End of Day 2 Chip-counts:
Here are the remaining 16 players who wil fight for the WPT-National title tomorrow!
Darren Mapley 1,367,000
Mark Harding 1,018,000
Kelvin Weeks 998,000
James Arthur Brady 802,000
Alexander Walton 659,000
Eldon Orr 582,000
Gary Copeland 370,000
Robert Patrick 326,000
Hamid Rowshanaei 296,000
Mark Gray 247,000
Hazel Birchnall 237,000
Andrew Hetherington 222,000
Di Fan 212,000
Nathan Watson 168,000
Jack Lam 163,000
Erol Taylan 133,000
Level 20: Blinds 8,000/16,000/ante 2,000 – 18 Players Remaining – Average Stack 450,000
The Brady Bunch
We’re heading into the last level of play here at the Aspers Casino in Newcastle. With 18 players remaining, there are some big stacks out there, headed by James Brady (pictured), who edges out Darren Mapley at the top of the leaderboard. Will that be the case when cards are downed? We shall see, and you’ll find out the chip-counts first here, once the dealers have counted everyone’s stack.
We lost Paul Hempseed, after the talented pro shoved for eleven big blinds with 
and was looked up by 
which held. He earned £615 for his min-cash along with a priceless WPT Hendon Mob flag! Here are the current standings amongst the chip-rich as the players battle it out for the overnight lead heading into the final day…
James Brady 1.1 million
Darren Mapley 1.05million
Mark Harding 800,000
Jack Lam 610,000
Alex Walton 600,000
Mark Gray 550,000
Mapley’s Route To Victory Past Vlad?
Vladimir has been one of the most fun players in this WPT-National Event in Newcastle and we’re sad to see him go – but he’s just been undone expertly by the precision play of Darren Mapley, who has (just) cracked a million chips, the first player this tournament to do so.
Mapley min-raised pre-flop, was re-clicked by Vladimir and Mapley called to go heads-up to a flop of [Qsd] 
. Vlad bet 51k, less than half the pot and Mapley called. On the 
turn, Vlad checked, Mapley bet out 75k and Vlad shoved over the top, getting a very quick call…
Darren Mapley: 
Vladimir: 
A river 
was enough to end Vlad’s chances and with his stack being 400k before the hand, we’ve witnessed the biggest pot of the tournament so far, giving Darren a massive chance of getting nearer that £17,500 top prize.
Imagine if you’d qualified for this tournament (like many of our players here this weekend) for just a few dollars on partypoker? How great would that feel?
Tables For Two
Here are how the players look in chips at Tables 3 & 4 where we haven;t focused as much as the others. Players will have three more levels of play before play stops around 10.30pm and the players head to the VIP area of Tiger Tiger club in Newcastle for the exclusive partypoker Players Party!
Table 3
Gary Collins 400k
Paul Hempseed 100k
Hamid Rowshanaei 120k
Mark Gray 290k
William Bennett 200k
Vlad Cymbaxko 400k
John Maddison 140k
Table 4
David Hudson 158,000
Darren Mapley 357,000
Di Fan 349,000
Eldon Orr 284,000
Jack Lam 525,000
Mark Harding 635,000
Andrew Beatty is WPT-National Newcastle Bubble Boy!
Andrew Beatty (pictured above, left) can feel mightily hard done by, having bubbled the WPT National Event here at Aspers in the cruellest of circumstances. All-in for 95% of his chips with 
against Di Fan’s 
he saw a board of 
decimate his stack, before shoving in the next hand for precisely 1.2 big blinds with 
, only to be – obviously – called four ways. The first four cards of 
hinted danger, and with Eldon Orr raising and Mark Harding getting out of the way, the cards were turned over and Orr’s 
was enough once the river bricked to sent Beatty out for nothing. Harsh.
Level 17: Blinds 4,000/8,000/1,000 – 28 Players Remaining (The Bubble!) – Average Stack 278k
Jack the Lam
With Paul Hempseed getting a move through just before the bubble was announced, we have moved into hand-for-hand action here at Aspers in Newcastle as the tension and action ramps right up!
We’v surely just seen the play of the tournament so far from Jack Lam, who along with Eldon Orr is one of the biggest stacks at his table. Lam raised to 26,000 pre-flop, only for Orr to raise him – to 76,000. With the other tables folding, Lam re-raised to 144,000 and was called by Orr to see a 300,000 chip flop of 
. Orr checked, Lam jammed the whole lot in for another 250,00 and Orr was sent into the tank. On the other side, he folded, but what an amazing play from the dead-pan Lam, who bumps his stack to over 600k with that pot and with another player at the table guessing that he had kings, he denied that calmly, and stacked his chips, not one more word to pass his lips. Orr is shell-shocked, having gone from big in the game to below average in one hand!
Taylor Teetering?
Catherine Taylor just lost a massive pot that has left her extremely short with just 32 players left here in the WPT National Event in Newcastle. Having called 30k on the turn at a board that read 
and had 90k in it already, Catherine made a crucial decision to check behind her opponent, Alex Walton on the river. She showed 
for the stone-cold bluff, but saw Alex flip 
for the turned house. If she’d bluff-shoved the river, she would be out…as it is, she has 60,000 and a dream.
Level 16 : Blinds 3,000/6,000/ante 1,000 – 36 Players Remaining – Average Stack 216,000
All Or Nothing
With just five tables left, action has slowed a little, with the bubble now approaching at 27 players. Every decision is under the microscope now, each call meaning a huge amount to the table dynamic and chances of every remaining player. We had 412 entries, now just 36 players have a shot at the WPT-National title and £17,500 top prize!
Paul Hempseed (above) has given himself every possibility of running very deep, after hitting a magical ‘ace from space’ to treble up. He shoved over the top of a raise with 
and when one player called and another moved all-in for chunks, the first player folded J-J. Q-Q was the other hand, but an ace on the flop more than trebled Paul up to 173,500!
Elsehwere, Eldon Orr raised UTG to 10.5k, called only by Darren Mapley, who has a real pokerface on him in a hand. On the flop of 
, Mapley checked to Orr, who continued to 10,000 – again a call from Mapley. The turn of prompted two checks to the river of , when Mapley led out 30,000. that got a fold, and Mapley has shown he doesn’t care if it’s a big stack or shortie he’s attacking, he just wants to win every pot!
Chip-counts At The Dinner Break / WPT National Newcastle
Table 4 features the impressive, quietly determined form of Eldon Orr (pictured, above) who has turned out some terrific live skills this week. Having not personally seen him in action, he’s been excellent value to watch, and he heads the counts from Table 4…
Eldon Orr 410,000
Darren Mapley 283,000
Jack Lam 280,000
Nick Finn 217,000
Jason Bateman 115,500
Andrew Beatty 111,000
Dorothy Littlewood 110,000
Gerald Conway 73,000
Table 2
With chip-leader Brady pounding his opponents, only six are sitting at this table, here they are:
Errol Taylan 96,500 (pictured)
James Brady 510,000
Jono Beck 198,500
Sidney Button 37,000
David Morris 96,500
Nathan Watson 236,500
Mannion Crashes Out
With only 27 players being paid, we head for the dinner break here at Aspers Casino in Newcastle with 44 players left, an average stack at 177k. Ross Mannion has precisely 177,000 less than that, however, after his dream of the title ended in the final hand before refreshments. The WPT National Event has brought us great drama all tournament, and shows no signs of slowing down, with a further five levels to come!
Mannion moved it in with 
but was snapped off by Darren Mapley, who held 
. The dry board of 
heralded a polite exit for the classy Mannion, someone we’re sure we’ll see a lot more of in the late stages of a WPT National Event.
Birchnall Doesn’t Blink
Hazel Birchnall (pictured above) was down to fresh air yesterday, in Shoveland and looking like she needed a miracle to get back into this WPT National Event up in Newcastle, where the locals are rejoicing as their football team won their final home game of the season 3-0. Yes, the ale will be flowing in ‘toon’ tonight, and Birchnall might well be celebrating herself if things continue as they are going today. Hazel came into play today with just 20,400 chips to show for her Flights 1a-1c efforts. She now has over 200,000 after winning a big flip to bust a player.
Raising to 50,000 pre-flop, Hazel saw her opponent shove, quickly called, and was in a classic coinflip situation with 
against her opponent’s The flop came , giving her opponent the lead, but Hazel didn’t even blink, let alone get up out of her chair/stand-up/curse imaginary poker gods/order three drinks at once… (what, just us?). She sat calmly and stared at the cards…as the magical popped up on the turn, the completing her full house and leaving her with 200,000 and an above average chance of getting even further in this tournament.
No emotion, just focus. Incredible.
Level 14: Blinds 2,000/4,000/ante 500 – 58 Players Remaining – Average Stack 134,400
Bennett Beaten By Gray
Mark Gray has really started hitting cards. After four-flushing his opponent in the last hand for a 100k pot, the affable chap has just taken a pot from William Bennett that’s left the young man cursing his luck and shaking his head.
With 15k or so in the pot, only the two players named saw a flop of 
with Bennett betting 8,000 – quickly called by Gray. On the turn, Bennett checked, but called Gray’s value-looking bet of 12,500. It was the same story on the river of , whereupon Gray turned over and that was enough to send Bennett’s cards into the muck, the youngster dropping his head and ruefully shaking it as he sees a turn card destroy his hopes of raking a 70k pot.
Level 13: Blinds 1500/3000/ante 500 – 71 Players Remaining – Average Stack 110k
Catherine Taylor Flipping Well
Catherine Taylor played some great stuff to survive, then in turn thrive in yesterday’s flights 1b and 1c, and today, she’s getting the rewards, winning most of the hands she’s played to put herself well in contention for the victory here at Aspers in Newcastle for the WPT National Event. She’s just had hold against an opponent’s Kh] to add to her 160k+ stack!
Level 12: Blinds 1200/2400/ante 400 – 81 Players Remaining – Average Stack 96,296
Selected chip-counts from the first break:
James Brady 290,000
Eldon Orr 270,000
Aan Tinlin 231,000
James Charlton 215,000
Andy Hills 175,000
James Mitchell 152,500
William Gravell 151,000
David Morris 150,000
Paul Hempseed 142,000
Gladys Jarvis 125,000
Karan Bengani 89,000
Richard Knowles 44,000
Ross Mannion 39,000
We’ve lost Mike Hill – one of the most gregarious of our players bowing out to a classic coin-flip:
Brady Leads At The Break
James Brady came into play on a good number of chips – exactly 100,000 – and he’s since turned that into the biggest stack in the room, having 270,000 as the players head for a break. He told us that a lot of them came courtesy of having pocket aces hold against pocket queens on a flush-draw looking board, but the truth is he’s played some very solid stuff. Clearly in his element, James is marginally ahead of Alan Tinlin, who sits second in chips on around 235k.
Show Me the Money!
The prizes have been published for this fourth stop on the WPTNUK tour, with a whopping £17,500 up for grabs for the winner – now who fancies that?…
1 £17,500.00
2 £12,245.00
3 £7,875.00
4 £5,825.00
5 £4,375.00
6 £3,500.00
7 £2,905.00
8 £2,325.00
9 £1,740.00
10 £1,275.00
11 £1,275.00
12 £1,275.00
13 £1,045.00
14 £1,045.00
15 £1,045.00
16 £885.00
17 £885.00
18 £885.00
19 £775.00
20 £775.00
21 £775.00
22 £695.00
23 £695.00
24 £695.00
25 £615.00
26 £615.00
27 £615.00
Level 11: Blinds 1000/2000/ante 300 – 96 Players Remaining – Average Stack 81,250.
Khoshawy Khrushing
We’ve lost actor and poker enthusiast, Neil Pearson in Level 2 as he was unlucky to be eliminated by overnight chip leader Khadir Khoshawy, who started the day on 163 and now sits second in chips on around 210,000. He called Neil’s four-bet shove all-in and was way behind, having 
to Neil]s 
. But a board that ran out 9-J-Q-5-A saw Pearson busted and Khoshawy’s loose style rewarded.
Level 10: Blinds 800/1600/ante 200 – 110 Players Remaining – Average Stack 68,000
Big In the Game
After a topsy-turvy opening first 45 minutes of play, play is beginning to settle at the thirteen tables left here on Day 2 of the WPT National Event in Newcastle. We’ve lost a few players, but those with a stack and in a routine, processing information quickly, with the quality in the field rising to the top. Paul Hempseed won another flip when his survived a short-stack’s shove with . He’s not the only one doing well, though.
William Gravell (pictured above) went heads-up to a flop with David Murphy, Gravell holding . the flop of 
was pretty dreamlike, so Gravell bet 8,000 and Murphy called. The turn of found an even better chnk of William’s chips heading central, 20,000 bet and quickly called by Murphy. On the river of , Murphy open-shoved the whole lot into the middle with and Gravell gleefully called with the nuts!
What a gift, and he features in our brief run-down of some of the bigger stacks in the room right now:
Andy Hills 223,000 (suspected chip leader)
Alan Tinlin 185,000
William Gravell 170,000
Dave Morris 165,000
James Brady 108,000
Paul Hempseed 105,000
Ross Mannion 101,500
Hall Down And Out While Hempseed Doubles
We’ve lost Bantamweight Boxer Stuart Hall in Level 9, the first level of the day here at Aspers Casino in Newcastle. The WPT National Event has kicked off in fine style, fast-paced with bust-outs everywhere. ‘Seat open!’ is the cry, and while tables are chopped, players moved to the main cardroom’s snug interior, we’ve caught the big action for two of our big names here in the North-East.
Stuart Hall, pictured above, finally lost his seat and was ‘knocked out’ from the WPTNUK by Mark Harding in a very cold spot. Stuart raised to 3400 pre-flop with 
and only Mark called to see a flop of 
. Stuart checked, Mark bet and Stuart only called. The 
on the turn got all the money in from Harding and Hall called to show his set… but was crestfallen to see Harding held for the turned straight. There was still a re-draw to the full house of course, but no pair on the board came for the pugilist, who bows out with a smile on his face and a handshake for everyone here. He’s shown himself to be the champion he is this week at Aspers, not just at the felt, but away from it. What a guy.
Elsewhere, we saw Paul Hempseed squeeze his way through to a fine double. Overnight chip leader Khadir Khoshawy opened, Daniel Trett raised in the next position and next to him, Hempseed shoved with , called only by Trett with . Paul hit to win his flip and more than double his overnight stack of 27,000 all the way up to 64,000.
That’s around average now – back in the game…
Level 9: Blinds 600/1,200/ante 200 – 129 Players Remaining – Average Stack 60,000
Day 2 – A Time For Heroes
Here we are, then – right back at Aspers Newcastle for Day 2 of this WPT National Event. With stars of stage, screen, poker and a boxing ring in attendance, 130 players will funnel down to just two or three tables worth by the end of the day, where play will finish at approximately 10.00pm.
Until then, we’ll be bringing you all the drama, excitement and bust-outs in glorious colour, with photographs of our players throughout.
Here is a reminder of the full chip-counts from Flights 1a, 1b & 1c accumulated:
Chip-counts:
Khadir Khoshawy 163600
Alan Tinlin 163500
Eldon Orr 162800
Luke Slisz 150500
Andrew Hills 142100
James Charlton 129300
John Pogue 128600
Cristos Katsikas 127500
Steven Graham 126600
Nathan Watson 120300
Jonathan Beck 118300
William Gravell 118000
Erol Taylan 117700
Alistair Smith 116400
Robert Patrick 115700
Gary Collins 115200
David Morris 111700
Daniel Trett 103500
James Mitchell 103300
Jordan Dungey 101900
James Arthur Brady 100000
Mark Gray 99600
Paul Woloszyn 95300
Gwok Fung Shek 91400
Paul Simm 91300
Alexander Walton 82900
Gerard Conway 81700
Richard Knowles 81500
William Bennett 81000
Ross Mannion 80800
Nicholas Finn 78300
Wlodzimierz Cymbalko 77200
Andrew Ferguson 77100
David Anthony Hudson 76900
Peter Agnew 76400
Jonathan Watson 76100
Kelvin Weeks 75200
Gladys Jarvis 73900
Gary Copeland 73500
Jack Lam 71300
Scott Hughes 68900
Iain Maberly 68600
Kieran Sharpe 68300
Paul Castledene 67700
John Maddison 67500
Matthew Hardy 66600
Malcolm Sandler 66200
Mark Harding 65300
Akshay Berappa 65100
Catherine Taylor 64900
Sam James 64900
Jun Lau 64800
Huseyin Houssein 64200
Jonathan Lundy 63600
Darren Mapley 60300
Daniel O’callaghan 59200
David Murphy 58200
Andrew Hetherington 57800
Jamie Rutherford 57700
Yifan Zheng 57500
Stephen Odysseas 57200
Andrew Carlin 56900
Charles Stewart 56800
Robert Martin 56700
Richard Cosgrove 56200
Glen Whitehead 54900
Lee Robert Blood 54900
Alexander Jobling 54200
Basyr Nagshband 53100
Stuart Hall 52900
Thomas Dunwoodie 52100
David Knight 48200
Jason Bateman 47900
Craig Mcdowell 47800
David Phethean 47000
Karan Bengani 45700
Samantha Griffiths 44300
Surinder Sunar 43700
Colin Adams 43000
James Ellis 42900
Vamshi Polu 42300
Clay Dalton 41700
Linning He 39600
Gareth Walker 38300
Arthur Cross 38000
Mohammed Karim 38000
Ian Bland 36800
Adam Swain 35700
Steven Owens 35400
Sidney Button 35200
Rizgar Qadir 34800
Abigail Louthan 34100
Ronald Wilkinson 33400
Kieran Sharp 32100
Lee Peake 31800
John Littlewood 30900
Di Fan 30600
Robert Ewing 30400
Stephen Hetherington 30300
Mohammed Latif 30200
Clive Underwood 28800
Hamid Rowshanaei 28600
Andrew Beatty 28400
Paul Hempseed 27500
Paul Allen 26800
Hamza Nasir 26600
Owen Mcdowell 26500
Michael Hill 26400
Neil Pearson 26300
Cheung Tai Law 23400
Syed Zaidi 23100
Dorothy Littlewood 22600
Sami Yusuf 22400
David Waites 21700
Darie Ilie 20800
Hazel Birchnall 20400
Lee Kiat 20300
Austen Burness 20000
Luke Fern 19100
James Smith 18700
Gary Langley 17500
Owen Shiels 17000
Luke Mcintyre 16400
Gary Graham 16200
Bobbie Brummitt 16000
Raymond Irving 15700
Gillian Martin 13700
David Barnes 12000
Martin Wilson 8800
Younes Sayad Sarvari 7700
Keep up to date with the all new partypoker!
Get all the latest partypoker updates from your favorite social media outlets. You can Follow us on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.
