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Event 1: HORSE £2500+£150 (about $5300)
Some confusion about the exact number of runners in the HORSE, It was at 104, then up to 105, but they just put it back down to 104.
One player has bust, so we are "officially" at 103 players.
Some crazy tables:
1. Marcel Luske, Gus Hansen, Allen Cunningham, Joe Beevers, Thor Hansen all at one table.
2. Tong G,Jen Harman, Jeff Madsen, Phil Helllmuth all at same table.
3. Doyle Brunson and Chris Ferguson at same table.
4. Annie Duke, Pearl Jammer and some big cash player I cant remember at the same table.
5. Andy Black and Howard Lederer at same table.
6. Eric Seidel and Eli Elizara at same table.
7. Johnny Chan, Humberto Brenes, and Robert Williamson all at same tables
8. John Juanda at the same table as another player who's name slips my grasp.
9. Patrick Antonius and Phil Gordon at same table.
Kiabuxxe is here sweating, but not playing surprising. I have also seen the Boatmans and Devilfish. Had a brief chat to Devilfish about PLO, he seems a great guy,very easy to talk to.
Annie Duke has a bit of a stack, and Scotty Nguyen's stack is looking good.
Some pictures from the start:
Phil Hellmuth and Dave Devilfish were the faces of the grand opening, having some fun and getting quite a bit of press attention
Hansen, Cunningham. behind them the back of Tony G, Hellmuth just in the background on Tony's table, Madsen sat in the empty seat next to Phil
Chip Leaders (chip counts are approx)
Vegard Nygaard 32500
Justin Bonomo (ZeeJustin) 26000
Yuval Bronshtein 2400
Barny Boatman 22000
Johnny Chan 20400
Annie Duke 20000
Robert Williamson III 17600
David Williams 16500
Pascal Perrault 16500
Gary Jones 15700
Jesse Jones 15700
Phil Hellmuth 15700
Ted Forrest 15500
David Levi 15200
Joe Beevers 15200
Howard Lederer 15000
Chris Ferguson 14300
There are now just 12 player left. Hows this for a line up of pros :-
Yuval Bronshtein 135000
Jennifer Harman 125100
Kirk Morrison 116000
Joe Beevers 73000
Jan Sorensen 55700
Mark Vos 55000
Chris Ferguson 54500
Barny Boatman 53400
Thomas Bihl 50200
Alex Kravchenko 47000
Eric Dalby 46600
Gary Jones 31300
Yuval Bronshtein - who?
Kirk Morrison - WSOP Bracelet winner and nearly $3 million in lifetime cashes
Jennifer Harman - 2 WSOP Bracelets and $1.7 million in lifetime cashes
Chris Ferguson - WSOP Main Event Winner, and 5 WSOP bracelets - $6 million in lifetime cashes
Thomas Bihl - who?
Alex Kravchenko - WSOP Bracelet winner and WSOP Main Event Final Tablist - $2.4million in lifetime cashes
Jan Sorensen - 2 WSOP Bracelets and $1.2 million in lifetime cashes
Gary Jones - $500,000 in lifetime cashes
Joe Beevers - $1.3 million in lifetime cashes
Harrahs bought 3 London casinos about a year ago. The Empire, The Fifty (just called 'Fifty'), and The Sportsman. This was with a view to making the WSOPE a reality. They spent some money on them, especially The Empire, which opened after a refit earlier in the year.
Fifty is an incredibly swanky casino, where you need to pay $1500 to be a member. Due to this policy it is very much a stomping ground for high-rollers.
After the WSOP in Vegas in the summer, the whole WSOP team was flown over to London to start to make this event a reality. There just isnt any casinos on the scale of the strip in Vegas, therefore the main event needed to to be split accross their 3 recently aquired London venues.
Event 1
The photos above are from Event 1. After changing the number of entrants up and down a few times, eventually we had the confirmed number of entrants of 105.
I am not sure what Kaibuxxe was doing as he was wandering around several tables and even railing some. It seemed he wasnt playing, but obviously in the end he was. This sort of thing isnt uncommon in the later stages of a tournament, but normally only quick wanders to check on chip stacks. This was at the very beginning so maybe he was just trying to decide whether to be a "late reg" or not. Who knows.
The Empire is plush, but it isnt large. The card room accomodates around 10 tables, and it is cosy in there. It is reached by a fairly small corridor, mainly the hang-out of the Poker News crew. Other tables were strategically placed on the upper level in order to accomodate the full 105 players.
The final table is in a completely seperate room, with a glass floor and very arty lighting. This is what makes it possible to start the PLO today, and also run the HORSE final table.
Once the tables remaining got down to 4 or 5, all play was then in the area on the upper floor and the card room was just used for side games. I saw Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan and Jeff Lisandro all playing some cash games in the side room. There was a couple of spare seats, but we decided to join another table instead. Bankroll Management in action.
All the players seemed to be having a good time, and there was a very laid back atmosphere amongst the pros who were railing. All-in-all it has been a great event so far, and the final table is shaping up for some good poker. Ferguson, Harman and Morrison all looked to be on their game, so whoever wins this one will have come through a war, with such a premium field.
I have a pass into the Fifty, so I will be back in London to see some of the main event. I will try to get some photos from that as well, although I must admit I am a reluctant snapper. "Point and click" - not much of a line it up and focus person
I hope you like the photos so far.
Daniel Negreanu, who busted from the PLO early, was also watching the HORSE (sweating Kirk Morrison). He was moaning about British Airways losing his luggage on the flight over.
Here is the HORSE result (Event 1):
1 £ 70,875 Thomas Bihl
2 £ 40,688 Jennifer Harman
3 £ 26,250 Kirk Morrison
4 £ 21,700 Chris "Jesus" Ferguson
5 £ 17,850 Alex Kravchenko
Result :-
1 £ 234,390 Dario Alioto (about $468,780)
2 £ 137,280 Istvan Novak
3 £ 94,380 Tony G
4 £ 65,520 David Callaghan
5 £ 49,530 Antoine Arnault
6 £ 38,220 Sherkhan Farnood
7 £ 30,420 Sampo Lopponen
8 £ 22,020 Andy Bloch
9 £ 16,380 Joe Razaghi
10 £ 11,700 Jon Persson
11 £ 11,700 Roland De Wolfe
12 £ 11,700 Ted Lawson
13 £ 10,140 John Duthie
14 £ 10,140 Andreas Hagen
15 £ 10,140 Rupert Housden
16 £ 8,580 Rafi Amit
17 £ 8,580 Ted Forrest
18 £ 8,580 Martin Vallo
Current Chip Leaders from Day 1a:
Janne Lamsa 105000
Huseyin Yilmaz 98000
Erik Seidel 65000
Jeff Garza 64000 <- ActionJeff
Sarah Taylor 62000
Joe Sebok 61800
Annette Obrestad 57500 <- Annette_15
Patrick Bruel 51000
Ian Munns 50000
Francisco Lopez 49000
Annie Duke 46000
Jan Sorensen 46000
Rehne Pedersen 45000
Brian Townsend 44500 <- sbrugby
Konstantinos Panikidis 44500
Humberto Brenes 42000
Noah Jefferson 42000
Jennifer Harman 40600
Erick Lindgren 39000
Phil Hellmuth 36000
Marco Traniello 35000
Greg Raymer 32000
Janne Lamsa 115,850
Huseyin Yilmaz 99575
Phil Hellmuth 82825 <- Great first day for Hellmuth
Andrew Feldman 76650
Patrick Bruel 71225
Priyan De Mel 67,900
Gary Jones 65,425
Paul Ephremsen 64,875
Simon Wing 64150
Terry Cook 63700
Ram Vaswani 61050
Joseph Serock 60450
Francisco Lopez Martos 57775
Martin Filipsen 57400
Humberto Brenes 56200
Panikidis Konstantinos 54625
Dave Colclough 54,100
William Durkee 48750
Jennifer Harman 48500
Jeff Garza 48,375
Ian Munns 47725
Neil Pearson 47,650
Gus Hansen 46,925
Neel Chudasama 46,925
Krzysztof Gluszko 46,725
Jeffrey Lisandro 46,700
Erik Seidel 45,000
Jan Sorensen 45,000
Thor Hansen 44600
Annie Duke 44200
Annette Obrestad 43375
Erick Lindgren 42028
Greg Raymer 41,300
Here are a few notable others who survived Day 1a :-
Dave Ulliott 29,100
Barry Greenstein 22875
Paul Wasicka 18,400
Brian Townsend 18,025
Chris Ferguson 15525
Sorel Mizzi 8,975
Junglen (foreground) and Zeejustin (background) in Main Event:
Day 1b Chip Counts
Patrik Antonius 76150
Shaun Deeb 71825 <- Shaundeeb, obviously!
Tino Lechich 71725
Adam Junglen 69275 <- AJunglen7
Kenny Tran 67025
Gerry Kane 66675 16925
David Lionel 65825
Jesse Jones 64950
Jon Turner 60975 <- PearlJammer
Daniel Negreanu 60900
Julain Bertazzon 60700
Andreas Berggren 58975
Bob Willis 58975
Matthew McCullough 57500
Stephen McNamara 55425
Roland Israelashvici 53450
Jamie Gold 53400
Some notable others :-
Johnny Lodden 46125
Justin Bonomo 39000
Jimmy Fricke 36975
Roland de Wolfe 32250
Joe Beevers 26000
Howard Lederer 20450
Steve Billirakis 16375
Johnny Chan 47,250
Lee Nelson 46,450
Tony G 44,750
Dario Alioto 42,225
Juha Helppi 42,025
Allen Cunningham 10,550
Barny Boatman 37725
Isabelle Mercier 32400
362 Entrants in the main event
First Prize :- £1 million ($2,000,000) and the Bracelet
36 Places will get paid
Huseyin Yilmaz 175000
Janne Lamsa 161000
Annette Obrestad 160000 <- Annette_15
Paul Ephremsen 159000
Gus Hansen 146000
Krzysztof Gluszko 116000
David Colclough 108000
Sergey Rybachenko 100300
Farzad Bonyadi 90000
Johannes Korsar 85500
William Durkee 78500
Ahmet Melin 77500
Greg Raymer 70000
Joe Serock 70000
Matthew Kay 68500
Annie Duke 66500
Jeffrey Lisandro 66000
Magnus Persson 177700
James Keys 170000
Karl Mahrenholz 170000
Jimmy "Gobboboy" Fricke 136000
Jamie Gold 130000
Oyvind Riisem 128000
Patrik Antonius 127000
Marigliano Marcello 125000
Jakob Paulsen 120000
Andreas Berggren 117300
Johnny Chan 105000
Patrik Antonius 283200
Aleksander Vathne 231200
Theo Jorgensen 174100
Magnus Persson 165600
Dominic Kay 163700
Marigliano Marcello 151200
Karl Mahrenholz 144600
Jacob Paulsen 129200
Johnny Chan 118300
Oyvind Riisem 116500
Jamie Gold 115000
Along with Daniel Negreanu just for good measure 
(he only has 31,700 chips though)
James Keys - large glasses dark hair
Matthew McCullough - red hair (he went on to be chip leader of final table)
John Tabatabai - to James Keys left - black hair
Couple of blurry Gus Hansen shots
The guy to Gus Hansens left is Carl 'Mantis'
3 £ 381,910 Matthew McCullough
4 £ 257,020 Oyvind Riisem
5 £ 191,860 Johannes Korsar
6 £ 152,040 Dominic Kay
7 £ 114,030 Magnus Persson
8 £ 85,070 Theo Jorgensen
9 £ 61,540 James Keys
. 
Tabatabai bets 80,000, Annette raises to 275,000 and Tabatabai calls. 
Tabatabai bets 100,000, Annette raises to 450,000 and Tabatabai calls. 
for a broadway straight
| Final Hand |
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John Tabatabai has the button. He calls Obrestad raises to 100K and Tabatabai calls. The flop is    . Obrestad bets 250K Tabatabai raises to 750K, Obrestad moves all in and Tabatabai calls. Tabatabai shows   for two pairbut Obrestad has top set with   The turn is the  , The river is the . |
1 £ 1,000,000 Annette Obrestad (over $2,000,000)
2 £ 570,150 John Tabatabai
3 £ 381,910 Matthew McCullough
4 £ 257,020 Oyvind Riisem
5 £ 191,860 Johannes Korsar
6 £ 152,040 Dominic Kay
7 £ 114,030 Magnus Persson
8 £ 85,070 Theo Jorgensen
9 £ 61,540 James Keys