Julian Herold opened the preflop betting round with a raise from under the gun. A couple of folds later and Tony Marmolle flat-called. Play then folded around to Charlie Combes in the small blind and he raised to 3,200. Both players called, although the dealer initially thought Herold had raised due to the number of chips he used to call,
With the confusion out of the way, the dealer placed the flop onto the felt. Combes made a continuation bet of 5,000 and both active opponents quickly relinquished their hands.
Combes is a very talented poker player who goes by the name of "chaz_man_chaz" and "JIZOINT" in online poker circles. It is in the online arena that Combes has had his best results. It is also where he has over $3,500,000 in tournament cashes too. Can he replicate his online form here on the hallowed turf of Wembley Stadium? Only time will tell.
We have two French players at the top of our leader boards at the moment and they have over 400,000 chips between them!
Juen Alban started the day as the overall chip leader with 187,500 chips and he has managed to add to his stack over the course of the first four levels. He is now armed with 230,000 and is easily the chip leader
Hot on his heels is Nicolas Cardyn on 180,000 chips. Cardyn has over $700,000 in live tournament winnings and will be hoping to add to that impressive total in London this week.
The action folded around to James Mitchell in the hijack seat and he set the price to play at a nice, round 900. This amount was only slightly more than a min-raise, but none of the active players wanted to tangle with him and he collected the blinds and antes.
Mitchell's largest cash of his career so far tops the scales at €600,000, which is €400,000 less than someone will win here this week. That massive sum of money was Mitchell's reward for winning the Irish Open back in 2010. Mitchell has had plenty of five-figure scores since then, most recently one worth €18,500 when he finished 49th in the EPT Grand Final Main Event.
Michael Mizrachi bought in for €3,000, had a massage and then went broke. We've heard he called a three-bet with and then got his stack in on a nine-high board only for his opponent to beat him with a pair of queens. With that, "The Grinder" is gone.
Chris Brammer's Day 2a hasn't gone quite to plan and he is heading for the exits.
Brammer got his chips into the middle with pocket jacks against a player who he said he had seen cold-four-bet and crack kings. The rather loose gentlemen woke up with aces against Brammer and the rest, as they say, is history.
We would be very surprised if Brammer did not re-enter on Saturday. Watch this space.
Young British Pro Matt Frankland is keeping active at the table today.
With blinds at 200 / 400 with an ante of 50, Frankland opened from the hi-jack for 1,200 and was called by the button and the big blind.
The flop brought The big blind checked and Frankland continued with a bet of 2,700. The button called but the big blind decided to get out of the way.
Turn was the Frankland checked and so did his opponent.
River the Check / check again and they show their cards with Frankland's not good enough against the of the button.
Just a small dent to his stack of over 100,000 but it prompted Frankland to offer his insight into the hand, “Might have had a chance there with three bullets.”
His opponent nodded his agreement, but there was no time for more introspection from Frankland as he opened again for 1,200 and took down the pot uncontested.
The board was reading and Dean Lyall had bet 3,000 on the end before Otto Richard made it a chunky 14,000 behind him. Lyall didn't like this and was debating the call for several minutes before eventually opting to flick in the extra 11,000. The Frenchman flipped over a bluffy and Lyall picked up the pot with .
Richard is down to about 12,000 while Lyall has roughly 70,000.
Freddy Deeb is a regularly visitor to London and he's running well here so far. Deeb bet 16,000 on the river of a board against Ross Murphy and the latter paid him off. Deeb showed for a rivered set and became one of the fabled stack that are already over the 100,000 mark.
Former tennis star Boris Becker has taken his seat in the ISPT Main Event and is hoping to serve up some bad beats at the felt. Becker won 49 major singles titles in his long and illustrious tennis career, now he is looking to bag his first major poker title here in London.
flop onto the felt. Combes made a continuation bet of 5,000 and both active opponents quickly relinquished their hands.
and then got his stack in on a nine-high board only for his opponent to beat him with a pair of queens. With that, "The Grinder" is gone.
and crack kings. The rather loose gentlemen woke up with aces against Brammer and the rest, as they say, is history.
The big blind checked and Frankland continued with a bet of 2,700. The button called but the big blind decided to get out of the way.
Frankland checked and so did his opponent.
not good enough against the 
of the button.
and Dean Lyall had bet 3,000 on the end before Otto Richard made it a chunky 14,000 behind him. Lyall didn't like this and was debating the call for several minutes before eventually opting to flick in the extra 11,000. The Frenchman flipped over a bluffy 
and Lyall picked up the pot with 
board against Ross Murphy and the latter paid him off. Deeb showed 
for a rivered set and became one of the fabled stack that are already over the 100,000 mark.
