Day 5 - Teesside Main Event Day 2

 

£500+£50 Texas Hold'em NL Freeze Out

An interesting line up of players are left to fight for the glory of being crowned our second GBPT Champion!

Unfortunately for Christine Ward, having been left very short stacked on 9,000 chips when her QQ lost out to AK in the last hand of Day 1, was the first casualty on Day 2; her K6 on a flop of K,K,A meant she should have doubled up, however Chris Dunkin’s Q6 hit the straight with runner, runner T,J, and she left the table early. Play continued cautiously with players eyeing the money places, but within 2 hours we were down to the final 8.Tony Corrolla just missing out on his second consecutive TV table by 1 place, having moved all in with Ace King (hearts and diamonds respectively) and having been called with pocket nines Tony needed to hit one of his outs. The flop crushed Tony’s dreams of a second final table finish with 4,9,Q turn was a 4 and river was a King. Despite this Tony still walked away with £1,400.

Final 8 making the TV table

Colin Pearson   186,200
Paul Gardener  160,300 
C T Law  140,900 
Ricard Norman 135,600
Raj Kanabar  121,200
Ian Davidson  104,700
Carl Eglintine  80,000  
Arran Wilson  51,700  

The televised final table commenced at 8pm. Ian Davidson was the first casualty after about 20 minutes of play calling C T Law’s (T-4) with an open ended straight draw (6,7) on a 4,5,T flop, the turn being a Ace and the River a 7giving his victor two-pairs (Tens and Fours.)

Players not willing to commit on draws having seen Ian meet his demise relatively early on the final table meant that the play was filled with tactical blind stealing and conservative bets. CT Law made good use of this conservative period to boost his chip stack by forcing the smaller chip stacks to fold to his bets, that was until Aaron Wilson moved all in for 36,000 holding Ace –4 Spades vs CT Law’s 7-6. Flop came down 7-5-k giving CT a pair, Turn Q and River King saw Aaron leave in 7th Place and £1,790 in winnings.

After 90 minutes play on the final table the chip counts stand at:

C T Law 312100
Ricard Norman 182200
Colin Pearson 150400
Paul Gardner 144900
Raj Kanabar 127600
Carl Eglintine 60400

Carl Eglintine was the next casualty on the table, committing all-in with a KQ, only to find Paul Gardner, who had been very quiet and avoiding large clashes on the final table, was holding pocket Aces. The flop was no help and left Carl in 6th place with £2,460 to soften the blow. Excellent patience on Paul’s part puts him on 205,000 chips and in an excellent position, and a chance to start eating into Mr Law’s impressive chip lead.

After having practiced the art of blind stealing earlier in the evening CT Law soon runs into trouble as his chip lead is eaten into by Paul Gardner and Ricard Norman amongst others. A few minutes before ten, Ricard Norman and CT Law clash in a battle that gave us our 5th place finisher, here is how it went:

Law makes it 24,000 to play and is called by Norman on the button and Gardner on the big blind.
Flop: 10-7-4
Law bets 60,000, Norman re-raises all in and Gardner folds out of harms way. Law calls for all his chips showing Q-10 to Norman’s 8-9 hearts.
Turn: 6 giving Norman the straight he needed
River and inconsequential Jack, Law was drawing dead and claims 5th place.

It was only a few minutes later that yet another all-in from Raj and Paul who commit to an pre-flop all-in. The cards go on their backs to show Raj with pocket Queens, and Paul with pocket sixes. Flop 8-9-10  turn J  and the river a 2, no help to Paul who finished in an impressive 4th place and taking home £4,980

15 minutes was all it took before the next collision this time between Raj and Colin Pearson, a galapoker.co.uk qualifier. A pre-flop raise by Raj of 40,000 was called by Colin, the flop coming down all hearts 2-8-9 and Raj pushes another 50,000 which isd called after a period of deliberation by Colin. Turn 4 of Diamonds, and Raj moves all-in which is called nearly instantly by Colin. Raj flips over the 3d7h only to see Colin holding the Kh Qh, this means Raj is drawing dead and he has doubled Colin through to approximately 300,000. Ricard is still in the chip lead with approximately 500,000 chips. Raj is not out but severely wounded.

A quick break and the players begin discussing a deal, a few moments later the news reaches us that they want each player to take away £12,000 and play out for a remaining £3,000 and the Grand Final package. 2nd and 3rd will also be going to the leg of the GBPT at Nottingham.

The deal was made just in time as shortly after the break where Raj is forced all-in on the small blind and is called by Norman. Raj shows Q-5 to Norman’s 7-8, flop is A-2-8 turn 3 and river King, no help to Raj and Norman takes the pot with his pair of eights. Raj takes home a respectable £12,000 and a seat at the Nottingham event.

Now down to heads up and playing off for the package to the GBPT Grand Final, and £3,000 in cash to add onto the 12,000 for the winner. After an hour of heads up play there were no major clashes, both players had tightened their game up, waiting for a hand to trap their opponent with. It was not till nearly 1 am before we had our first all-in which saw Colin Pearson, the chip leader at the time with approximately 700,000 to Ricard Norman’s 300,000 the hand played out as follows:

Ricard moved all in with A-6 and is called by Colin’s K-Q pre-flop. The board is dealt: J-5-5-8-2 no help for Colin as Ricard’s Ace kicker plays for the pair of fives on the board. Colin is now down to 400,000 to Ricards 600,000.

Play has begun to heat up, around 1.40am with the two players going at each others stacks, its only a matter of time before a fatal clash between these two occurs.

Sure enough, just after 3am the collision occurs with Ricard making a pre-flop raise of 100,000, Colin calls. Flop comes down 6-7-10 and Ricard moves all-in and is called instantly by Colin. Ricard turns over J-6 to Colins Q-7. Turn is an Ace, river a 5 no help to Ricard. Its all over with Ricard taking home £12,000 and a seat at the Nottingham event, and Colin walking away with £15,000 and the Grand Final package. It was a colossal heads up battle of three hours and enjoyed by everyone in the Casino.

Final positions and payout

1. Colin Pearson  £15,240 + Bristol Grand Final Main Event seat
2. Ricard Norman £12,240 + Main Event seat at Nottingham GBPT
3. Rajesh Kanabar £12,240 + Main Event seat at Nottingham GBPT
4. Paul Gardiner  £4,980 + $320 ticket to $75,000 ‘Big Deal’ on Galapoker.co.uk
5.  C T Law  £3,580 + $320 ticket to $75,000 ‘Big Deal’ on Galapoker.co.uk
6. Carl Eglintine  £2,460
7. Arran Wilson  £2,070
8.  Ian Davidson  £1,790
9.  Tony Corrolla  £1,400

A tenth place saver was put aside for Lorraine Hulse who walked away with £610.

Thank you to everyone who turned out to support the event, and to a world of poker for providing a team to live blog the events. Nottingham qualifying is already under way and the event looks to add to the success that the tour has already generated so get involved and we hope to see you at the next GBPT event!

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