21 September 2009
Paul Zimbler starts record attempt
London based poker professional Paul Zimbler has started his heads-up challenge in attempt to raise £50,000 for the Make a wish and Sparks Children charity. He aims to play around 200 people continuously for 80 hours and who better to start off the challenge against then poker legend Doyle ‘Texas Dolly’ Brunson himself.
Event #2 begins as Event #1 final tables plays out
Event #2 - Pot Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha £2,500 is underway here at the WSOPE and the who’s who of poker is present and spread across the two floors of the casino at the Empire.
WSOPE Event #1 final table is set
A long and demanding day has finally come to an end with the final nine players of Event #1 set in place to have a run at the £120,000 1st prize. Leading the pack is Frenchman Fabien Dunlop, who used his chip lead after day 1b to great avail, ending up at the final table with over 500,000 chips.
20 September 2009
Playing the sympathetic listener...
Out on a quick ciggy break and i am joined by South African Raymond Rahme (3rd in 2007 WSOP Main Event) and Belgian player Matthias De Meulder (who cashed in this year's WSOP Main Event) who both recount the tales of their demise.
Final 3 tables are set
Play has filtered down to the last three tables and as the crowd continues to grow on the rail, anything could still happen in the climax to Event #1 of the World Series of Poker here at the casino at the Empire in London.
Dinner break is over and some interesting updates to report on
34 remain at the break as players start to close in on chip leader Kelly.
Shortly after the last update John Juanda busted out after his pocket tens ran into the pocket queens of Tim Blake. No help from the board and Juanda was walking, much to the dismay of the on-looking crowd.
JP Kelly in control...
JP Kelly, baseball cap and oversized headphones, continues to find chips gravitating his way and his stack has increased 70,000 during today’s play. Hunched over his palatial stack he looks like a man who means business. He leads the pack with a monstrous 170,000 chips, picking off short stacks left, right and centre.
Day 2 of Event #1 gets underway…
89 players took their seats moments ago for the start of Day 2 of the £1,000 World Series of Poker Europe 2009 opening event .
19 September 2009
Chris Ferguson is amongst the chip leaders as Day 1b wraps
Over 300 players started Day 1b of the £1,000 NL hold’em Event #1 of the World Series of Poker Europe, meaning a combined total of 608 players took to the felt over the 2 days to pull a share of the £608,000 prize-pool. Amongst the 300 Spartans were some big name pros including Phil Ivey, John Juanda, Chris Ferguson, Men Nguyen, Howard Lederer, Andy Black, Annette Obrestad, Alen Cunningham, Jeff Lisandro, Antonio Esfandiari, James Akenhead and, yes, the list goes on.
On your marks, get set, GO GO GO!
Moments after the dinner bell chimed, players were scrambling out of the casino and filtering into the streets of Soho in order to feast on all varieties of local delicacy.