Level: 13
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Ante: 400
Level: 13
Blinds: 2,000/4,000
Ante: 400
James Mitchell is definitely out chip leader in the room right now, but not by much. He has the lead by around 34,000 from Mihai Pop, who has been moved from his original table. Mitchell was moved to his earlier, but looks in complete control of it. Pop will need to focus quickly if he wants to get to know his opponents in time to make more chips from them.
James Mitchell is one of poker's interesting characters, but also one of its quietest. His best result remains his 2010 Irish Open Main Event victory, which netted him $809,094 but he has cashed consistently and built a live tournament winnings score of $1.7m in the past eight years.
Softly spoken at the table, but one of the most popular players on the circuit and revered by his peers, Mitchell mainly plays in the UK and has dominated the London circuit at points in his career, yet never seemed to be in a period where he's on fire or in a slump.
Can either James Mitchell or Mihai Pop catch Day 1a Chip leader Arron Fletcher (535,000)? We'll find out tonight.
Player | Chips | Progress |
---|---|---|
James Mitchell |
400,000
100,000
|
100,000 |
Mihai Pop
|
366,000
45,000
|
45,000 |
Player | Chips |
---|---|
James Mitchell | 512,000 |
Mihai Pop | 412,500 |
Artan Dedusha | 343,000 |
Shlomo Dubnov | 241,500 |
Ion Albu | 235,000 |
Lotfi Boughanmi | 229,500 |
Micheal Harb | 218,000 |
Marios Nicolau | 208,500 |
Dan Moldova | 207,500 |
Money Singh | 204,500 |
Petrit Papushi | 203,000 |
Bradley Joyce | 198,000 |
Thomas Pederse | 196,000 |
Paul Muehlthale | 179,000 |
Sorie Kamara | 161,500 |
Parvez Ahmed | 161,000 |
Emilio De Angelis | 149,500 |
Hristo Georgiev | 149,500 |
Mohammed Ullah | 142,000 |
Trevor Bulless | 137,500 |
Thissa Desilva | 135,000 |
Andrzej Dubaj | 132,500 |
Leon Cambell | 130,000 |
Nicola Montalbano | 127,000 |
Sakis Nicolaou | 123,000 |
Mark Davey | 117,000 |
Rodney French | 116,500 |
Jim Manlov | 109,000 |
Yimin Yang | 109,000 |
Ciprian Paunescu | 107,000 |
Paul Hun | 104,000 |
Paul Goul | 99,000 |
Carlos Gonzalez | 98,000 |
Aleksandrs Brics | 95,500 |
David Corkett | 94,500 |
Gladys Long | 91,000 |
Chuc Gia Khuu | 70,000 |
Warren Tolentino | 63,000 |
Edward Barton | 57,000 |
Joseph Chacholiades | 50,500 |
Paul Skipper | 50,500 |
James Mitchell (pictured, centre) finished top of the chip counts on Day 1b here at Aspers Casino in Stratford as the £100,000 opening event almost broke through the guarantee with a day to spare. 41 players survived to make Day 2 after some fantastic poker along the way.
With 275 entries meaning 451 overall, tomorrow's final Day 1 flight of Day 1c looks set to bring the prize-pool nearer the £150,000 mark. British pro and former Irish Open winner James Mitchell ended the night on 512,000 chips to reign supreme, a full 100,000 clear of Mihai Pop in second overall. Both players are still behind Graham Hawkes (515,000) and overall chip leader Arron Fletcher (535,000) from Day 1a.
Mihai Pop is still on top, as he seems destined to make Day in rude health, chips-wise. The monotone mauler has been silent but deadly all evening long and just won a cooler of a hand to leapfrog James Mitchell at the top of the leaderboard.
While James Mitchell accrued his chip lead courtesy of a series of smaller, less-newsworthy pots, Mihai Pop had one big win to propel him up the leaderboard. Reaching the turn with , Pop called the all-in move of his opponent on a board showing and was behind to pocket fours, but an ace on the river gave him a massive 300,000-chip pot and he never looked back.
While many players made it through to Day 2 with great chip-stacks, such as Artan Dedusha (343,000), Lofti Boughanmi (229,500) and Parvez Ahmed (161,000), others were eliminated before the final 13th level. Late in the day, we lost Aspers regulars Anthony Hardy and Vinnie Anderson, the latter after surviving several levels at ten big blinds or lower.
Shane Rouine seemed destined to double his way back into contention, but couldn't get any value from and soon ran out of cards thereafter to bust late on.
Raheem Tadj-Saadat led the field halfway through the flight, after bullying his way to victory with against two players pre-flop. the opponent who called did so with and the one who folded ditched pocket tens....and would have made quads by the river.
"Why didn't you call?" was Tadj-Saadat's tongue-in-cheek question, but the last laugh was not to be his as he failed to make the overnight chip counts.
Players will have one final chance from 2.00pm GMT on Saturday as flight 1c takes place a little earlier than on Thursday and Friday. With the 888Live Poker Room full to bursting on Friday, we can only expect the same tomorrow. Whoever survives as chip leader in the room may well lead the way into Day 2.
£220 Opening Event
Day 1b Completed