WPT National UK Newcastle Main Event – Day 1a

WPTNUK Newcastle – End of Day 1a Chip-counts:

Khadir Khoshawy (pictured above, chip leader) 163,600

Alan Tinlin 133,400

Andrew Hills 104,600

Daniel Trett 103,500

James Charlton 92,300

Luke Slisz 87,000

Richard Knowles 81,500

William Gravell 79,300

Peter Agnew 76,400

Kelvin Weeks 75,200

Scott Hughes 68,900

Kieran Sharpe 68,300

Paul Castledene 67,700

Akshay Berappa 65,100

Gerard Conway 59,800

Paul Simm 57,000

Alexander Jobling 54,200

Basyr Nagshband 53,100

Eldon Orr 51,500

Iain Maberly 49,500

Alistair Smith 45,000

Gary Copeland 44,600

Jonathan Beck 41,900

Clay Dalton 41,700

Ross Mannion 41,200

Alexander Walton 40,500

Jonathan Watson 39,600

Gareth Walker 38,300

Nicholas Finn 37,800

Ian Bland 36,800

Adam Swain 35,700

David Morris 34,100

David Anthony Hudson 33,200

John Littlewood 30,900

Robert Ewing 30,400

Gwok Fung Shek 29,800

Jordan Dungey 28,100

Steven Graham 27,800

Paul Allen 26,800

Michael Hill 26,400

Glen Whitehead 25,800

Jun Lau 24,300

Sam James 23,700

Syed Zaidi 23,100

Erol Taylan 21,900

Gladys Jarvis 20,900

Craig Mcdowell 19,300

Robert Patrick 19,100

David Knight 17,600

Gary Langley 17,500

Abigail Louthan 16,600

Luke Mcintyre 16,400

Bobbie Brummitt 16,000

Raymond Irving 15,700

Dorothy Littlewood 14,300

Wlodzimierz Cymbalko 14,100

Gillian Martin 13,700

Hamza Nasir 13,400

Martin Wilson 8,800

Younes Sayad Sarvari 7,700

We’ll be back with live coverage of Day 1b’s flight from 2pm today at the Aspers Casino here in Newcastle, so see you then!

Castledene Gets Another

Paul Castledene has just eliminated a player to leave his stack looking healthy with just a few minutes to go until the end of this Day 1a. He held A♥ A♦ on a flop of J♦ 10♦ 7♦ and was up against his opponent’s K♠ Q♣. Pretty cruel – Paul had more bl0ckers than the NFL Draft, and held when the turn and river came 4♥ 10♠ respectively. Castledene is stacking up around 72,000 right now!

We will have a full run-down of the chip-counts up on here as soon as possible, but please bear with us – there are a lot of stacks for the dealers to count, with 68 players left as we move towards the final few flops.

Solinas Angelo is one of several players to have travelled all the way from Canada to play after qualifying online via partypoker. With a strong overseas presence, will we see our first non-European winner this #WPTNUK season?

“He Got Them Back!”

Ian Simpson got the better of Mike Hill in a big pot earlier. With his 7-8 all-in pre-flop against Mike’s pocket kings, Simpson spiking a straight on the river to double to 38,000 and leave Mike on fresh air. Well, fast-forward several hours and the wily veteran has won it all back from the 2013 IPO champion. Having only ten big blinds, Simpson found Ace-King and got it all into the middle, called by Mike’s pocket queens, which held.

Simpson leaves us to return for both of tomorrow’s flights (Day 1b starting at 2.00pm, with Day 1c at 8.00pm), while Mike hill now has 32,000 – roughly ten times what he did not that long ago.

Boss.

Blinds 500/1,000/100 ante – Average Stack 33,670 – 79 Players Remaining

Martin Is Smarting

Gillian Martin (pictured, above) is one of our longest-lasting ladies here on Day 1a of the WPT National Event in Newcastle. She has just won an all-in, managing to get her opponent to fold what may (or may not) have been a big hand. But in a way, she lost from the hand. Here’s how.

With over 5,400 in the pot, Gillian’s opponent led out 3,700 on a flop of 7♦ 8♠ 9♣ – a decent enough bet, four times the big blind and more at the time, and Gillian fairly quickly shoved over the top for 16,300 total. Her opponent (with 20k behind) made the fold, and Gillian showed him (and then of course, the whole table) 9♦ 8♦. Top two pair with a backdoor possibility and a very nice hand. But why did she show? In doing so, she gave away information, free of charge to a player who may well consider his bet-size and subsequent fishing expedition for the hand that Gillian held, as successful.

We returned to the table an orbit later to see Gillian, with vocal chagrin, bemoaning how she’s had to fold two sets recently. There is protecting information and there is giving it away. How much would YOU tell your enemies?

Blinds 400/800/100 – Average Stack 28,300 – 94 Players Remaining

Players of all levels are playing at WPT National Event Newcastle here at the stunning Aspers casino. With 94 of them still in with a chance of making Day 2 with a stack, people from all walks of life are still in there fighting. Ian Simpson (pictured) only has 18,500 with just over twenty bigs to his name, but others are faring slightly better.

James Charlton plans on investing in ‘all three bullets’ as he looks to buy in for every flight in this WPTNUK Accumulator format. He’s flying along on 80,000 and looks in a determined mood to add to that chip mountain. Bobby Brummitt has 28,700 and is scrapping for survival, having bubbled the last event in London. And Hamza Nasir just pulled off an excellent semi-bluff on the flop of 5♦ 10♣ J♦ having raised to 1600 pre-flop and got two callers. His shove for around 15,800 more after those three cards got two remorseful folds, and he showed K♣ Q♦ for just the up ‘n’ down straight draw.

Gets it through….

Blinds 300/600/75 – Average Stack 27,000 – 99 Players Remaining

Agnew Battling Khoshawy On Table Of Chips

Khadir Khoshawy (pictured above) may be leading the way, holding over 90,000k, but he’s not the only person at his table with plenty of chips. Peter Agnew qualified for his seat for just pennies online at partypoker, and he’s built an impressive stack of 61,000. Can he spin a micro buy-in up to a massive part of the £50,000+ Prize-pool?

Mike’s Hill Standing

He may have been knocked down by Ian Simpson earlier, but Mike Hill is refusing to exit this WPT National Event quietly, ninja-stack at his table and not laying down anytime soon. He’s not the only one, with plenty of players near the ten big mark, caught between saving their stack for a while longer or making a move. Don’t forget, we only have 8 levels in each flight, and with this being an accumulator format, each player has the chance to take THREE stacks through to Day 2…

Break Time Brings Brilliance

We may have lost Scotty T from Geordie Shore (pictured, above) but plenty of other big names are all still in the WPT National Event Day 1a. With Khadir Khoshawy leading the field with a monster stack of 86,100, here are how a few other well-known names and faces are doing:

Ian Simpson 38,700

Stuart Hall 32,200

Bobby Brummitt 22,100

Mike hill 3,425

Level 5 – 110/133 Players remaining – Average Chips 24,181 – Blinds now 200/400/ante 75

Brady Buys It

James Brady has left us in Level 4 of the WPT National Event in Newcastle. He called it off for his tournament life with A♥ J♣ on a board which ran J-7-4-J-8 and his opponent had 7♣ 7♠ to knock him out. He’ll be back for two more flights tomorrow though, and for now is loving the cash action here at Aspers!

Stuart Hall may have 40,000 chips at the break, and we congratulated him on a great first few rounds. The champion boxer needs no repair-work doing to his chances, and told us how he feels as we offered him the spit-bucket (not really).

“I’m loving it, absolutely flying. I just raised to 2.8k and some guy bet 400 on the flop, I raised to 5k and he soon let it go!”

It’s clear that Stuart’s style is very much as aggressive as his tigerish attitude in the ring. But if he keeps landing his punches, who’s to say he can’t go on and win this £50,000 guaranteed WPT National event?

Not us, he looks as fit as a butcher’s dog…

Scotty T Bits the Dust

Shares in hair wax just went up – Geordie Shore legend Scotty T has busted Day 1a of the WPT National Event here in glorious Newcastle! Yes, it’s the news we feared but local bar-staff prayed for, after Scotty (pictured, right) was low in chips virtually from the off. Unable to get going at the felt, the charismatic young player – in a poker and life sense – got it all-in with J♥ Q♥ on a two-heart flop and was unable to hit the heart…not a problem he usually has on a Thursday night.

Elsewhere, we’ve seen Ian Simpson attempted to dent Mike Hill’s stack after the two gents got it all-in pre-flop. Ian raised to 2,000, Mike popped it to 5,300 and Ian shoved over the top for 19,000. A quick call from Mike wasn’t the news Ian was after, as the former IPO champ flipped over 7♦ 8♣ with a rueful smile. Mike turned over K♠ K♦ and the two of them breathed deeply before the dealer fanned a flop of 6♥ 5♠ 10♦ – just about as wet a flop as Ian could have wished for.

“What a sweat!” he exclaimed, leaning forward, willing the cards he needed to jump up into the dealer’s dexterous hand.

The turn card was the J♦ but the river was a sensational 4♦ to give Ian the straight and double his stack to 38,000. He’s right near the top of the chip-counts now, marginally ahead of boxer Stuart Hall, going strong on 34k.

News(castle) In Brief

We’ve had 133 entries here at WPT National in Newcastle, at the beautiful Aspers At The Gate casino. So with some top names here, let’s bring you a round-up from around the tables as we enter Level 3.

Mike Hill and former IPO Champion Ian Simpson are sharing the felt here on Day 1a, with Simpson certainly the more vocal. Both men have edged a profit from their starting positions, with Mike using his button to push Ian (two seats to his left) off a pot pre-flop.

“I would have three-bet, you call, we see a flop, it gets messy.” says Ian.

Mike flips over one card of his two, the A♠ .

“You made the right decision.”

***

Bobbie Brummitt may not be a name familiar to you as a champion, but the mentally astute amongst you may recall him bubbling our third WPTNUK leg in Aspers, Stratford. The crestfallen Brummitt had his spirits immediately lifted upon his exit by London Poker Manager John Scanlon, who awarded him a free WPTNUK entry package worth $1,000!

Bobby is therefore up here in Newcastle going for the title with two bullets in his armoury for this accumulator format £50,000 Gtd tournament.

Stuart Hall On His Toes

Of our two celebrity players, Stuart Hall has definitely been the quieter. Focused on the cards, the other players and his own performance, the British World Champion has displayed all his boxing toughness at the table…but mentally rather than physically!

Having taken his time getting to know the other players he’s sharing the felt with, he’s started picking up chips, and we all recognise that early winning feeling in poker:

https://twitter.com/stuskithechamp/status/461957781822898176

Scotty T On Tilt?

Scotty T from Geordie Shore has started a little poorly at his table, losing around 30% of his stack after getting involved in some early skirmishes. We’re guessing that Scotty isn’t as familiar with live poker as most, and a few times, his lack of positional skill has seen him bullied off pots. the latest occured on his ‘big blind’ when an aggressive player raised to 325 pre-flop with blinds at 50/100 and Scotty was one of three callers to a bumper pot this early on in the tournament.

The flop of 3♠ 2♠ 2♥ slowed action from the rest of the table considerably, with a c-bet from the original raiser enough to take a few more chips from the club-crazy Scotty… as well as everyone else.

Still, he doesn’t seem too downhearted about it…

https://twitter.com/ScottGShore/status/461946909566201856

A Shore Thing… For Stuart Hall?

Two of our players who know all about winning in life are Scotty T from Geordie Shore and Stuart Hall, and here they are, speaking about how much they’re looking forward to taking part in tonight’s Flight 1a of the WPT National Event here in Newcastle!

Here’s their interview with Paul Seaton, do please bear in mind (WARNING!) that there is a tiny bit of bad language from one of our interviewees who was a little bit excited!

https://soundcloud.com/partypoker/scotty-t-stuart-hall-at-wptnuk

At The Gate

With £50,000 in the Prize-Pool, it’s no surprise that some big names are out in Newcastle tonight, as Aspers At The Gate plays host to the fourth stop on the WPT National UK tour.

As well as current IBF Bantamweight World Champion Stuart Hall in the casino, we’ll be joined by Scotty T from the hit MTV show Geordie Shore . So will the lads have the night of their lives…or be headed for an early bath?

We shall see…