Mok On Top
With over 200 entrants, Flight 1a has come to a conclusion with Peter Mok top of the leaderboard. Natalie Sadri (above right), who had such a strong opening flight with her ‘single bullet’ is the only other player to break the six-figure chip-count so far…
Flight 1a Chip-counts:
Peter Mok 127,300
Natalie Sadri 125,900
Ahmed Rasull 97,900
Karan Kayastha 92,600
Anne Loughlin 84,400
ANOOJ SAREEN 78,200
Tristan Chaplin 77,800
Zanas Lubys 77,400
Khadir Khoshawy 77,200
QUOC NONG 76,800
George Alexander 75,600
Vladimir Marchevici 75,000
Mihaly Rusu 74,800
George Achillea 74,400
Umberan Akhtar 74,000
Vachand Nankoosing 71,300
Mohammed Ali 71,200
Elio Saade 70,900
Nuno Miguel Duarte 69,800
Philip Gould 68,800
Russell Brooks 68,100
Jan Andersen 66,400
Benjamin Howell 65,400
James Parker 62,200
Hyeo Ahn 61,300
The Dang 60,000
Steven Alper 59,300
David Orrin 58,500
Joe Phillips 58,500
Casper Holmberg 57,800
Marius Zalpys 57,100
Carl Spicer 55,600
Philip Butt 53,300
Cristian Pall 51,900
Victor Ilyukhin 50,400
Ross Mannion 50,000
Agron Gjergji 49,500
Ricky Pike 48,500
Darren Hand 46,500
Yilfer Shevket 45,800
Balint Pusztai 45,000
JAIME HOLT 44,000
Jaan Fiddian 43,700
James Osullivan 43,000
Leo Lim 41,700
Daniel Bushell 40,700
Rolf Hansen 40,500
Huseyin Houssein 39,600
Ki Thuong Duong 38,900
Alexander Jager 38,600
James Charlton 38,200
Richard Thomas 37,700
Duncan Gareth Wilkie 36,700
Bobbie Brummitt 34,800
John Gilbert 34,600
Luke Slisz 33,000
Yusuf Osman 32,200
Nigel Berg 31,800
Paal Haandlykken 30,600
Mortaza Sahibzada 30,300
Kevin Howrad 29,600
Dwight Scott 28,500
GABRIEL TUNA 28,300
Mohammed Suhail 28,200
Bernard Litman 27,000
Jon Aldalur Arrospide 26,000
Marios Andreas 26,000
Van Vu 24,500
Katie Swift 24,300
Anthony Taylor 23,400
Peter Fodor 23,100
Timotheos Timotheou 22,700
Wlodzimierz Cymbalko 22,000
Alin Torjoc 21,700
Ricardo Campanario 21,400
Siegfried Hodgson 19,900
Ian Fung 19,400
Alexandru Marcu 19,100
Aziz Kara 17,700
James Mitchell 15,000
Charlambos Hadjicharalambous 14,700
Vadim Seriozeckin 14,600
Robertas Vaitkevicius 13,700
Thomas Denis 13,600
William Gravell 13,200
William Whicher 13,200
David Phethean 12,100
Dennise Frost 11,100
Graham Hawkes 10,500
Graham Carson 9,600
Sadri Looking Strong
We’re letting the dealers do their counting, but it looks like Natalie Maria Sadri might be top of the shop with 125,900. Maybe someone had a stellar last few minutes, but the self-confessed ‘single bullet’ girl has had a brilliant evening, playing her ‘freeroll’ of a qualification entry, spinning a $2 ticket into hundreds of thousands of chips!
Last Ten
Players are being hustled into moves and the Twitter competition reaches its climax in the next few minutes.
Here are just a few of our players telling us about their experience so far:
https://twitter.com/gazthehippy/status/484838872166436864
https://twitter.com/JoePhillips21/status/484824368909131776
https://twitter.com/AKCH4RG3/status/484840308933267458
Bust-Outs Begin
They’ve taken their time, this group, but players are now dropping like England footballers in the World Cup heat. Johnny Kelly bought a ticket when he 3-bet shoved pre-flop with 
and was min-click raised by one player with 
and further raised all-in by a lady with 
(they can’t have seen Johnny play for five minutes, ladies and jellyspoons). The flop came 
(good) 
(fine) 
(not brilliant, but flush draw chance). Two bricks send ‘JK’ out with his head spinning, they attacked his all-in like they’d seen he had 
!
Elsewhere, Paul Whyman departed when his all-in when short with 
was called by an opponent with 
– the flop of 
never got any better. Both men will return tomorrow.
Still tie to win a pair of Monster Headphones by tweeting a picture of your stack using #WPTNUK and @partypoker !
Level 6: Blinds 300/600/100 ante – 145 Players remaining – Average 28,100
Chips Stacking Up
With the numbers starting to drop, chip-stacks are starting to take on significance, with APAT world Champion describing for us in his usual eloquent, self-deprecating manner.
“I had pocket sevens, he had pocket fives, and the flop comes ten-seven-five. Yup, that’s pretty much how I got these.”
He’s a lovely chap is Chaplin, and an absolute beast of a player. Every chance, as they say.
Chip-counts:
Tristan Chaplin 61,400
Ross Mannion 55,500
Tim Timotheu 55,000
Katie Swift 53,000
Mr. Bond 28,000
Margarita Stoychkova 27,000
Paul Whyman 15,000
Dennis Frost 14,300
William Gravell 13,600
Jamie Patterson 13,500
Marios Andreas 11,400
Monster Headphones Competition
They can’t stop giving goodies away! Yes, partypoker are giving away a brand new pair of Monster Headphones each FLIGHT here in London. Day 1a’s set is up for grabs, all you have to do is take to Twitter, tell us your chip-sctack, take a picture of your chip stack and use the hashtag #WPTNUK and then put @partypoker at the end of your tweet. Be sure not to start with that, by the way, Twitter-noobs, as it won’t come up in our run-down to be decided by random to find the winners! Good luck…
Here’s how your tweet should look:
https://twitter.com/gazthehippy/status/484821398167101441
Super Mario Needs A Power-Up
Table 12 has been full of action tonight, with ‘Super’ Marios Andreas (right) and Jamie Patterson (pictured, left) clashing on a number of occasions.
“He plays every hand.” says Mario, more than a little tongue-in-cheek, given that he has more front that Brighton Pier pre-flop.
An opponent raised to 1300 pre-flop, Jamie Patterson the only caller to a flop of 
. He led 1200, calling out loudly, “1200, yeah?” to his more mature opponent, who called. both players checked through the turn of and 
and Jamie’s 
was good enough to take it. That emboldened him to call another similar raise next time round with 
and he was one of five to a flop of 
. A 5k flop-pot was taken by a bet of Peter Fodor, whose 3.8k lead was enough to rake it in.
Jamie has plenty, above average, but Marios holds just 9.5k….time for ninja-mode!
Level 5: Blinds 200/400/75 – 165 Players – Average 25,000
Drinks On Us
Those lovely people at partypoker have certainly pulled out all the stops – the players are loving the lounge and relaxing in their break. They’re heading back to the tables now…
Break Time
While the players enjoy some complimentary beers and food in the exclusive partypoker lounge, we’ve had a head-count and there are 168 players remaining. They’ll be coming back to a new level of blinds at 200/400/75 ante, and with an average stack of 24,500, that’s still a very healthy 60+ big blind average. Viktor Ilyukhin and Ciprian Paunescu are hovering at the top of the chip-counts, both over 45,000.
One man who is here for the long haul is party qualifier Phil Green, who reckons he has played over 14,000 tournaments on partypoker – an impressive hand history if ever there was one! He’s won tickets via the $2 qualifiers for this tournament to all three flights, and is not afraid to bully his opponents into submission…
Almost Famous
It’s almost a case of players weighing each other up at the moment, finding a spot to make a move before the flight gets towards the end, but waiting for their time to do so. They don’t have as long as they might think, with 30-minute blinds meaning that the last few levels really test the 25-30 big blind level and lower. For now, there is a whopping field filling the cardroom, and plenty of our players are female. We’ve never had a WPT-National winner from the fairer sex, so could this be the weekend?
Use Twitter? Coin in with your chip stacks via the hashtag #WPTNUK and we’ll put your name up in lights!
Level 4: Blinds 150/300/50 ante – 181 Players – Average 22,500
Rockets Cause Havacs
Leo Lim has caused massive damage to the stack of Zoltan Havacs in another huge ‘Premium vs. Premium’ clash at the WPT National UK Main Event here in London’s stunning Aspers Cardroom. We’re almost halfway through tonight’s flight, with almost all the players still involved, although Havacs may not last much longer after the last hand. All-in with on a flop of 
, he thought he was way ahead, even when Lim called. But the Chinese player held 
to leave Havacs thumping the table in dismay. the turn ended the drama befor the 
completed the board. Lim politely nodded his commiserations to a distraught Havacs, who has just 4,000 at the new blind level. Lim has 42,000.
Qualifiers Clash
Waiting for a big hand in poker can be the extinction of many a qualifier, but thankfully, early doors in this tournament has seen the online players survive to enjoy a little more of the live experience. One player likened his first visit to Aspers Casino today as ‘just like Vegas, but brighter, Vegas is in the dark!’.
We’ve seen two big clashes between partypoker qualifiers leave one player shaking his head and on another table, people taking cameraphones out to get a snap of an incredible board.
First to the all-in and call, as our heroic qualifier first tried to table-talk the wrong player off a fold and then missed seeing the caller. He was in terrible shape, with 
thoroughly dominated by of a player hailing from Eltham. The flop came a juicy 
, top pair for the worst hand but two cards to come for the flush-drawing ‘Big Slick’. The turn of 
and river condemned A-K to defeat and gave the all-in player a lifeline, doubling him from 5575 to around 12k – a huge difference.
One the other table, no-one was all-in, with just a big bet on the flop and river being called by the worst hand. This time, the worst hand was again, but in the pre-flop dominant position against 
. The frankly ludicrous board of 
led to gasps…yet somehow not an all-in. Only the early level stopped that happening!
Level 3: Blinds 100/200/25 ante – Average Stack 20,850 – 188 Players from 196 remain.
Tuna Caught In The Net…Eventually!
It took a call of the clock from an opponent, but Gabriel Tuna has lost a 19,000 pot to Ciprian Paunescu (pictured) after the latter was faced with an agonising decision on the river. The action didn’t really pick up until the turn on a board of 
, but it looked like both players were well committed to it when the river of dropped. In many ways, this card was a nightmare for Paunescu as the hand played out, with Tuna leading a bet of 5500 into a pot of 8,000. A horrible position for Paunescu, who eventually, with just a dozen or so seconds of his time remaining, made the call and turned over 
and Tuna nodded, announcing he had ‘Ace-high’.
Impressive from Paunescu, who had a stack of 30,000 before that hand. Did that make the call easier… or harder? What’s for sure is that he has nearer 40k now!
Level 2: Blinds 100/200
Viktor Victorious
Viktor Ilyukhin (above) was devastatingly honest about why he was here instead of Vegas when w greeted him warmly before kick-off.
“I wasn’t feeling great and didn’t want to tilt – Vegas can get you like that, and with Wimbledon back home, and the World Cup, well, London is the place to be.”
It certainly will be for Viktor if the weekend continues in this vein for the dynamic player. He saw his opponent, Andrei Maximiuc, raise to 350 at the old blind level pre-flop – Viktor didn’t hang about, re-raising to 1050, a quick call from Maximiuc.
The flop came 
and Andrei checked to Viktor, who bet 1500. This was min-clicked to 3000 which Viktor called. the turn led to two checks, but the river lit the blue touch paper. Andrei bet 6000, Viktor raised all-in and got a call from his beaten opponent, who turned over for t0p set on the flop, but Viktor held and the nine on the river completed his straight…and has given him a full double-up to 40,000, eliminating Maximiuc!
Sensational.
Tim Tim Quietly Confident
Tim Tim Timotheu is one of the most effervescent personalities here in Aspers, or indeed any cardroom. He’s off to a good start and feeling great…
Mitchell’s Moves
We love to see so many familiar faces at the WPT National events, with several of the players who performed so well up in Newcastle making the long journey in a hot car/train/plane down to London to take part. One of these is James Mitchell, pictured here with his arms in the air up in Newcastle. He rocked the partypoker moves so well at the Player’s Party that he walked away with the prize for dancing his derriere off, two tickets to watch Manchester United in Barclays Premier League action this season.
That’s a real investment, with United having signed Luke Shaw, Ander Herrera and perhaps most importantly, new supremo Louis van Gaal in the interim period. Things are looking up for James too, as he likes the look of his table draw and is off to a good start.
All players start with 20,000 chips here in Flight 1a, and Dr. Ash has just taken a thousand chips off tablemate Arlos. Pre-flop, he was giving the needle to Arlos, it must be said, getting him to unplug the headphones and engage. Dr. Ash took a familiar position of the passive player with the more aggressive talk. It seemed to work through the board of 
, which was checked to the river. Dr. Ash showed 
and Arlos . It begins…
Level 1: Blinds 50/100
In It To Win It
With an expected 200+ players for each flight of this weekend’s WPT National UK Event here in Aspers Cardroom, London, you don’t need us to tell you that we’re looking at flying past the £120k mark if we continue as hoped. We’ve 168 in their chairs for kick-off, and a queue still registering.
With Dennise Frost, Viktor Ilyukhin and Paul Whyman each bringing something different to the ‘party’ atmosphere, all sorts are here to enjoy the huge value of a tournament that you could pay just £200 to enter and win the biggest chunk of £100k+! Amazing.
If you’re planning to play another stop on the tour, why not look at the WPT 500 event? It’s taking pace in Nottingham’s Dusk til Dawn club between November 11-16th later this year…and its unmissable!
Ready For Action
We’re about to get under way here in East London as the WPT National UK London begins, with plenty of well-known players in the cardroom. William Gravell and tim Timotheu both qualified for all three Flights online via partypoker, and they are joined at the felt by James Mitchell, Margarita Stoychkova, Dr. Ash, ‘Super’ Marios Andreas and Paul Woloszyn.
Let’s shuffle up and deal…
Who’s Next?
Darren Mapley (pictured above) took down WPT UK Newcastle what seems like ages ago, but was in fact just three months back, up at Aspers Newcastle. with Darren pledging to invest his winnings in a Vegas buy-in spree, the way is clear for a new name in the WPT history books…but who will it be?
If you’re playing tonight’s Flight 1a, let us know how you are doing via the Twitter hashtag #WPTNUK – we promise to be sensitive to bad beat stories and always capture you in your best light courtesy of our exclusive tournament photography this evening!
WPT National London – Aspers Awaits Drama!
Welcome to London and the latest leg of the WPT National Tour here in England’s capital. It’s a sweltering day in the Plaza outside but here in the stunning (and air-conditioned) cardroom of Aspers Casino, the action is about to get even hotter.
With over eighty online qualifiers coming into the Main Event from partypoker.com and a further two hundred from Aspers’ own live satellites, it’s going to be a bumper prize-pool and we expect it to exceed the massive £100,000 GUARANTEED Prize-Pool that’s at stake. Just £200 is the buy-in for each accumulative flight, which begin today, and continue tomorrow with Flight 1b (2pm) and 1c (8pm) bringing Day 1 to a close on Friday.
The cards are in the air at 8.00pm BST, in around 30 minutes.
It’s going to be huge!
