Well this was certainly the most aggressive game to date with the Heads-Up phase of the game being reached in just 90 minutes of play.
The first big hand of the night involved League Leader Brian Yates and the man holding up the rest, Paul Foy.
On a board of th
ts kc td Paul raised and Brian re-raised. Paul tanked before making a brave call with
and Brian was down to 1700.
Soon after the two Steves, Redfern and Bayliff, clashed. Steve bet, Scouse raised, Steve shoved all-in and Scouse made the call with th tc but against Steve"s :as: ac he was a big underdog, especially as Mark Eagles had passed ts td and so Scouse exited in 9th position.
The car-crash hands continued as Tony Trippier raised, Andy Overton re-raised, Tony 4-bet and Andy shoved so when Tony made the call and the cards were flipped, it was no surprise to see Andy"s kd kh up against the :as: ad of Mr Tony "Unlucky" Trippier and the bullets held to send Andy to the rail.
Tony and Steve went to war when Steve called Tony"s pre-flop raise to 240 and the flop came kh tc
. Tony bet 300 and Steve made it 960, with Tony making the call. the turn and river came :
: jc and when Steve bet 1740, Tony insta-called but his :as: kd was miles behind Steve"s
and he moved to 11,000 while Tony slipped to 1700.
New BCPC Champion Clive Padden had been quiet so far but when Mark Eagles 3-bet all-in with ah kc , Clive made the call with his
and we were off to the races. Mark though has run like a Dog so far in this League and a board of
:
:
jd qc saw him out in 7th and rooted to the bottom now as the only player yet to trouble the scorers this season.
League leader Brian saw his quest for the Hat-Trick ended by new nemesis Paul Foy, despite the board of
th qs
looking pretty good for Brian"s :as: qh ...but not when Paul had ah ac .
Clive looked good when all-in with ac qs on a board of ad qd jh
but Stevie luckbox got there on the river when the
made his ah th the best hand and so Clive became another victim of the "Curse of the A-Q".
Steve was smashing this game now and his :as: :
: put Tony"s ah
to sleep on a td :
:
flop and so Tony picked up 5pts but no cash.
Will was now guarranteed to remain 2nd in the table while both Paul and Steve had come into this game with zero points.
Shortstacked Will battled gamely and got his double-up with ah
against Paul"s kd js but when they went to battle a 2nd time, Paul got lucky when his :
: kc , behind to Will"s
qs on a flop of :
:
td took the lead by making trips on the turn when the :
: binked and the river sent Will out in 3rd with 7pts.
The Heads-Up battle was a monster, lasting just over an hour with Steve unable to see off Paul"s stubborn resistance.
The inevitable big hand though, wasn"t big at all but on a board of
:
: it all went in and Paul"s
was behind to Steve"s jc
and the turn
and river ah blanked to leave Steve with 24500 to Paul"s 570 chips and soon after it was all over and Steve Redfern had his first Premier League win while Paul"s fine 2nd place gave him 9 pts to get him off and running for the Season.
POS PLD PTS F/T CHIPS
1 BRIAN YATES 3 25 5000
2 WILL YOUNG 3 17 3400
3 STEVE REDFERN 2 12 2400
4 TONY TRIPPIER 2 12 2400
5 ROB HEWLITT 2 10 2000
6 ANDY OVERTON 2 9 1800
7 PAUL FOY 3 9 1800
8 TOD WOOD 2 7 1400
9 CLIVE PADDEN 2 3
10 STEVE BAYLIFF 2 2
11 ANEURIN VENABLES 2 0
12 MARK EAGLES 3 0
Next Wednesday sees the first short-handed game of the season with Will Young looking for the 10pts for victory that would see him take over at the top of the table while Mark Eagles will look to braek his duck as 5 of the 6 players will score points.