Our 4th season got underway last night with 25 players, including 3 newcomers and 2 players who missed last season returning to the fold.
Ant Williams became the first casualty of the season to get his name on the "Shirt Of Shame" and he was quickly followed by Season 3 Champion Nathan Harris and the returning Darren Hooper.
Down to 2 tables and Joey Williams shoved over the top of Brian Yates" pre-flop raise with kd kc. Brian reluctantly called with ac
and Joey looked safe on a blank board until the ad dropped on the river to eliminate Joey in 19th.
Out in 18th went Richard Davies before we then saw the first monster hand of the night. Short-stack Paul Foy shoved with kc qd and got called by qc qs and newcomer Mick Bacciocchi also called with ac jh and got very lucky when a flopped ace gave him a monster pot.
Mick"s Son Adam was then eliminated by Matt McKinlay who was now accumulating chips and becoming very active and it wasn"t long before we were down to the Final Table.
This was possibly the toughest FT we have ever seen at the BCPC with the participants boasting 11 APAT medals and 5 Titles between them and it took a while before anyone was eliminated. Maxine McKinlay was the short-stack and shoved all-in and Matt called behind, only for Andy Overton to shove over the top. Matt had the odds to call and did so with his
and Max was in good shape there with her
......but neither was looking good against
Andy with his ks kh and Brian announced that he had passed kd
The flop though was an incredible
tc leavind an incredulous Andy with ONE out. The turn was
and td on the river pleased Matt as he then split the pot. Andy exited stage left !!
Rob Hewlitt was now short and his shove with
got no help against Marcel Furet"s ac kh and Rob left in 9th while Maxine left in 8th when her ac
was no match for Steve Redfern with :
: :
: on a board of ks qh qd th
.
An UTG raise by Marcel got called by Matt and when the flop came
:
: tc Marcel shoved with ac
and Matt insta-called with his slow-played js jh and Marcel was gone in 7th.
Brian was now short-stack and shoved blind and Matt called and showed ac js and Brian sheepishly turned over jc
. The flop changed everything :
:
and the turn of
sealed Brian"s double-up and he followed that by shoving over Matt's raise and causing him to fold on the very next hand.
Tod Wood and Brian then went to war, Tod pushing with tc qh and Brian making the call with ad js. The flop hit both players :as: qs :
: but the ac on the turn sealed Tod"s exit and suddenly Brian was well chipped-up.
Matt though, after earlier passing th ts to a Will Young shove, got it in with tc
on a td
board but Steve Redfern held jh js and while the
turn gave Matt the straight draw, he hit it with the
and that gave Steve the BIGGER straight to decimate Matt's stack.
What happened next though was just sick as..........well......you know !!
Matt shoves with kc jd and Will calls with a similar ks jc. Surely a split, especially when Brian announced a pass of kh
and Steve jh
??
Well the flop came
followed by a turn of :
: and yes, there it was, :
: on the river. You just had to feel for Matt and for once he was almost speechless !! He was gone next hand When Will finished him off with A-Q against A-2 to finish in 5th spot.
Steve then made a raise with ah
and felt he had to call when Brian shoved with jd js .The flop looked good for Steve qh
qd and the turn
left Brian with 1 out which didn"t come.
That meant that either Will, Steve or Malcolm Howell would join Marcel as the only 3-time BCPC winners and when Malc went out in 3rd, Stevel had a decent chip-lead. That changed when it all went in on a
kd th flop with Will holding qd
for the flush draw while Steve"s
gave him the up-and-down straight draw. Steve hit his draw with the
on the turn but the jd on the river put Will well ahead and soon after it was all over.
The flop of
ah jh hit both Will with his ks qs and Steve"s td
and the
gave Steve extra outs but the
meant that they had both missed and so Will"s King sealed the win and stopped Steve from becoming the first player to win back-to-back BCPC games.