Congratulations to our Grand Final Winner ….

 

Lewis Skelhorn

 

 

Lewis played his way through 66 runners at The Skye Hotel in Blackpool to claim his seat at the W.S.O.P. in fabulous Las Vegas.

We finally got underway at 1.50pm on Saturday 30th January at the Skye Hotel in Blackpool. With 65 players plus a seat and chip stack allocated for Allen Gregory (RIP) it was going to be a long day for me but fortunately I had my girlfriend helping me out, thanks Jon x.  

The first 2 levels of the day were set at 45 minutes long and we only lost 1 player during the 50 / 100 level, with the poker gods showing the room just how nasty they can be when they want! Lee Chapman wakes up with pocket kings and raises the pot pre flop Neil Davenport looks down at pocket Queens and calls.

With no one else at the table in the hand the flop comes down with Kc, 5h, 5c with Lee now flopping a monster he puts out a small bet, Neil having none of it thinking Lee’s raised with A-? calls the bet. The turn sees 4c hit the board, Lee now wanting Neil to be flushing in clubs bets again, Neil calls again and the Qc floats down on the river! All the money goes in at this point with both players wanting a flush from each other & both holding a massive hand! Lee just about had Neil covered and we were a man down.

Allen Gregory’s chips were removed from play at the end of level 1 and after he had qualified with ease it was nice to see he wasn’t first out.

With 2 out the 100 / 200 level started with 64 players left on 8 tables of 8.

After starting the day with 9 tables we were now down to a nice round 64 players and table 5 was the first to break and become the ‘ring game’ table. A few TPL members had come along just for this game and the game quickly got started.  Later on in the day Mike “The Most Dangerous Man In Poker” Morris, would join this table and…… OWN IT!… Well done Mike.

During this level we also lost Warren Todd and Peter Andrews. Peter betting on a rags & rainbow flop with his pocket Jacks only to find his opponent holding AA putting him all in! Unlucky Peter. 

62 left as we entered 150 / 300 and all blind levels from now on would be 30 minutes long. Just Woody leaves us before the 1st break and after 2 hours of play we’re down to 61 runners, the purple chips are off the tables and smoker’s corner is packed out!

Play resumed on level 4 at about 4.05pm and we only lost Helen Thompson about 20 minutes into it.

Helens chip stack had took a beating early on and she was finally gone around half 4 in the afternoon, but it was her first final and told Jon & myself she had had a great day and took a purple chip as a memento of the day.

Welcome to the TPL Helen, we hope to see you at many more finals.

Level 5 starts with 60 playing and with the blinds at 300 / 600 the chips start flying about as players start making moves & building chip stacks. Out go – Jon Dugdale, Mike Morris, Bob Davidson along with our leader Dave ‘Tango’ Thompson.

As we are now down to 56 playing, table 9 is broken to fill up the other 7 tables. Also out at this level go – Steve Riley, Billy Boag, David Cassidy and Howard ‘H’ Thompson joins his brother at the rail.. well more like at the bar really!

52 left as we start level 6 and with the blinds at 400 /800 the first to fall was our February TPL final host Les Harrison from the Victoria in Horwich.

 

 

See you on the 28th Les. And yes, we know it’s the Carling cup final day!

With Ian Hunter, Ivan Ilyin and ex TPL champ Gareth Handley stumbling at this level, Table 8 is broken leaving 48 runners on 6 full tables of 8.

Level 7 comes around and with the blinds now at 600 / 1,200 the time came for Stewart ‘stay safe’ Dawson to leave us, his chip stack crippled in an earlier pot he was up against it in the end and left us at 5.45pm.

Next to leave us was one of the pre-tourney favourites Andy ‘man bag’ Winning.

 

Andy has been crowned TPL champ twice before and must of fancied his chances to take this one down as well!

 

Others to fall at this level were – Vicious Steve, Aron James, John Mortimore, Stephen Raftry, Mark Shonick and Anna Hearn. With 40 left in, table 8 was broken to fill up the other 5 tables.  

 

Before we move on to level 8

i would just like to award Christine ‘O’ or CJ to her friends, the MVP for the tournament.

 

Although you don’t win anything for being the MVP, Jon & myself decided she was well worthy of this after raising pre flop with AA and being called by pocket 7’s. All the money went in after a flop of 6 – 8 – 6. With a 5 on the turn and of course a 9 on the river, CJ’s stack was crippled down to about 2,000 during level 7 but she fought back to make the final table!

 Don’t forget the last final at the Toll Point she was all in on level 1 with AA against Tango Dave’s KK only to see a King hit the turn! And just for good measure CJ went to the Blackpool ‘G’ casino on the Friday night to get her pocket Aces busted yet again by pocket 5’s making the flush. Even i’m not that unlucky an i’ve lost a leg!!! Very well played though.

The blinds are now at 800 / 1,600 as we approach the dinner break. 1st to leave us was Danny McCarrick at 6.15pm closely followed by Chris Aaron.

 

 Even though he had come dressed to kill Ian ‘Bingo-Bob’ Burnett was next to fall after his chip stack seemed to be going up and down like a bride’s nighty! But going just before the break gets you in a good position for the buffet!

Other players to leave us at level 8 were Chatsworth Girl – Kellie 1, Laura Robinson and everybody’s friend Jonathan Addison, taking us into the 1 ½ hour dinner break with 34 players left, the green ‘100’ chips taken out of play and the grey ’10,000’ chips coming in.

Level 9 – the blinds are at 1,000 / 2,000 and out goes Big Danny, who is now to be known as Danny Big Spuds after his wild antics at the Friday night ring game in the hotel lounge. At 8.30pm we lost Tasha Broad and we were down to 32 playing on 4 full tables. Stevie ‘O’ was next to leave then Chris Armstrong. At this point with only 30 left it was hard to see where the winner was coming from as nobody seemed to be way out in front. Martin Heywood, Bergin and Riz Kler also fell at this level.

Level 10 – the blinds at 1,500 / 3,000 and we lost ‘Hitler’ Dave at 8.45pm. Followed by  ‘H-2-O’ and Stevie Greer and we are on 3 tables with 24 left. It was another pre-tourney favourite who was next to leave when Kristian Thornley crashed out.

 

As some of you may remember Kristian has won the Vegas seat before in a field of over 100 players but not on this occasion as another one of my hot picks heads to the rail.

So with 23 runners left on 3 tables Michael Harrison departed along with Rob Clifford and Matt Taylor.

Level 11 – 2,000 / 4,000 this is when you find out who your friends are! There’s an old saying in this game, “your only friends at the poker table are your chips”

This is imprinted now on Paul Griffin’s brain as he moves all in on Brother Dave’s big blind with J-8off

 

only to be called by Dave with J-10suited! No Brotherly love or any of that cobblers in this game as Dave’s 10 holds sending Paul to the rail.

Also out in this level go Lee Chapman and Danny Bridge and we’re down to 17 looking for one more casualty to make 2 tables left.

Blinds are up to 3,000 / 6,000 on level 12 and to get down to 2 tables we lost yet another favourite when Walter Nisbett moved all in with QQ

 

he gets a call from A8. An ace hits the flop sending the 3 time final winner out and we’re 16 left on 2 tables.

It wasn’t too long before Devan Joined him and then Chris Calderley bombed out around 10.20pm and we moved into level 13 which proved to be lucky 13 because it was the only level on the day where we didn’t lose anyone!

Level 14 seen the blinds up to 6,000 / 12,000 and not much poker was being played, then at 11.05pm we lost another past winner when Mich ‘Vegas’ Good left us,

 

Mich beat off 50+ in the “Bad Beat” final a couple of years ago and played a solid game all day at Blackpool only to fall short as the blinds increased. Amanda Clarke, Ben Taylor and Dom Abraham were soon to follow leaving 10 players on 2 tables that were now on the bubble.

Level 15 seen Gary Wilson get his pin out and burst in 10th place. There’s a bubble guy in every game and my heart goes out to Gary who went at 11.35pm. A long, long day for you fella, unlucky.

 

The Final Table!

 

Seat 1 – Aston Wiggans………….182,000

 

 

Seat 2 – Graham Richardson……104,000

 

 

Seat 3 – Dave ‘Badger’ Side…….186,000

 

 

Seat 4 – Andy Shuck……………….136,000

 

 

Seat 5 – Christine (CJ)………………42,000

 

 

Seat 6 – Dave Griffin……………….49,000

 

 

Seat 7 – Jason Julien……………….20,000

 

 

Seat 8 – Ian Grainger…………….166,000

 

 

Seat 9 – Lewis Skelhorn…………115,000

 

 

Our first casualty at the final table was Dave Griffin. Dave moved all in pre flop with his A 10 and was called by Aston with A Q.

 

Then on a board of 5 – 9– 4 – 2 – K, Aston’s queen played and Dave was gone in 9th at 12.25am.

The players all decided to cap the blinds that were now at 10,000 / 20,000. This was all Jason Julien had come to the table with and when he was forced all in on his big blind he was next to leave at 12.30am. Closely followed by our MVP for the day CJ, who’s chip stack was not enough to keep up at this level.

We lost Andy Shuck just after 1am pushing his AJ into AQ and at 1.15am Aston Wiggans went out and we were down to 4 players.

Next we see the “no friends at the table” rule come into play again when Graham Richardson pushed all in pre flop with his A7.

 

Lewis, Grahams lift to Blackpool and back, looks down at Qd 10d and says “oh stuff it, I fancy a gamble!” the board comes 5-6-Q-8-2 and at 1.45am Graham was gone.

Just 10 minutes later Ian Grainger makes the move from the small blind with 2s 7s, Lewis in the big blind with a huge chip stack calls with Jc 10h

with the flop coming down – Jd Qh Jh Ian was our bronze medallist and we are heads up!

 

Dave ‘Badger’ Side was chip leader over Lewis until his money went in with the flop showing 5h 6c 10h. Badger  had Jc 10c and Lewis calls with Jh 8h.

 

The turn brings 7s giving Lewis more out’s and the Qh on the river gave Lewis 80% of the chips in play!

 

 

 

The tourney finally came to an end at 2.25am with Badger pushing all in pre flop with pocket 6’s

Lewis calls with pocket 10’s which held on a board of 4-K-Q-7-J. Sending Lewis to Vegas and Badger off to Dusk Till Dawn for the PokerStars UKIPT.               

                                                                                                            

WELL DONE LEWIS!

 

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Leave a Reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.