Michael Martin
London EPT Champ Michael Martin has been eliminated from today's event. He was understandably despondent, muttering something along the lines of "managed to lose with aces versus A-5."
Eastgate: Much More Camera-shy than Movie Star
First amusing conversation instigated by Neil Channing: The masseuse currently working the knots from Peter Eastgate has apparently been in a movie just released recently (I don't know which one). Channing decided to tell the table they had a famous film star working on their tense necks, and duly embarrassed her into admitting that this was true. He then asked her if she knew she was massaging a World Champion of Poker. It appeared not.
"Are you really?" she asked, sounding sceptical.
He nodded.
"Who's more famous then," he continued, "You or him?"
Neil Channing is now busto, having come back from the previous break with 10k and proceeded to pick up back to back Queens and Kings, which he duly threebet someone with and they did not have the decency to double him up. Then on the third hand he found and was gearing up to do it again after there was an utg raise, rather hoping for no call this time.
As it was, utg wasn't interested in the hand after he shoved, but the big blind Matt Stout was, calling him with and promptly sending him to the rail...
...where he just as promptly started a number of amusing conversations over at table Eastgate (which looks like this currently - another good'un I reckon):
Seat 1: Darus Suharto - 5,000
Seat 2: Andrew Lichtenberger - 70,000
Seat 3: Richard Herbert - 49,100
Seat 4: Peter Eastgate - 41,800
Seat 5: Christer Johansson - 14,700
Seat 6: Willie Jung - 33,600
Seat 7: Benny Chen - 50,000
Seat 8: Michael Binger - 21,600
With the board reading and a 15,000 pot burning a hole in the felt, Morten Erlandsen led for 10,000, and, after a shake of the head, David Oppenheim made the fold. Oppenheim down to 15,000, but PokerGirl back over his starting stack with 33,000.
Michael Greco is out and busy railing poker pal Jesper Hougaard. Greco departed when his kings were busted by a set of fives, all in on the flop. No paint on the turn or river, and the duff duffs kicked in.
"Greco, out in the fourth level," he smiled. "It's unheard of."
The presence of French uberblogger Benjo near a huge pot gave a hint that one of his countrymen was getting involved - and it appeared according to my table list to be one Antoine Saout. He had a pretty good stack - at least 45k - and had come heads up to a turn card, the board reading . He was deliberating calling opponent-with-his-back-to-the-room's 4,500 when I caught the hand, and eventually came to the conclusion to do so.
The river came the and his opponent instantly shipped the rest of his chips in. Even with an above-average stack, 17,275 was a pretty large bet to call, and after a while like a Dragon disillusioned with the product being patented, declared himself Out of the hand, relinquishing the pot.
But they're just as crucial, especially to the players to whom they belong...
Justin Smith - 55,600
Ian Woodley - 17,800
Juha Helppi - 34,000
Shaun Deeb - 74,500
Jennifer Harman - 27,200
Noah Boeken - 44,000
Karl Mahrenholz - 25,200
Mike McDonald - 11,400
Keith Hawkins - 76,000
Howard Lederer - 34,500
Wooka Kim - 30,500
Dennis Phillips - 52,400
Ross Boatman - 28,000
Nik Persaud - 14,000
Antonio Esfandiari - 25,350
Maybe Persaud and Esfandiari's stacks are suffering from the continual banter erosion - between them and Brandon Adams they've covered a lot of what Lodden thinks, where's good to go out clubbing in Vegas, and whether that legendary London restaurant where everyone eats in the pitch black is cool or not.
Julian Thew (EPT winner)
Oyvind Riisem (WSOPE 2007 finalist)
Jari Vilmunen (WSOPE bracelet winner)
Jani Sointula (Monte Carlo Millions winner)
Richard Ashby (online titan)
Ben Roberts (legendary cash player)
Sorel Mizzi (runner up in last year's Omaha)
... and Hendon Mobber Ram Vaswani, who currently holds the chip lead with 95,000.
Eek. This table makes my nightmares look like a summer stroll.