Table 21, until two minutes ago, was playing four handed, with Joe Beevers, Huck Seed, Bojan Gledovic and Pat Walsh all in a row fighting over each other's chips. Apparently Mr. Walsh arrived in an aggressive mood, and hand been raising constantly - but has taken an early tumble for more than a third of his stack.
The winner of this early big pot: Huck Seed, back refreshed after his heads-up efforts yesterday and ready to raise under the gun... which he duly did - but then Walsh made it 600 and Seed fourbet to 1,600. Call.
Flop: . Seed bet out 2,600 and got a call.
Turn: . Check-check.
River: . Now Seed bet 8,000 and Walsh had a lengthy think. Suddenly he made his decision and called, but mucked when Seed showed .
One of the empty seats over at Table 4, the one we chronicled as the early table of death, has just been taken by Chris "Jesus" Ferguson to make the table even tougher now.
Table 4 is most certainly the toughest table in town, but the adjacent Table 2 is no slouch either. Ted Lawson is in Seat 2 over there, and the three seats to his left are occupied by Erik Seidel, Teddy Sheringham, and Jason Mercier in that order. November Niner Joseph Cheong just took his seat in the nine hole. There's really no easy table in this field today, but Table 2 is one we'll be keeping an especially keen eye on.
Seated next to November Niner Filippe Candio is a face that few will recognise, but one that could soon rise to prominence in the world of poker. Better known as "Jugleman12" online, Daniel Cates is a 20-year old online sensation currently entangled in an epic battle with Tom "durrrr" Dwan in the second installment of the Durrrr Challenge.
From working in McDonalds and playing for pennies in home games, Cates' scale of the poker ladder has been nothing short of meteoric, working his way up from 5¢/10¢ right up to the some of the biggest stakes available online. There were a few bumps along the way (Cates once lost $500,000 to Internet phenomenon "Isildur1"), but he maintained his discipline and composure to make a full recovery and continue playing the nosebleed stakes against some of the toughest opponents around.
Whilst this £10,000 buy-in might pale in comparison to the figure he's currently profiting from durrrr, he'll surely be keen to prove his worth on the live felt as well as online. At the moment, his stack has seen little movement, but he's certainly a player we'll be keeping a close eye on as the day progresses.
From the under-the-gun position, Pierre Canali raised to 250. John Juanda called from the next seat and then action folded to Aftab Ahmed in the big blind. Ahmed reraised to 750 and then Canali raised again to 2,125. Juanda tossed his hands up in the air and tossed in his cards. Ahmed then thought for a minute and made it 5,300 to go. Canali took about 20 seconds or so to move all in for 28,100. Ahmed went back into the tank and there he sat for a few minutes. Eventually, he stacked up his chips and sent them into the middle, only to see Canali table the . Ahmed sheepishly turned up the .
The board ran out and Canali moved his stack to 56,500 in chips. He is now the early chip leader, but who knows how long that will last because anything can happen in poker. Canali is also seated at the Table of Death we outlined earlier that includes John Juanda, Chris Ferguson, Brent Roberts, Scott Fischman and Allen Kessler.
Andrew Lichtenberger *M*
John Eames
Robert Akery
Andy Bloch
Ross Boatman
Arnaud Mattern *M*
Vanessa Peng
Luke Trotman *M*
*M* denotes being massaged. There are more Ibiza Angels vigorously pressing the players' stressed shoulders round this table than in any other part of the casino.
It's hard to really hover near those two crow's nest tables, but we're trying to check in on them frequently. Our last check-in sees that one of the notable balconeers is down to about 17,000 here in the early going.
When we made it to Table 29, Vanessa Selbst was looking a bit peeved, and it is indeed her who's lost half her stack. Marcelo Marigliano, to her immediate left, was grinning like a school boy and chattering like one as well. It appears that she folded away a big chunk of her stack after a turn raise, and she was grumpily trying to pick at Marigliano for some information.
The two of them were still bluffing at each other as they each tried to figure out what the other one had. "If you just call on the turn, I put you in on the river."
"I know," Marigliano said, still smirking broadly.
"Oh, so you were bluffing then?" Selbst asked, not expecting an answer. She got a shrug from her opponent instead.
"I just arrived in London like two hours ago and I'm down to half my stack already."
In a four-way flop of , Jonathan Aguiar checked and Barny Boatman fired out 725. Peter Gould made the call and another player folded behind, as did Aguiar.
The turn was the putting a second flush draw out there as well as the four-card straight and both players checked. The river was the and Boatman now fired out 2,000, Gould didn't seem to like it, but the made the call anyway. The Hendon Mobster flipped the for a full house with Gould flipping the for a slightly bigger house to much laughter.
As expected, play has been rather snug during these early stages, but I did see Welshman Roberto Romanello take down a nice pot to propel his stack up to around the 45,000 mark.
I joined the action on the flop, Japanese tycoon Masaaki Kagawi leading out for 1,700 from middle position, only for another player to bump it up to 5,900 a couple of seats down.
Romanello - who I am assuming opened preflop from under-the-gun - just flat-called, which was enough to convince Kagawi to side-step out of the way.
The turn came an intriguing , and without too little hesitation, Romanello led for 7,300, around half the pot. His opponent had his suspicions, but ultimately opted for the fold allowing Romanello to pick up a substantial, early pot.
It seems like Hellmuthitus is catching as, incredibly, one table upstairs is still five-handed! Joe Beevers is there with 28,000, as is James Dempsey on 27,000. Huck Seed, however, has excelled amid the deserted felt, his stack having jumped up to 40,000 since the starting whistle.
![[user46298]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
. Seed bet out 2,600 and got a call.
. Check-check.
. Now Seed bet 8,000 and Walsh had a lengthy think. Suddenly he made his decision and called, but mucked when Seed showed 
.
. Ahmed sheepishly turned up the 
.
and Canali moved his stack to 56,500 in chips. He is now the early chip leader, but who knows how long that will last because anything can happen in poker. Canali is also seated at the 
, Jonathan Aguiar checked and Barny Boatman fired out 725. Peter Gould made the call and another player folded behind, as did Aguiar.
for a full house with Gould flipping the 
for a slightly bigger house to much laughter.
