Although Djinn was looking forward to using her Gobbobubble pun, it was in fact Stephen Ladowksy who has been forced to bite bubble dust, the likes of fellow shorties Jimmy Fricke, Marc Goodwin, and Tom Nightingale all evading that painful just-out-of-the-money spot.
It was a pretty quick and painless departure, the cool-as-a-cucumber Ladowsky down to just 1.2K before he finally made his move. He'd been teasing us for awhile, and had allowed the blinds to pass more times than we expected, but with an ace showing in Stud, now was a great time to pounce.
As expected, Ladowsky found action in more than one place, with Jesus Ferguson and onetime chip daddy Gary Jones progressing with the hand. But after Ferguson had bet Jones out of the hand, it was on their backs time with Ladowsky looking for a fifth club that never arrived.
And here it is... they're in the money (next out receives £5,250) and they're already playing in their new seats after a record-breakingly smooth redraw:
Jennifer Harman - 107k
Gary Jones - 65k
Jan Sorensen - 130k
Barny Boatman - 70k
Alex Kravchenko - 58k
Mark Vos - 55k
Yuval Bronshtein - 85k
Tom Nightingale - 20k
Jimmy Fricke - 20k
Marc Goodwin - 13k
Kirk Morrison - 116k
Joe Beevers - 73k
Chris Ferguson - 70k
Thomas Bihl - 80k
John Juanda - 45k
Eric Dalby - 46k
I have no idea which table I would choose if I had to play down to the final with one group of players...
Gobboboy was all in preflop for his tournament life. He held against Joe Beevers' . The flop was . Gobboboy was ahead but Beevers picked up outs with a flush draw and an open-ended straight draw. The turn was the and the river was the . Gobboboy's hand held up and he increased his stack to 8,000.
Barny "Bellygance" Boatman is currently sitting on 70,000, but his chips have been in and out more than the Hokey Pokey and his stack up and down like a yo-yo on a spring.
Around dinner time, the Hendon Mobster was riding high with over 80,000, but after his rolled-up aces were cracked in Stud by Alex Kravchenko's (10-10) 6, which eventually made a straight, Barmy Barny was left with a bisected stack.
However, although not particularly experienced in HORSE, he has played more tournaments than your average player and so knows how to get his nose back in front, which is exactly what he's done.
The players are currently on a short break and shall return in 10 minutes' time. If ever there was a time when you don't want to get locked in the toilet cubicle, then this is it.
It's finito for Jimmy as the Kiwi Kid and Gobboboy engulf him in a Hold'em raising war; the Aussie Millions runner-up shoving in shrapnel on the flop and revealing .
Morrison disappoints the American by revealing , which comfortably dodges the two-outer on the turn and river.
Fourteen cowboys (and one cowgirl) remaining in this HORSE event.
Super-short-stacked Mr. Cool finally bit the dust in 15th place, but judging from his smile when the bubble burst a short while ago, he isn't taking it too hard. As he took his seat for this brief period of two-table play, he said, "I've got no chips," pointing to his diminutive stack, and it proved to be a vision of the near future.
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He's been struggling for quite a while now, but young British pro Tom Nightingale just took a substantial hit as he lost a 40K pot to American superstar Jennifer Harman.
The game was Omaha/8, and I joined the action on the river of a board of with Tom reluctantly showing . Tom knew that he was beat, and he was, Harman adding even more chips to her ever-increasing stack with for top two pair.
Nightingale has lost his chirp and is now on just 20-25K.