Fantastic (if long!! ) day yesterday, finishing at 4:42am, our longest game ever at 14 hours and 1 minute !
32 runners generated a record BCPC prize-pool of £1600 with the top 6 getting paid.
First out in level one was Satman from Walsall with a flopped set against Tony Trippier"s flopped straight (Tony called a raise with 10-6 !!).
Other early casualties were...31st, Steve Freer (who preceeded to smash the cash game for the next 5 hours), 30th- Tosh from Walsall, 29th- Clive Padden, 28th- Debjani Duncan, 27th- Ash Wilson, 26th- Sidhu, a pub regular, 25th- Rob Hewlitt, 24th- Malcolm Howell and at this stage Tony Trippier led the way on 22,475 with Gary Peniket in 2nd on 20,475.
23rd was Richard Baker, making his debut at the BCPC, 22nd- Matt McKinlay, 21st- Joey Williams, 20th- Charles Mason, 19th- Maxine McKinlay, 18th- Matt Wilson and 17th....BCPC No.1 Tony Trippier to leave Chris Baker with a good chip lead on 38,850 with Steve Bayliff looking well-oiled and ominous in 2nd spot on 31,100 with both Stuart Slater and Graham Gorton in peril on just 5,600.
Simon Smith became a "Scouse" casualty on a 10-6-7 board after Scouse announced "I have to raise with 8-9" and turning over just that when Simon shoved on him !. Ant Williams left in 15th after a long struggle and Stuart Slater departed 14th with Stuart Langford the unlucky 13th out.
Scouse then got into a raising war with Paul Pitchford on an A-A-X flop. When Scouse shoved the river Paul asked "What do you think I have got?" and when Steve said "maybe A-5?", Paul insta-called.....with A-5, to eliminate Scouse and take a monster chip-lead on 60,000 with Andy Overton 2nd on 46,050 with Graham Gorton still short and still in on 8,900.
Gary Peniket left in 11th on a 7-6-3 board with pocket 6"s to Paul Pitchford"s pocket 7"s and Matt Wright bubbled the Final Table, knocked out by Brian Yates who was now 2nd in chips on 40,000...to Paul"s 139,000 !!!
The Final table would be a long one and Chris Baker was the first to leave before Andy Overton exited in 8th to bring us to the money-bubble.
Steve Smart was the guy who just missed out on a cash but at 3.03am after 12 hours and 22 minutes play, we lost 2 players in 3 minutes as Lee Smith from Sheffield just failed to add to his victory in the "Deepstacked Christmas Cracker", coming 6th for £80, quickly to be followed by Andy Duncan in 5th for £110.
Shortstacked for so long, Graham Gorton marked his BCPC debut with a 4th place finish for £160 at 3:14 before long-time monster-stack Paul Pitchford, possibly suffering from fatigue and certainly suffering from terrible cards late on, exited in 3rd place with £200.
That gave us an all BCPC Heads-Up battle between chip-leader Tod Wood and Deepstack I winner Brian Yates. The first big hand came when Brian raised with A-8 and Tod shoved. Brian decided to gamble and Tod flipped A-4 and an 8 in the door swapped leadership to Brian.
Tod then shoved 4 hands in a row but on the 5th, Brian spotted he hadn"t even picked his cards up when he announced "All-in!". Brian called with Q-9 and Tod flipped.....10-10....and it held !!
On the very next hand, Bri limped with A-10 and the flop came A-2-9. Bri checked, Tod bet, Bri shoved and Tod called with 3-9. Turn came 4 and river...5....and Brian Yates took £350 for 2nd but Tod Wood is BCPC Deepstack II Champion, winning £700
