Break time - level nine complete, 126 players remain.

Break time - level nine complete, 126 players remain.

Saturday, 25 September 2010

The 500/1,000/100 level has concluded and the remaining 126 players will return from their 20-minute break shortly. It’s been a really exciting ninety minutes at The Empire with some big hands and at least two 6-bet bluffs and a couple of 7-bet value shoves. I remember joking about pre-flop 6-bets becoming the norm back in 2007 – it’s happened.

In the course of the past level there have only been two players’ names on the rail’s lips: Phil Ivey and Viktor “Isildur1” Blom, currently the two leading players of the remaining 126 halfway through Day 2 of the £10,350 World Series of Poker Europe Main Event. Ivey got his chips largely in a pot against ex-November Niner James Keys who 6-bet all-in with KQ on a K-T-x board only to be shown T-T.

Ivey is the only player to have reached the 300,000 chip mark but he is by no mean uncatchable. Viktor Blom, better known as online poker God Isildur1, has just under the 300,000 milestone after... well, being Isildur1. Cold 4-bets, overbet bluffs, overbets for value, set-over-set confrontations: all contributors to Blom’s big stack.

Day 1a/1b chip leader James Mitchell is the third player to have crossed the 200,000 mark but he’s down compared to the beginning of the level. Barny Boatman has been having a great time and has built up a 189,000 stack. Other Brits leading the way include JP Kelly who could still potentially break Ivey’s ‘youngest to win three bracelets’ record – but Ivey may have something to say about that.

We’ll return shortly with blinds at 600/1,200 and an average stack of 82,400. Don’t go anywhere.



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