The new season opened with a few veterans sitting out this one (Marcel Furet, Steve Freer and Mick Wells), a few old faces returning to the fold (Debjani and Andy Duncan plus Paul Melia) and a World Champion newcomer(Charles Mason).
On the night, no fewer than SIX players were absent for various reasons so just 15 players sat down and it would be a new name on the "Shirt Of Shame" as Malcolm Howell shoved with ac qh on a Q-high flop and was called by Steve Redfern with qs
only for the
to hit the river to leave Malcolm out and muttering something about bad calls and fish.
Paul Melia had improved his profile with a terrific performance at the BCPC Team Championships when he top scored to take down the Individual Title but it was an early exit tonight as it was for Ant Williams and Tony Trippier.
When Andy Overton also exited after shoving with kh
and getting called by Charles Mason with ad qc AND by Richard Davis with :as: ac that meant that of the 7 players who won seats in Season Five, only Matt McKinlay was in the points for Week One of the new campaign.
Matt had struggled during the first level when his aggression failed to intimidate Charles to his immediate left and Matt had lost half his stack in the first ten minutes, maybe a little disconcerted by his drinking orange juice all night following a rather painful operation during the week (ouch !!)
The Final Table bubble saw Rob Hewlitt go when he shoved his short-stack with jh :
: and Mark Eagles was priced in and made the call with
and an
on the flop sealed Rob"s fate.
The Final Table opened with not some much a bang as a thunderclap !......Debjani Duncan shoved with qd qs and Charles made the call with
. Brian Yates passed :
: :
: and Matt passed tc td but Richard Davis called with kc ks meaning that Ant Williams had dealt 5 pocket-pairs in a row !
The board came down
:
: jc
and so Richard trebled up and Deb left in 9th with Charles in 8th.
Andy Duncan then doubled-up through Steve Redfern to leave him short and that prompted his shove with kh :
: and Mark Eagles called with ah
.The familiar "luckbox" cry went up as the flop came kd td
but the
gave Mark trips and Steve was gone.
Paul Foy had nursed his small stack into 6th spot before shoving ah ks and getting a call from Matt holding ac
and also from Mark and his ks kd and the board was no help to anyone to send Paul to the rail.
Brian Yates decided to FLAB (Fold Like A Bri) to a shove after raising with 7-7 but then decided a shove was the order of the day with kh
but Richard had :as: tc and Bri left in 5th and when a deal was cut, it gave Richard Davis his first EVER BCPC cash at the 22nd attempt and meant that of the 4 players remaining, 3 were chasing there first ever BCPC victory.
That was not to be for Andy Duncan who ran tc jd into Matt's ad qh and Matt then quickly became the big-stack when his ah
outdrew Richard"s :as: jd on a
jh
th :
: to devastate Richard"s hopes.
Matt quickly finished him off to go Heads-Up with Mark Eagles and when Mark shoved with jd
Matt called BLIND.....and turned over qs qc !!
It looked like Matt's night until the flop came
jh
to give Mark 2 pair but the
turn and
river counterfeited that 2-pair and Matt was the winner - the first 4-time BCPC winner and it also sent him to No.1 in the new BCPC rankings.
WEEK ONE TABLE
POS PTS
1 MATT McKINLAY 15
2 MARK EAGLES 12
3 RICHARD DAVIS 10
4 ANDY DUNCAN 8
5 BRIAN YATES 6
6 PAUL FOY 5
7 STEVE REDFERN 4
8 CHARLES MASON 3
9 DEBJANI DUNCAN 2
10 ROB HEWLITT 1
11= ANDY OVERTON 0
11= TONY TRIPPIER 0
11= ANT WILLIAMS 0
11= PAUL MELIA 0
11= DARREN HOOPER 0
11= TOD WOOD 0
11= CLIVE PADDEN 0
11= CHRIS BAKER 0
11= MAXINE McKINLAY 0
20 MALCOLM HOWELL 0
