WPT National Event Newcastle – End of Day 1b Chip-counts:
Can you find your favourite?
Here are the 56 players who made it through….
John Pogue 116,000
Eldon Orr 111,300
Mark Gray 99,600
Nathan Watson 95,200
James Arthur Brady 81,500
Andrew Ferguson 77,100
Jordan Dungey 73,800
Jack Lam 71,300
Erol Taylan 68,900
Malcolm Sandler 66,200
Luke Slisz 63,500
Cristos Katsikas 60,600
David Morris 60,400
Darren Mapley 60,300
David Murphy 58,200
Charles Stewart 56,800
Jason Bateman 47,900
Steven Graham 46,000
Karan Bengani 45,700
James Mitchell 45,300
Surinder Sunar 43,700
Colin Adams 43,000
James Ellis 42,900
Vamshi Polu 42,300
Andrew Carlin 41,400
Sam James 41,200
Linning He 39,600
Ross Mannion 39,600
William Gravell 38,700
Alistair Smith 37,000
James Charlton 37,000
Gladys Jarvis 35,000
Ronald Wilkinson 33,400
Kieran Sharp 32,100
Thomas Dunwoodie 30,900
Di Fan 30,600
Stephen Hetherington 30,300
Alan Tinlin 30,100
Craig Mcdowell 28,500
Alexander Walton 28,400
Paul Hempseed 27,500
Wlodzimierz Cymbalko 27,100
Neil Pearson 26,300
Jamie Rutherford 24,100
Stephen Odysseas 21,800
Daniel O’callaghan 21,700
Hazel Birchnall 20,400
Lee Kiat 20,300
Lee Peake 20,100
Iain Maberly 19,100
Abigail Louthan 17,500
Jun Lau 16,200
Stuart Hall 15,000
Jonathan Lundy 13,600
Steven Owens 9,600
Dorothy Littlewood 8,300
You’ll be able to join us shortly in a post all about Day 1c!
Level 8: Blinds 500/1,000/ante 100 – 61 Players Remaining – Average Stack 40,800
Polu Pings An Eight
In the very last hand of the Day 1b flight, Stuart Hall lost a massive amount of his stack. Vamshi Polu shoved UTG for around 24,000. Everyone folded round to the Bantamweight World Champion, who called it off with 
and was up on his feet, especially when Polu (who remained seated) flipped 
.
“Here it comes, a knockout!” cried Hall, who hopped from foot to foot, punching the air. He won’t have heard this expression much at a poker table, but he was calling it in like you’ve never, ever seen it before.
The board ran out 
to leave Hall gut-punched, a real body blow to his chances to lifting the title here on Sunday night!
https://twitter.com/stuskithechamp/status/462285621751713792
Level 7: Blinds 400/800/ante 100 – 76/122 Players Remaining – Average Stack 32,100
Murphy’s Law Sinks Simm
Dave Murphy may have got it in bad, but the cards can be fickle mistresses at the best of times in poker, and they’ve cruelly ejected Paul Simm from his seat here at WPTNUK Newcastle. Murphy was in the big blind for 800 at the start of the hand, with Simm popping it to 2100. The player next to him was very short-stacked, shoving for 3800, with both Murphy and Simm calling.
The flop came 
, which is when we knew all the chips were going in from that point, having spied Simm’s hole cards of 
and he shoved, with Murphy calling with . However, an on the turn and meaningless 
river busted two players and bolstered Murphy’s stack considerably.
Knockout For Knowles As Hall Hollers
He’s not only been great for the game as a celebrity guest, but Stuart Hall has been terrific value at the table so far in this WPT National Event. Newcastle’s Aspers Casino is buzzing and Stuart is a big part of that, joining in with the banter at the felt, getting involved in loads of hands, and taking every bad beat as well as a big win. He’s clearly got some poker skills too, and has just managed the ultimate in poker – revenge!
Having been busted by Richard Knowles in the last three hands last night, the two players clashed at the same table here in Level 7, and this time the pugilist beat the punter! All the chips went into the middle on a flop of 
x , with Knowles holding 
– way behind Hall, who called it off with 
. As the board ran dry to flip yesterday evening’s situation, Hall cried out to the room:
“He tried to knock me out, but the champ has just knocked him out. The champ got his rematch, people!”
Cue much laughter and jollity in the room, and Hall rakes a pot to put him on around double-average. Like we said, great value.
Day 1b By Numbers
We’ve had 122 entries on Day 1b so with Day 1a’s 133 entrants, that makes 255 buy-ins into the prize-pool. that was guaranteed at £50,000 but we’re definitely going past that, with 80 online qualifiers already registered for tonight’s final Day 1c flight. Truth be told, the vast majority of the players at the tables now will be coming back at 8pm for the final flight, so numbers of 400+ are achievable. That would mean over £70,000 in the prize kitty!
Level 6: Blinds 300/600/ante 75 – 90/122 Players Remaining – Average Stack 27,000
Surinder On The Rise
One of the most renowned poker players in British history is here today, playing Day 1b (and 1c!) in the form of silent-but-deadly Surinder Sunar. With millions of pounds in tournament results over the years, the popular Midlander has come up to Newcastle to play here at Aspers in the fun accumulator format of the #WPTNUK Event, and visit friends in the area while he’s at it. So how is he doing so far?
Clashing with experienced live player Rickie Vedhara, the two men saw a flop after Vedhara bet 650 pre-flop, Surinder raised to 1500 and Rickie called. That flop read 
and both players checked. On the turn of 
though, Rickie checked to Surinder, who bet out 2,000, eliciting the fold. Quickly moved to a new table, Surinder tried virtually the same line against Gillian Martin, and took down another 5k pot successfully. He may look like he rarely moves, but he has the ones at the poker table, and Sunar is past 40k and in cruise control.
In other news, Mike Hill (a ‘bookie’ if you didn’t know) thinks we’ll have 426 entries overall. Think he’s wrong or right? We’d take the over!
Level 5: Blinds 200/400/ante 75 – 100/122 Players Remaining – Average Stack 24,400
Stacked Or Not?
Everyone gets to the break in a poker tournament feeling their stack as if it is a sign around their neck. Whether they catch up with friends on the rail or brood on the pots they won and lost on their own, every one of us takes it differently. The best players can forget about the emotional side – positive and negative – and focus on the calculations they’re about to make back at their table.
Here are just some of our players as they grab a complimentary drink and canape in the partypoker lounge at the half-time interval…
Mark Gray 95,000 (Chip Leader)
Ross Mannion 47,000
James Brady 45,000
Craig McDowell 37,000
Surinder Sunar 33,000
Rickie Vedhara 30,500
william Gravell 27,000
Paul Hempseed 16,450
Mike Hill 11,000
Bobby Brummitt (pictured above) 10,200
Blinds 150/300/50 – 108/120 Players Remaining – Average Stack = 22,222 chips
Gravell Gets Quads!
There can be no doubt that while you cannot win the WPT National Events in one flight of this accumulative format, you can definitely do your chances the power of good if you get off to a good start. One such player to do so is William Gravell, pictured, who got through Day 1a with 79,300, good for a top ten stack of the 60 players who progressed. But William’s story get better, with his winning one online satellite and two right here in aspers Casino Newcastle, meaning that he has bought into the three £200 flights (£600, math-fans!) for just £130! Great value, and after hitting quad tens just now at his table, William confirmed to us that he got value with those too! He’s also looking forward to taking part in the partypoker #sundaymajors $500k Gtd…could be a big win for William this weekend!
********
At the same table, Mark Gray has just taken the chip lead with around 73,500 after busting two players. With one opponent all-in pre-flop with , another was enticed in on a flop of 
with . Mark held 
however, and held through the 
turn and river to eliminate the two men and pull in a huge pot. Chip leader… and as Mark tells us, it’s his only entry, as he qualified online in the WPT Magazine Freeroll way back in October 2013. Way to put that prize to good use!!
Also here on Day 1b are the world-famous Surinder Sunar (21,000) and Paul Hempseed (14,000) , both of whom are excellent pros and could go very far indeed!
Charlton Looks For the Lead
James Charlton (above) finished Day 1a fifth in chips with 92,300 – but he isn’t happy sticking there. He told us yesterday that he planned on playing all three flights and he’s been true to his word, already above average in the stacks so far today on flight 1b. He was involved in a heads-up pot just now with his opponent after the pre-flop action took just two of them to a deal of 
, which they checked. James called a bet of 700 on the turn of then led the river of 
– to the tune of 1800. His opponent folded and he rakes another quiet but important pot. Definitely one to watch.
Stuart Hall is enjoying himself so far (as you can see from his tweet below), entertaining the table with his boxing tales (the Bantamweight World Champion’s next fight is right here in Newcastle in 5 weeks time) while having his lunch – a grilled chicken breast and plain rice. Now that’s discipline in a casino!
https://twitter.com/stuskithechamp/status/462203066943811584
Ian Simpson Busts Second Bullet
Followers of this blog may remember that former Irish Open Champion Ian Simpson busted yesterday after lasting most of the day when his A-K was crushed by Mike Hill’s pocket queens. Well, Ian has just lost all of his chips in this second flight, and now only has tonight’s third and final flight (kick-off 8.00pm) to try and make Day 2 here on his ‘home turf’ of the WPT National Event in Aspers Casino, Newcastle.
With a pot of 15,000 or so in the middle, we joined the action on the river as the board had come 
{Jd] 
. Ian shoved for 12,300 chips and put Craig McDowell (who made it through Day 1a with a stack) to the ultimate test, for a large percentage of his chips in Level 2. Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity, McDowell called and saw the good news, Ian only had 9d]. Craig McDowell turned over and raked all of Simpson’s chips towards his stack.
Huge early hand!
Blinds 100/200 – 115/117 Players Remaining – Average Stack 20,347
Hall Not Out For The Count
Stuart Hall (above) is not only a local hero, being a boxing World Champion at the bantamweight level, he’s a good poker player too, lasting until just before the end of Day 1a to bust. He’s back again today, and told us about his departure in Level 8 on Thursday evening.
“I made a big bluff against a kid who I thought didn’t have it. Even when he did show he had A-K and had top pair top kicker on the flop. I had a lot of outs twice with the up and down straight draw though, so I gave him a sweat!”
Stuart winks at us, and he’ll need all his cheeky persona today to get the value from his table, all of whom look excited to be sharing the felt with the arch pugilist.
Let’s hope Stuart doesn’t get knocked out!
Level 1 – Blinds 50/100 – 112 Starting Entries
Lets Go Round Again
Last night’s Day 1a turn-out totalled 133 entries, so with the players making it through the first flight all aiming to add to their stack in this £200 (£180+20) Accumulator format, the biggest stack after yesterday belonged to Khadir Khoshawy. But will players such as Jonathan Lundy, fresh from final tabling in Dublin, or local world champion boxer Stuart Hall (pictured above left) who busted with three hands to go last night crush Day 1b?
You’ll find out here first… let’s get the cards in the air!
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