Lee Champion moved all-in from early position with 19,000 chips at 800/1,600/200. He got two callers and was up against it, holding 
and up against a re-shove with 
and a caller with 
.
The board of 
saw Champions treble-up, however, and he moves right back into contention with around 40 big blinds.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
60,500 |
Level: 9
Blinds: 800/1,600
Ante: 200
Ali Zinhi and Paul Whyman (pictured left alongside Mario Andreas) have clashed just now, as the two passionate Tottenham Hotspur fans experienced bad luck when they failed to land on Teddy Sheringham's table but have made use of good luck on their table when it has come along.
With Whyman raising pre-flop to 2700 from mid-position, Zinhi called in the cut-off and saw a flop of 
. Whyman checked, so Zinhi led out 3,000 and got a quick fold.
"Good fold." he said, and turned over 
. Whyman nods in appreciation of some good cards for his opponent, and still has 60,000 chips - well above average. It pales compared to Zinhi's chip mountain, however. Zinhi has 160,000 and the clear lead in the room.
"I've had AK beat kings. But then my aces lost to Q-9. Jacks lost to Ace-King before jacks beat tens." says Zinhi.
Playable hands all of them, and so far, the swing is pointing to the top of the chip counts. Impressive stuff.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
160,000 | 160,000 |
|
60,000 | 27,900 |
Level: 8
Blinds: 600/1,200
Ante: 200
Irina Nikolaidi has been taken out on Day 1a after a huge hand saw Kam Kamara take the chip lead in the room here at the £100,000 Guaranteed 888Poker London Live Festival's opening event.
Pre-flop, Irina was the aggressor, making it 3,000 to go from the cut-off. Kamara called in te smal blind, Enzo Del Piero did the same from the big blind, and the under the gun player who had called pre-flop saw the value in getting 4:1 on an additional 2,000 chips.
The flop of 
saw Nikolaidi continue for 6,000 and this time only Kamara called. The turn card was the 
and Nikolaidi made it 15,000, just under half of her remaining chips. She called when Kamara shoved all-in for around 20,000 chips more than Nikolaidi had to call.
Nikolaidi held but she needed help after seeing Kamara's 
meant he had turned a straight against her trip kings. The river of 
meant it was Nikolaidi who went out, and Kamara who has the first six-figure stack.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
|
100,000 | |
|
|
Busted |
Level: 7
Blinds: 500/1,000
Ante: 100
The remaining players are on a short break, during which time there will be the final chance for them to either register if yet to do so, or re-enter (up to twice during each flight).
They'll be back in 15 minutes.
With his schoolboy grin, cool temperament and flair for the dramatic celebration, former England, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur striker Teddy Sheringham is made for poker.
Having been at the height of his poker prowess in 2012, Sheringham stepped away from the game for a time, moving into football management and away from the game played on the felt instead of grass. Upon his latest return to the poker table, we caught up with the London legend here at 888Poker’s London Live and started by asking of his memories from probably his most celebrated achievement in the game. In 2010, he reached the final table of the ‘forgotten’ EPT stop of Vilamoura in Portugal, one of three Brits to do so alongside eventual winner Toby Lewis and the most successful British tournament player of all time in Sam Trickett.
“What a lovely venue. Sunshine in the morning, playing poker in the early afternoon going into the evening, perfect. A bit of golf, too.”
Sheringham is known to enjoy 18 holes on some of the world’s best courses. He even played a round against his former England teammate Alan Shearer as part of the Geordie striker’s recent documentary on England’s journey at Euro ’96. So was his recent match with his old pal a good game?
“It could have been! I’d just got off the plane from Dublin; I’d been sitting in traffic for two or three hours and then Shearer gets me out of the car and says ‘Come on, we’ve got to [play] quickly. My golf wasn’t the best, but the interview was good. Any chance to look back on Euro ’96 is always great.”
Sheringham famously didn’t begin his England career until he was 27, but went on to play 51 times for his country, scoring 11 goals. He spent his entire career striving for greater success. So has he had time to look back on his personal highlights now?
“You look back when you’re finished, but it was always knocked into us at United that you don’t look back on anything while you’re there. Onto the next and onto the next, that was the way the manager was and he demanded that of us.”
It could be a mindset the new batch of Old Trafford superstars will be keen to adopt…if they can get that elusive first title.
“You’ve got to get success first. It’s hard to get success, it’s why people are paying such big money, everyone wants success. You’ve got seven or eight teams at the top of the Premier League, all hoping, expecting and demanding that they win the Premier League. Only one team can do it.”
Memories of playing for Manchester United clearly come flooding back for Sheringham, enjoying a glorious twilight of his career very much in the way Zlatan Ibrahimovic will hope to do this season. Did he enjoy helping youngsters develop at Old Trafford?
“The youngsters were already there from my point of view. The Manchester boys of Butty, Neville, Scholes, Beckham, it was their club really. I felt like they had to bring players on. I was there for four years. I had my three-year contract, then signed for an extra year. I had the option of another year, but I wanted to come home. I had a fantastic offer from Tottenham to sign a two-year deal. Feeling part of that hierarchy that welcomed other people, I was good at that at Tottenham and for England, but at Manchester United, I was still fighting for my place. Yorkie came in and took it, so I was always fighting to get back in on that level.
Despite the emergence of other strikers, Sheringham played a bigger number of games in the two seasons following his treble-winning success.
“I was different to most strikers at the time. That always held me in good stead; I could adapt to playing with different players up front and not a lot of strikers can do that, they just play their normal game.”
One of the other Brits at that final table in Vilamoura, Sam Trickett, enjoyed a brief sojourn to South Africa at one point, helping other players with their poker game. It invigorated his own and he went on to become a player Sheringham still says now that he admires. In his football career, Sheringham went on loan aged 19 to Sweden’s second-tier side Djurgården. While in Scandinavia, he went from being scoring one goal in 12 first-team appearances beforehand to 13 goals in 21 games. Looking back on that period now, how does that make him feel?
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Stockholm. It was an experience. I came from Millwall playing in the reserves and the odd game in the first team. I went to Djurgården and it was in the Swedish second division. We were expected to win that division and I was in a good team. I was getting chances, scoring goals and I became a man out in Sweden. I was playing against other men who were playing for relatively big bonuses. In the reserves, I’d been playing against kids or players who didn’t want to be there. Suddenly I was playing for people’s livelihoods and it changed me from a young man to a grown-up man. I loved the experience.
Teddy Sheringham returns to the felt and the familiar glint in his eyes is back, the last ten minutes forgotten like so many poker tables have to be for any player. Like the footballer he once was, and the poker player he is tonight, Sheringham only seem to know one way to look at life – forward.
Level: 6
Blinds: 400/800
Ante: 100
Charles Chattha had the bigger chip stack as the London-based player took on Mario Nicola. The pot was already swelled by the time we joined the action on the turn, with the board showing 
but Nicola was all-in for 12,000 and Chattha covered his stack.
Chattha held 
and was hoping to hold against Nicola's straight draw. The river of 
was as big a brick as it could be, and Chattha piled up 35,000 chips. Nicola will have the option of that re-entry.
| Player | Chips | Progress |
|---|---|---|
|
35,400 | 25,900 |
