£500+£50 NLHE Freeze-out Main Event, Friday 24th – Sunday 26th October 2008

 

With the economic climate as it is many people were expecting a quieter event than we have seen so far this year.  However the Teesside faithful were clearly having none of this!  Piggy banks have been raided, sofas checked for loose change and one player even admitted to eating less ‘Parmos’ (a local delicacy!) in order to put together the £500+50 entry fee.  In total 212 players took their seats over the 2 starting days with the locals joined by the usual mix of tour players and internet qualifiers.

 

Nine levels were played on both starting days, with 23 returning from day1a and 26 from day1b, to give a final day field of 49.

 

Day 1a chip leaders

Name	Chips
Paul Hambleton	88,200
Tony Caygill	86,600
James O'Connell	71,900
CT Law	63,600
Colin Pearson	63,200
Bob Jones	57,500
A Arlott	57,500
Keith Hawkins	57,400
Ray Bone	56,900
Stephen George	46,800

 

Day 1b chips leaders

Name	Chips
Richard Trigg	140,700
Dave Garden	79,400
S Morris	74,600
Dean Kay	70,400
S Wright	68,500
Tony Crolla	67,400
C Denton	65,800
Alex Torrance	62,600
Raymond Walton	61,200
Colin Wu	48,000

 

Day 2 started on level 10, with blinds 1000/2000 and 200 ante, with Richard Trigg the clear chip leader with over 140,000 chips. With 11 players having 10 BB or less, there was a lot of action early doors, and the bubble finally burst at the start of the 13^th level. With the pressure of making the money lifted, four players went in quick succession, reigning champion Colin Pearson leaving in 18^th.

 

Two more levels were played before we had our final nine, tour-regular Tony Crolla the unlucky player pout in 10^th, but £2000 better off.

 

Seats were redrawn for the final table, with chip-counts as follows, five minutes into level 16, with Colin Wu, 2008 Edinburgh Champion, well placed in joint-3^rd place on just under 240,000 chips:

 

Name	Chips
Richard Trigg	563,000
Tony Caygill	252,000
James O'Connell *	239,000
Colin Wu	239,000
Anthony Arlott	197,000
Ceri Rees	168,500
D Dring	167,000
Keith Hawkins	155,000
Billy Ngo	122,500

 

* Internet qualifier

 

There was plenty of action on the final table with the chip lead changing several times and players’ stacks yo-yo-ing. Gradually players found their hands weren’t enough and left the table, until, half-way through level 19, James O’Connell and Anthony Arlott were heads-up. James steadily built a big lead until Anthony’s all-in with an A-high straight swung it back into his favour. Heads-up lasted for just over a hour; a deal gave 2^nd-place £26,000, and £28,000, the title and Grand Final Main Event package for the winner, leaving the two to play for glory. And just after 4am, James pushed post-flop his shortened stack with 9-2 and Anthony called with T-6, as the board of T-4-8-3-6 gave Anthony the title – the third Leicester Champion of the 2008 Tour.

 

Final standings

 

	Name	Prize
1	Anthony Arlott	£30,000	Plus Grand Final bonus seat
2	James O'Connell	£24,000	Plus Bristol GCBPT £550 Event seat
3	Keith Hawkins	£15,000	Plus Bristol GCBPT £550 Event seat
4	Richard Trigg	£9,000	Plus $320 ticket to the 'Big Deal' $150,000 Guarantee tournament on Galapoker.co.uk
5	Tony Caygill	£6,300	Plus $320 ticket to the 'Big Deal' $150,000 Guarantee tournament on Galapoker.co.uk
6	Colin Wu	£4,800
7	Billy Ngo	£3,750
8	David Dring	£3,000
9	Ceri Rees	£2,400
10	Tony Crolla	£2,000
11	Stephen George	£1,700
12	Richard Howe	£1,450
13	R Mulla	£1,250
14	C De nton	£1,100
15	Dean Key	£1,000
16	Dave Maudlin	£950
17	Raymond Walton	£900
18	Colin Pearson	£850
19	P Hambleton	£800
20	Alex Torrance	£750

 

 

Entries: 212

Total: £106,000 + £5,000-added

 

Get the detail on the action as it happened from our live reports (http://www.gcbpokertour.com/nc/festivals/teesside-gcbpt/gcbpt-teesside-live-updates.html)

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