The dealers and directors have a meeting to discuss the day ahead.

Poker chip pr0n

WE HAVE MORE CAKE!

Not much going on here in the AM so I’m loitering in the media room…. no one has touched the cakes yet. I’m not going to take a stab at them first! I’ll wait for the WSOP guys to get here, I know they’ll chomp immediately.

Also, they haven’t got the bloody ice cream out in the ice cream place yet. LIFE IS SO DEPRESSING

Annette_15 has just walked in to the media room. I hope she isn’t here to take her cakes. :(

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all-in energy drink for keeping me awake and ready for action. We have a whole fridge full of them and I’m all over that fridge like white on rice.

Playing today:

Devilfish

Mike Matusow

Howard, also a former Gutshot regular

Erica Shoenberg

Michael Greco

Sandra Noujaks

Hit Squad’s James Akenhead

Howard Lederer

We have Laak

We have Tilly!

Hellmuth

Hit Squad’s Praz Bansi

Jeromme Bradpiece

2007 WSOPE Main event champion Annette_15

Blinds are 50-100.

Howard Lederer is out: overpair vs set. He and Matusow made a bet on the Ryder cup but Howard tells me “neither of them seem to know much about Golf”.

David Williams and Richard Gryko are at the same table. David is getting a massage from one of the Ibiza Angels.

I’ve noticed David discreetly eyeballing Gryko a few times… probably because Gryko is taking pots down with K-4 offsuit.

Pimp my watch

Devilfish is blinged out – take a look at his watch.

Linda Lee has been tearing up her table.

Over and out

Blinds 100-200. two limpers, Annette limps in late position. SB calls, BB checks.

Flop: . Eveyone checks.

Turn:

Everyone checks to Annette who shoves for 3,075.

After some deliberation, both the SB & BB call. Everyone else folds.

River:

Check, check. Annette shows for a pair of sevens and a busted flush draw.

BB shows and it’s goodnight Annette_15.

On a flop of , Michael Greco is all-in again. This time he has chicken skewers.

Hit Squad’s Praz Bansi is up against the bet.

He folds. Greco shows a . Bansi shows a .

Not a happy chappy

Blinds 200-400, 50 ante.

James Akenhead needs chips.

Phil Laak chip stack update

Back to James Akenhead’s table. UTG+1 raises to 1,550. James moves in from middle position.

‘arghhhh’

He finds out how much more it is

And folds.

After the 2 hour dinner break Blinds are 300-600 with a 75 ante.

Andy black makes a straight in the first hand after the break for a nice pot.

Akenhead’s table

UTG makes it 1,500 to go. Two-time WSOP 2008 bracelet winner John Phan calls.

Flop:

UTG checks. Phan bets 4,000. UTG folds. John Phan is one to keep an eye on..

Phan is UTG and raises to 1,600. 3 callers. No respect!
Flop: . All check.

Turn:

Check, big stack bet 2,550, fold, fold, last player folds face-up. Another nice pot for Phan.

Table Laak / Williams / Black

Laak raises UTG, to be re-raised by a short stack in middle position. Laak calls.

Laak:

Short stack:

Community cards come and Laak sends another one home. He admits he was just raising to steal and now his secret is out!

John Phan has been blind and ante- stealing in my absence; the green chips are 25 each.

Ruling!

Andy Black and Phil Laak are in heads-up action.

The board is . Check check.

River:

Andy immediately bets 3,000.

Laak grabs 9,300 in chips, drops 3,000 down then the other 6,300. Between drops, Black quickly tables his pocket Jacks. Arguments ensue and the dealer calls the floor.

Laak demonstrates how he put the chips in. “I didn’t go back, they were in my hand”

The floor rules Laak has to call only. Laak tables and grabs the pot he has won.

Akenhead vs Phan

Akenhead appears to be getting the better of Phan at the moment.
On a board of , Phan faces a 6,000 bet from Akenhead.

Phan folds. Note he has lost all his 1,000 denomination chips (yellow).

Play has ended for the day 1B of the £1,500 NHL freezeout. James Akenhead is now sitting on a nice stack of chips. Phan was eliminated while I was in the media room, as was David Williams. Andy black went out 10 mins before the end of play.

Day 2.

Geeky stuff: Canon EOS 20D, 24-70 f2.8L lens.

£1,500 No Limit Hold’em Freezeout

I narrowly missed out on playing this event myself, finishing 6th in a satellite that offered three seats since I didn’t manage to play the event I covered it instead. Here is some shortened coverage.

Marylin and Elvis were here to spice things up.

Final preparations for day 1A

Annette Obrestad (better known online as Annette_15) won last year’s event. Her 20th birthday was a few days before the start of the event and her sponsor, Betfair (also the festival sponsor) gave her 20 birthday cakes.

Shuffle up and deal, bitches!

OK he didn’t say bitches.

Some fellow players from the now defunct Gutshot Card Club were playing day 1a.

Ghandi

Ed Roger. Ed eliminated me from the GSOP main event a few months ago. From Luckyjimm’s commentary:
“And James Bardolph’s out! His resteal with 56 sooted got looked up by Ed Roger’s pocket 6s and didn’t find a miracle.”

Nik Persaud. Nik has been looking for his seat for around 10 minutes. He eventually finds his seat on Ghandi’s right.

If you saw the Pokerstars WCOOP advert, Daniel Negreanu’s expressions on the table are exactly the same as the look he has when he throws the chips in.

Liv Boeree and Neil Channing in the house

Not everyone had turned up yet. Late Hellmuth entrance anyone?

This guy had a unique haircut

And a unique charm

John Juanda. I swear this man has zero tells.

We fiendishly started eating Annette’s cakes in the media room. Let’s hope she doesn’t find out.

Tables have been broken as players are eliminated.

Some hands

Walking over to Nik P’s / Ghandi’s table and and Nik (BB) is in the middle of a hand with the SB.

Flop:

SB bets 250, Nik calls

Turn:

SB bets 750. Nik thinks for around 10 secs then decides to call.

River:

SB bets 2,100. Nik calls.

Bettor shows A-6 for the runner-runner full house! Nik later revealed he had K-8.

On a board of , with 5,450 in the pot, facing a bet of 2,500 Liv has a serious decision to make.

She folds. The winner shows the ace of hearts.

Blinds are currently 100-200, with a 25 ante.Daniel Negreanu has accumulated a lot of chips thus far.

After each level there is a 20 minute break. The dealers check all the cards during each break to make sure they are all present and there are no marks or irregularities which could help a player identify a card that is lying face-down.

Ghandi shoves it

A short stacked Ghandi gets and shoves pre-flop for 2,625. Small blind goes all-in, granite player who limped folds JJ face-up. Small blind shows

Flop:

Turn:

River:

Ship it!!!

Some guy is getting a finger massage…

Ghandi’s table decide now is a good time to look at the hand rankings in Texas Hold ‘Em. Curly hair man deems it fit to read the card upside-down.

Juanda doing well

A short stack moves in on Seidel’s big blind. Seidel is like ARGH and calls with .

The all-in guy actually raised blind and turns over .

Flop:

Turn:

River:

Double up for the all-in guy!

The green ’25′ chips  have been coloured up. The blinds are now 400-800 with a 100 running ante.

Later on Seidel finds himself short stacked.

Play has ended for day 1 of the £1,500 NLH WSOPE tournament. Someone doubled up with Aces vs Kings on the last hand.

Time to put down your name, how many chips you have left, bag ‘em up and get some sleep.

Not before I snag some more of Annette’s birthday cake(s), though. They were just sitting there OK, it’s not my fault!

Day 1B

Day 2

Geeky stuff: Canon EOS 20D, 24-70 f2.8L lens.