chips into the middle (5600) pre-flop against two callers in Vasile Bojoga and Laurentiu Radules, but after the flop of Chaplin inched forward in his seat. Both his opponents checked to a turn of , whereupon Radules bet 1700 into the pot of around ten times that. Bojoga folded (!) and Radules turned over for a pair of fours. Chaplin flipped , and survived the river of to treble up!
Chaplin – 23,000
Bojoga – 16,500
Radules – 71,300
Level 6 – 300/600/75 – Players Remaining: 150/203 – Average Stack: 27,066
Ins & Outs
With play reaching Level 6, players are feeling more and more pressure to survive as the blinds and the average stack force more decisions to be pivotal in players’ tournaments.
Exiting Flight 2 is Sin Melin, who’ll have a longer hiatus than most before Flight 3, after she ‘hardly won a pot!’ and dwindled to around 7k, shoving all-in with Q-T but walking into Salvdore Villaluz’s pocket aces. ‘I even flopped a queen.’ she remarked.
Doing much better is Simon Green, who has just taken a large pot from Matthew Noonan. Noonan led 1500 (roughly a half-pot bet) into a flop of , then called the 2800 raise, but was put off after Green bet 5600 on the turn of . Green is racking up a very decent stack…
Flight 1 Break Chip-counts
Players have fought, raised, folded, bet, called, hollered, yelped (really!) and gestured their way through four levels of the eight during today’s daytime Flight 2 in the WPT Accumulator event. So who’s on top? Why, it’s everyone’s favourite London personality, Albert Sapiano, who tops the chip-counts!
Albert (pictured above) has already checked with us that the third and final flight kicks off this evening. By then, he could honestly have six figures and the overall chip lead….or the roundest number of all. We shall see.
Flight 1 Break-time Chip-counts:
Albert Sapiano 80,000
Simon Green 63,500
Paul Skipper 57,400
Dave Shallow 53,300
Gyenge Emod 51,500
Man Hon Luk 50,600
Tom Carpenter 48,100
Mike Panteli 33,800
Eric Ramkeeson 30,300
Denise Henry 30,000
Tony Dunst 27,100
Dan Hardy 26,000
James Dempsey 25,200
Chaz Chattha 25,100
Sam Macdonald 22,100
Steve Watts 20,600
Danny Laming 17,000
John Thompson 15,200
Vinnie Anderson 14,500
Sinem Melin 12,400
James Akenhead 12,000
Tony Hardy 11,900
Tristan Chaplin 11,700
Ben Carpenter 11,000
Joe Laming 9,800
Gary Miller 7,200
Panteli Versus Bradpiece
We saw former WPT South Africa Runner-Up Jerome Bradpiece win a big hand with both red aces earlier on, but his latest hand bears attention if only for the odd way in which it played out.
‘Both players played it perfectly.’ was Jerome’s summary of events to us after detailing the hand, but we’ll let you make your own minds up…
Mike Panteli (pictured above) raised to 1125 and got three callers including Jerome, before a flop of fell. Mike bets 2300, and Jerome is the only caller. On the turn of , Panteli pops in 4,000 chips, and is shoved on by Jerome, who easily has him covered. Panteli calls it off with (those red aces again!), but is well behind Jerome’s for a flopped set. Incredibly, however, the on the river gives Panteli the ‘wheel’ straight, and doubles him up to 32,500 chips through a still-smiling Bradpiece, who is left with 14,000. Almost a 50k pot, and when we remind him that those same red aces he won with earlier caused him to lose this time around, he manages to laugh along with us. That’s class!
Akinsusa Stumbles Late in Level 4
Mitsuru Akikusa has busted just a few hands before the scheduled break at the mid-way point of this WPT Accumulator Flight 2. Eight levels today are split straight down the middle for a short time-out, but Akinsusa will not be returning before the 8pm Flight 3.
Short-stacked and in the big blind, Mitsuru Akikusa faced a raise from James Akenhead. He pushed all-in for around 12,000 with and the former ‘November Niner’ Akenhead called with . Akenhead, a big favourite, improved to a set on the flop, with Akikusa needing running cards to save him. The left him with just the four eights as outs, but the was no help.
Akenhead is really going through the gears here, and bearing in mind that his table of balling late-reggers included Dave ‘Dubai’ Shallow, Chaz Chattha, Jamie Sykes and Jen Yue Chiang among others, that’s some feat. As we type this, we hear that the fabled ‘Table of Death’ has been chopped. Akenhead comes out of it the best…
Mis-click From Akenhead?
James Akenhead may have been part of the fabled WSOP ‘November Nine’ and won countless titles over the years, but he’s also amusingly regarded as once having mis-clicked during the final table of one of the biggest online poker tournaments in the world and gone on to win. Has he brought his special skill to the WPT Accumulator here at Aspers?
Amir Reza Davoudzadehmoghaddam raises from the cut-off and the bet of 500 is called by James Akenhead in the big blind. Amir continues for 525 on the flop of , called by Akenhead. The pair both check the on the turn and the appears on the river. Akenhead reaches for chips and puts out a bet of… 7025! Putting his hand to his face, laughing, Akenhead says that he mistook the grey ‘5000’ chip, thinking that it was a purple, of significantly less worth – just ‘500’. Amir laughs too, asking if he really meant that, before mucking, saying that he infact rivered a pair.
What do you think? Do you think it was a genuine mistake? Or was it a double-bluff for value?
Level 4 – 150/300/50 – Players Remaining: 183/200 – Average Stack: 21,857
Watts Not Hanging Around
Steve Watts is not a man to wait around for an opportunity. A desire to push forward for goals comes from his background, really. A former professional footballer, Steve now combines his poker profession with a burning desire to succeed in the pop industry, managing one of the hottest new talents in Louisa Johnson.
From perfect pitches to poker, he always gives 100% and is focused on the poker table, today, and just got involved in a big hand with one of the his friends away from the table, Danny Laming. We joined the action on a flop of , Danny betting 1050 into a pot of around 1250. Watts called, as did another opponent, and the trio saw a turn of . This time, all three players checked, but on the river of , both Danny and Steve were faced with a quick lead of 5100 from their enemy across the felt. Danny got out of the way, but Watts made the call, and showed for a rivered set. Called good enough by his opponent, Steve raked in another pot.
Sapiano Leading the Way
Albert Sapiano checks for the updates on the partypoker.com blog (above) – but it’s only good news for the famously-curmudgeonly player affectionately known as the ‘Honey Monster’. Albert has already knocked two players out, and has over 67,000 chips from his 20k starting stack.
Level 3 – 100/200/25 – Players Remaining: 186/199 – Average Stack: 21,397
Hardy Boy Has It
Daniel Hardy has arrived today, playing the tournament along with his legendary dad, Anthony ‘The Booky’ Hardy, who previously won the partypoker World Open for $200,000 in 2007. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and Hardy Junior has plenty of the traits you’d expect to see in the son of such a consistent winner. Tony himself is playing today, and has just dipped below starting stack, but Daniel is ‘more of a tournament player than me’ in his own words, and o far is proving that to be the case here in Flight 2.
Raising to 500 pre-flop, he got three callers, and saw a flop of . Hardy led for 1300, but was raised to 2600 but the one opponent who wanted to see a turn. Dan made the call, and called 2,500 on the turn of . Both players checked the river of . Dan’s opponent turned face-up, but Hardy flipped over to sweep a very nice pot his way. Early days, but a great start nonetheless.
Big Cat, Big Smile
Jerome Bradpiece always wears that feline grin that suggests some unlucky mouse was captured before other cats were awake. He’s got the heart of a Lion, too, having previously finished as runner-up thousands of miles away at the inaugural WPT Main Event in South Africa. He’s just won a very big hand in Level 2 here at the WPT Accumulator event in Aspers Casino, Stratford.
His opponent in the hand raised to 750 pre-flop, with Jerome re-raising to 2075, eliciting a call. The flop of got a check to Jerome, who led for 1900, which was again called, as was the 3300 he pumped into the pot on the turn of . On the river of 8c, Jerome shoved all-in for just over 10k in chips, getting his opponent to call it off for their tournament life with
Jerome quickly flipped over and flashed another of those smiles as his opponent got his coat. We reckon a few more people may be seeing that smile this weekend.
Level 2 – 100/200 – Average Stack 20,223 – Players Remaining: 180/183
Irina Busted by Albert
We’ve lost our first couple of players, and Irina Nikolaidi is one of them, after falling foul of Albert Sapiano in a very big hand in Level 2.
After one player called pre-flop, Irina raised to 800 and picked up three callers to a flop of . A c-bet to 800 from Irina lost one player, but the three of them saw a turn of . Irina led for 4000 this time, but was sensationally raised all-in by Albert Sapiano. Irina called, showing but was in terrible shape, Albert displaying for a set of fours. The on the river gave Sapianon a full house and meant Irina was gone. She can’t play tonight’s Flight 3 at 8.00pm, so her Flight 1 stack of around 47,000 will have to do. It’s still a very decent amount to play with.
Star-Spotting
With over 150 players now in their seats, some of the later arrives are poker pros and regulars who prefer to be fashionably late rather than grind Level 1.
They include: Steve Watts, WPT Champions Club member Surinder Sunar, Tony ‘Bond_18’ Dunst, former WPT Five Diamond Classic winner James Dempsey, Dan and Anthony Hardy, Albert Sapiano and Jonathan Weekes. It’s a top quality field.
Level 1 – 50/100 blinds – Average stack (starting stack) 20,000 – Players remaining: 130
Vlad The Isolator?
With players getting off to a tentative start, action at certain tables attracts the eye. Any table featuring Albert Sapiano is bound to be lively, and true enough, the standard raise at his table would appear to be 5x the big blind pre-flop.
Irina Nikolaidi and Albert were two of seven players who limped to a flop of , but the raise to 500 by Vlad Marchivici only kept Jason Lam and Irina interested. All three players checked the and river, with Vlad showing which was good enough.
Shots fired…
All The Lights Are On!
With players such as James Dempsey, Enzo Del Piero and Anthony ‘The Booky’ Hardy all in the room to kick off the action, we’re under way for Flight 2 here at Aspers Casino for the second flight of three in this WPT National Accumulator Main Event.
Players can enter all three flights, each of which playing like a freezeout, for £200 each flight. Players accumulative chips gathered over the three flights combined make their Day 2 stack, where the tournament is locked for entry and going all the way to a winner from Saturday afternoon.
We caught up with partypoker online phenom and all-round good guy Ben Carpenter on his bid to build his Day 2 stack after getting through with ten big blinds late last night…
Players Back For More As Flight 2 Begins at 2.00pm
With many of the 97 players who made it through Flight 1 late last night back to accumulate even more chips to add to their Day 2 stack. Those who didn’t make it through already (124 players who busted yesterday for example) will be back into the hunt for a Day 2 berth and looking to catch the chip-leaders!
That’s a Wrap!
With 97 players left when play ended here for flight 1 of the WPT National UK Accumulator Event, here are all the people taking a stack through to Day 2 at the first attempt. Roger O’Selle has the biggest pile of them, a clear lead from anyone else. He – along with everyone else, of course – has the chance to add to his stack by playing the other two Day 1 flights, on Friday at both 2pm and 8pm, where 8 levels will be played in each flight before final bagging will be done for our Day 2 stacks.
Join us from around 1.30pm on Friday for all the live updates from Aspers Casino in London!
Flight 1 Chip-counts:
Roger O’Selle – 215200
Anthony Whelan – 137800
Rouxel Julien – 134200
Shlomo Dayan – 121200
Benjamin Helstrip – 116300
Bobbie Brummitt – 101900
Nicolai Pedersen – 101300
Jason Lam – 90100
Shlomo Dubnov – 89800
Jonathan Schapira – 86500
Martinha Pereira – 83400
Ian Otobo – 77700
James Roberts – 77000
Keith Miller – 75500
Yonatan Sagis – 72600
Stanislaw Cwynar – 72500
Jack Mcdermott – 72300
Arunas Pakalniskis – 72200
Bobby Zhang – 71100
Paul Myers – 69600
Lukas Cobotas – 68200
Alan Dean – 61600
Billy Jones – 60000
Leo Lim – 58000
Vassos Stephanou – 57600
John Gilbert – 54800
Michael Nesbeth – 53200
George Dunst – 50800
Warren Bennett – 50000
Agron Gjergji – 48300
Keith Ellis – 48000
Peteris Berzins – 47900
Irina Nikolaidi – 47700
Timotheos Timotheou – 46000
Paul Woloszyn – 44800
Mats Rosén – 44500
Sang Ngo – 44400
Kashif Patel – 43400
Sami Yusuf – 42300
Tracey Campbell – 42100
Tong Zhang – 42000
Paul Russell – 41500
Paul Wade – 41500
Michael Panteli – 39800
Bruno Launais – 39400
James Robert Mitchell – 36800
William Whicher – 36800
Guilad Touitou – 36000
Enri Vila – 35600
Van Pham – 35500
Pierre Canali – 34300
Lewis Pilkington – 33800
Jabran Zahid – 33700
Mihail Popa – 33500
Russell Brooks – 33100
Anatolij Jevtejev – 32000
Sinem Melin – 30200
Sam Macdonald – 30000
Abdurrahman Korkmaz – 29900
James Evans – 29900
Josep Vives – 29200
Brian Mulally – 29000
Mortaza Sahibzada – 28500
Paul Skipper – 27300
Robin Heuvel – 26900
Maris Veiklis – 26100
Matthew Noonan – 26000
Tony Blanchandin – 26000
Abdulkadir Ahmed – 25500
Warren Tolentino – 25200
Dike Iheanacho – 24400
Jerome Bradpiece – 24300
Krzysztof Pregowski – 24300
Kenneth Lemchi – 24200
Jamie Terrell – 24000
Haresh Thaker – 22500
Jerome L’Hostis – 22500
Antony Simon – 22000
Ralph Baylor – 21900
Peter Burgon – 21700
Elisa Beluze – 21400
Daniel-Alexandru Craciun – 20600
Deyan Todorov – 20100
James Akenhead – 19500
Santhi Thiyagarajah – 18700
Xuan Nguyen – 18700
Lisa Tan – 17600
John Thompson – 16600
Robert Beatty – 16100
Giang Hong – 15400
Rajbarath Nandhagopal – 14900
Luke Mcintyre – 14600
Graeme Nadin – 13500
Jamal Gormati – 13300
Mauro Suriano – 12700
Benjamin Carpenter – 12000
Eigirdas Skruolis – 9500
Last Few Hands
With just a couple more hands to go before dealers and tournament staff begin the laborious task of counting over a hundred players’ chip-stacks to take through to Day 2, we’ll leave you with Tony Dunst and his words ahead of play here on Flight 1 of the WPT National Accumulator Event.
As soon as all the chips are racked, stacked, bagged and tagge, we’ll give you a full run-down of who ended with what!
https://www.youtube.com/embed/P6nq6oVu0EgChaplin Shaking His Head
Tristan Chaplin may have won a World Championship here at Aspers Casino previously, but that celebrity status afforded him no special favours with the cards as he busted the Flight 1 field.
Raising to 2200 pre-flop, Chaplin saw his only opponent flat-call to a flop of . After his opponent checked to him, Chaplin c-bet to 3700, which was called. On the turn of , his 5700 was again check-called. On the river of , however, his bet of 5,000 from a stack of around 16,000 was shoved on. He called, showed for a turned set…only to see the lady flip over for Broadway. Stunned, Chaplin was left ‘scratching my head and wishing my best wishes as I made my way from the table.’
Also busted is James Dempsey (pictured above) who confirms that he’s off to get a good night’s sleep before coming back to try again tomorrow!
Level 8 – 500/1,000/100 – 123 Players Remaining – Average Stack: 35,934
Sin for the Win?
When she’s on her game, the circuit regular Sin ‘The Menace’ Melin is a tough player to beat, and she just got it all-in for her Flight 1 life here at Aspers at the WPT Accumulator.
Having lost a big pot beforehand to drop her down to around 14,000. But on a flop of , she was all-in with the strong-looking for a set with a back-door nut flush draw. Her opponent had a shot, though, with . The turn came the and the river a to mean Sin doubles through her opponent and is right back in the game at just under average with twenty minutes still to play.
In & Out
Plenty of players intend to play all three flights here at the WPT Accumulator Event in London’s Aspers Cardroom here in Stratford – which is just as well, as a few big names have failed to take a stack through to Saturday’s Day 2 so far…
Chaz Chattha will be back for both flights tomorrow after busting today when he lost with Q-Q to the same players in consecutive hands. He told us how in the first hand he made it 2300 to go over their opening raise. The flop of got the action going, especially since Chaz had the queen of spades, and all the money went into the middle, Chattha’s opponent showing for the flopped flush, which held!
Left with change from a 50k pot, Chattha got it back into the middle with queens in the next hand…only for the same opponent to call it off – with aces!!
Also hoping tomorrow goes better are Gareth Smirthwaite (pictured), who ran pocket jacks into a flopped set of sevens on a ten-high flop for his tournament life, and Steve Watts, who left for baby duty after his late position shove with tens ran into kings.
Big In The Room
Level 7 – 400/800/100 – Players remaining: 134/221 – Average Stack: 32,900
With around 150 players left, we’ve scooted round to check out the biggest winners so far, in terms of chips. They’re as follows:
Rouxel Julien 155,000
Bobbie Brummitt 90,000
Anton Wheelan 85,000
Brian Mulally raised UTG with pocket eights, saw Christy Anthonypillai re-raise to 4,500 pre-flop and three players saw a flop of . Christy went all-in with A-Q…one player folded but Mulally made a very quick call with his quads and raked a healthy pot.
Big name,s big stacks, and huge hands… it can only be the WPT!
Very Superstitious
Are you superstitious? Jonathan Sagis is, and believes that his rather odd actions work in his favour, as he calls off a big pre-flop all-in for a large percentage of his stack. The 29-year old from London runs one lap around the table before any big hand in the hope that his cards and luck improves!
Following a button raise, Sagis called the bet in the small blind with , only to watch Michael Lee, the big blind, push all-in. After the rest of the table folds, Sagis calls and sees that he’s up against . An ace hits the flop and Sagis knocks out his opponent. “See?” he laughs, “Good luck!”
Maybe those steps are on the journey to a big win here at Aspers in Stratford for the WPT Accumulator prize-pool is a whopping £100,000!
Level 5 – Blinds 200/400/75 ante – Average Stack: 26,626 Players remaining: 166/221
Zimbler Fails to Nguyen
Paul Zimbler has gone from having double-average in chips to out here on Flight 1, but that is tournament poker, and he knows that better than anyone, earning the name ‘The Marbella Kid’ having won well over six figures in his career to date. Having lost a big pot after a good move with pocket tens went wrong against a player who had paired the top of a Q-9-8 board, he found himself all-in pre-flop and at risk against Xuan Nguyen.
Paul Zimbler:
Xuan Nguyen:
No help on the board for Paul, either, and despite calling for plenty of chop-pot kings or jacks on the turn, the river drew a blank on .
Joining Zimbler on the rail are WSOP Main man Chaz Chattha, Sky Sports F1’s Simon Lazenby and Tom Carpenter. But there are two more flights to play in this APT Accumulator, tomorrow (Friday) at both 2pm AND 8pm.
There’s Only One James Bond…Now
Tony Dunst is the man referred to as ‘James Bond’ purely because he signed up to partypoker with the avatar name ‘Bond_18’. It turns out, that Tony Dunst (Up to 45,000 chips here on Flight 1) is quite the Bondian, with his favourite film being Goldeneye ‘Because I was ten, and everyone’s favourite Bond film is when they were ten.’
He isn’t the only man referred to as Bond here tonight, with Aspers regular and previous WPT National player ‘Mr Bond’ (who busted the last WPTNUK event in 11th place) playing too. He’s more old-school. Think Sean Connery in Goldfinger. He’s always OUT of tonight’s flight, however, after a fairly wild shove was hoovered up by a top player at his table.
Sam Macdonald has always played some great poker, and his decision to re-raise over-the-top of ‘Mr Bond’ pre-flop proved correct, Macdonald well ahead with over Bond’s . The board played out , meaning that Mr. Bond had his coat on well before the river.
James Bond will return…
Chips With Everything
We’ve had a few technical issues that have prevented us bringing you all the news from the last level before the break, but fear not, we’re now working tirelessly to get it all in front of you before players are back at the tables.
Here are just a few players’ chip-counts as they walked clear of the tables for a well-earned game of Scalextric and champagne.
Ben Carpenter (pictured, above left) – 25,000
Jmes Akenhead – 11,400
Ian Otobo – 70,000
Xuan Nguyen – 20,000
James Dempsey – 19,250
Tony Dunst 43,500
Level 3 – 100/200/25 – 198 Players – Average stack: 20,703
Ihler Bluffs Greenwood?
Niehls Ihler showed relentless attacking instincts aplenty on a board which originally involved former WPT South Africa Runner-Up Jerome Bradpiece and eventually became a heads-up battle with James Greenwood. Bradpiece was the initial aggressor, raising to 500 and getting 3 callers to a flop of . At that point, Ihler bet 2,000 and only Greenwood came along for the ride. The turn of led to an even bigger bet from Ihler to 6,000, and that was enough to scare off Greenwood in seat 9.
Ihler flicked the ace of clubs face-up into the middle, along with the other – face-down – card.
‘It’s the other one I wanted to see.’ quipped Greenwood.
Early departure for Lee Champion
It’s an early night for Lee Champion after he exits in the second level of the first flight.
With UTG and UTG+1 limping into the pot, Champion comes along in the cutoff with just under 2000 remaining at the start of his hand (players start with 20,000). The big blind re-pops it to 1200 and Champion pushes all-in for 1950 and is called by the initial raiser in the big blind and Aaron Rout in UTG+1. The flop comes and is checked between the remaining players. The turn of , initiates a bet from Rout and gets a fold from the big blind. Champion turns over for second pair, which is currently ahead of Rout’s , but he has straight and flush draws, and a heart appears on the river! Champion is sent to the sidelines with Rout taking a decent pot.
Level 2 – 100/200 – 196 players – Average Stack (starting stack!) 20,000
Watts in a Name?
Steve Watts is possibly coming into this WPT National Event on the least sleep of the players, having recently become a dad and spending plenty of his nights looking after his little one! But there’s no rest for the poker pro, and Steve, who also manages new singing sensation Louisa Johnson, has to take off his Pop mogul and fatherly hats. He’s back in the flat cap tonight and on a fun table in this Flight 1 of the WPT National Accumulator Event, sharing the felt with James ‘Flushy’ Dempsey and Sin ‘The Menace’ Melin!
Wattsy raised just now, which in turn was re-raised to 600, called by both those star opponents we mentioned and, of course, Steve. All four players checked the flop of flop, but James Dempsey bet 1200 on the turn of . Watts ramped it up to 3000, which got the fold from his Brighton-based friend. Steve wins an valuable early pot.
Big Names In The Race
With the action now underway, we have 190 players in their seats here on Flight 1 of the WPTN Accumulator Main Event. The starting stack is 20,000, and the most important number on the board is £100,000 – the guarantee!
Taking their chances here in the Aspers Cardroom tonight are: James Dempsey, James Akenhead, Mike Panteli, Chaz Chattha, Paul Zimbler, Albert Sapiano, Tony Dunst, Joe & Danny Laming, Tim Tim Timotheu, Ben & Tom Carpenter and plenty more!
Who would YOUR money be on?
Irina Changes Tactics
We’re always big fans of any player who can mix it up and switch the way they are perceived during a hand. It’s a neat trick and crucial to winning big at poker. Irina Nikolaidi has just demonstrated how powerful it can be in an interesting pot with Ouoc Huy Le. We joined the action on the flop of and Irina c-betting having been checked to, to the tune of 1,000 into a pot of around the same size. Two players called her, but only Ouoc followed her to the river after she bet 2,000 on the turn of . The river was , possibly filling in the gut-shot draw? Either way, Ouoc was confused enough about Irina’s hand to make the call, and she showed him for the turned flush. On the flop, it looked more like an ace being represented, and the river overbet was a nice touch too.
Under Starter’s Orders
We’re almost ready for the off now, as players are revving their engines (OK, helping themselves to a free glass of bubbly) ahead of the announcement to ‘Shuffle Up and Deal’ from Tony Dunst, a.k.a. ‘James Bond’ on partypoker himself!
With ‘Mad’ Marty Wilson in the Aspers cardroom to add his usual madcap banter to proceedings, we can’t wait for the cards to be in the air!
Qualifiers Meeting & Greeting
With plenty of qualifiers into the action tonight, such as Gareth Smirthwaite, Tom & Ben Carpenter and many more, the value of qualifying online is clear to see. It isn’t restricted to a cheaper ticket into the WPT National UK London Accumulator, either. Joining the partypoker girls (pictured) in the Players’ Lounge for a game of Scalextric and table football, everyone is having great time. Ten minutes until cards are in the air!
WPT National UK London Accumulator Flight 1
Welcome To London!
With last night’s DT38 Charity tournament a huge success (our final six players who all made – and donated – money are pictured above), attention turns to the big kick-off of the WPTNUK Accumulator Main Event! Flight 1 is tonight, with Flights 2 and 3 tomorrow at 2pm and 8pm respectively. Any chips won in each flight are ‘accumulated’ into a stack to take through to Day 2 on Saturday, so the more flights you can survive, the better!
With qualifiers enjoying a glass of bubbly and some top class entertainment in the partypoker Players’ Lounge, everyone is excited for the 8pm kick-off to the action!
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