We are now getting to the business end of the first BCPC Premier League season and what a great game we saw last night and by the end of it, all 12 players were left with something to play for with just 4 games left until the live Finals in July.
The winner of the previous game had been Mark Eagles and the 10 points gained then had lifted him into a play-off spot but he got the harshest of lessons in why you don"t slow-play your sets tonight.
With 3 players in the pot on a flop of jc qd :
: Mark was holding qs qh but he failed to re-raise Will Young and did the same on the
turn so when the ks hit the river Will was a happy bunny holding ts
and Mark exited in 9th and moved out of the top 8.
At the first break, both Andy Overton and Tony Trippier were struggling while Clive Padden held the chip-lead as he went in search of his first cash of the season and it would be Andy and Tony, both players who are sitting comfortably in the top 4, who would be the next two to exit and score zero points.
The man who took them both out was Tod Wood, himself now struggling at the foot of the table and looking for vital points.
When Tony got the chips in pre-flop holding ah jd Tod made the call with ad th but it looked for all the world like Tod had escaped with a split-pot as the board came
until the td sent Tony to the rail and out of the points for the first time ever.
For Andy this was a night to forget. He hardly played a hand and when he did he lost, so when he picked up
:as: ks it was an easy shove, but even then his luck was out as Tod woke up with qc qh and with the board coming down J-high, Andy was gone in 7th.
Tod now had the taste for blood and got it on an innocuous looking
:
: flop. Tod bet, Steve Bayliff raised and Tod shoved. Scouse dwelt for a while before calling with ah
against Tod"s
and when the board ended with jc qd Scouse became another notch on Tod"s lengthening list of conquests.
Aneurin Venables has so far fallen asleep when heads-up, forgotten to turn up at all last Sunday and tonight he was late due to a bowls game (!).....but he did make the points but shoving with :
: jd maybe wasn"t the best idea, even on a
:
:
flop against Clive Padden"s qd
as a
on the river saw him leave in 5th place.
That left us with 2 guys in the top 4 (Brian Yates and Will Young) taking on the bottom 2 (Clive and Tod) and it was Brian who was first at risk but his :as: ks outflopped Tod"s jh jc to give him a double-up but when Will had the same hand against Clive"s qc qd he was not so lucky and left in 4th, although with enough points to keep his grip on the lead of the Premier League.
So all 3 players were in the money but Brian was seriously short so seeing Tod raise, Brian insta-shoved his :as: ac and Tod had the odds to call with his jd ts . A th on the flop gave Tod hope but the tc on the river gave him another knockout.
That meant that the bottom two in the League were now Heads-Up and whoever won, that meant that the League points would now tighten up and make for an exciting climax to the Season.
The pivotal hand came with Tod shoving his ad
and Clive making the call with
and the
meant that Clive was our winner to make his first cash of the season.
POS PLD PTS CHIPS CASH LG ODDS
1 WILL YOUNG 7 45 9000 $238 9-4
2 BRIAN YATES 6 42 8400 $266 9-4
3 ANDY OVERTON 9 36 7200 $224 6-1
4 TONY TRIPPIER 8 34 6800 $36 4-1
5 ROB HEWLITT 8 31 6200 $32 8-1
6 STEVE BAYLIFF 7 27 5400 $98 6-1
7 TOD WOOD 7 26 5200 $126 10-1
8 STEVE REDFERN 6 25 5000 $170 6-1
9 ANEURIN VENABLES 8 22 $96 ---
10 MARK EAGLES 7 21 $100 16-1
11 PAUL FOY 8 20 $104 ----
12 CLIVE PADDEN 6 18 $90 20-1
The next game is 6-handed on Wednesday May 18th.
That will see 3 of the top 4 in action as Will, Tony and Brian lock horns once more and the pressure will be on Tony, playing his penultimate game of the Season.
Steve Redfern has the games in hand to get moving up the table while this week"s top 2, Tod and Clive, return to try and repeat last night"s fine performance.
