PokerStars apparantly do not have the technology to NOT put us on a table where we don"t have to have a 10-minute wait for any latecomers so we all decided to sit-out until we were balanced 9-handed onto 1 table.....all that is except for Clive Padden.....who, having not got the message, preceeded to raise every hand as all the rest were sat out !
After some frantic phone calls we got him to dump the chips back and we were finally off and running....except for the new England "B" Captain, who decided to turn up fashionably late for his Premier League debut.
Paul Foy took an early lead but then soon after we saw a jc 5h jd flop and Paul bet and Brian Yates called. Paul bet the 7d turn and also the 9c river, when Briand re-raised. Paul called with his qd jh only to see Brian"s 9d 9h for the rivered Full-House !
Clive Padden then got busy on a board of td jh qs tc but Mark Eagles shoved all-in with his kh qh and Clive called with 5h qd and the river was no help, leaving him down to less than 1k.
After that it became almost a Heads-Up battle between Clive and Tod Wood for the first hour.
Will Young raised to 125, Clive made it 350, Tod 4-bet to 850 to get Will out of the way but Clive shoved his :as: ah and Tod"s 9d 9c didn"t improve.....Clive was back.
Round two saw Clive with 9d 9c against Tod"s ah qs but an Ace on the flop knocked Clive back once more.
Clive shoved them all-in once again on a 4s jd 5h board and it looked bad when both Mark and Steve Bayliff called him. The turn brought the 4c and river was ah. Mark showed ts tc and Steve had kc jh but Clive, the massive underdog on the flop, hit the river with his ac 9c to triple-up to almost his 3k starting stack.
Clive and Tod went toe-to-toe once more on a horrible looking board of 5s jd td jc js and Clive"s meaty river bet with 7c 7h was called by Tod with ad qc to see Clive take the chip-lead !
Just after the first break, Clive bet and Mark shoved for his last 860. Clive made the call with 9h kh to Mark"s ad qc. the flop of 8h 5h 7d left Clive with plenty of outs and the 6c on the turn saw Mark become the first player out.
Clive and Tod continued to mix it up but this time it was Tod"s turn to win when his qs qh held up vs Clive"s 6s 6h
Clive was still reeling from that hit when he called Rob Hewlitt"s shove with 5d 5s and found himself favourite as Rob flipped ac jc but this time it was Clive"s turn to feel the force of the river when the board came down
kh :2h: :3c: 9c ah and suddenly he was down to 1700 chips.
This extrordinary game continued in the same vein as Clive, holding ks qh called Rob"s all-in, only to see ac ah .....the flop was little help td :3s: 6c the turn gave hope 9h ...and of course the river hit Clive jh and yet again, "The Cat" used up another life !
Aneurin Venables had been by far the quietest player on the table and when he finally got them in with qd ac Steve Bayliff made the call and his 7h 7c held to send Aneurin out in 8th place.
The next big hand saw Will make a pre-flop raise from the blinds and Paul Foy called. The board came 6c 9s :2d: and when Will bet, Paul shoved over the top. Will was never folding jd jc and Paul"s 9c tc failed to improve and he exited in 7th place.
Clive Padden had led a charmed life tonight but even the luckiest players can get good hands so when he re-raised Brian Yates with ah ac he was delighted to get a call. Clive bet the tc 9c td flop but Brian shoved all-in with jc qc and was almost 50-50 at that stage. The turn was :3h: but the river, the card that had helped Clive stay alive the whole night, finally killed him 7c and he was out in 6th spot with 1 point.
Steve Bayliff was left desperately short when Tod"s :3d: 4c rivered two-pair and although he doubled-up next hand to 905, he was then forced all-in and got three callers and it was Tod who won the hand to put Steve out in 5th with 2 points.
Rob Hewlitt hardly put a foot wrong all game but after getting those Aces cracked, he then saw his ac qs shove called by Tod with qc th and the 9h 4d ts flop was enough to see off Rob in 4th spot to give him back-to-back money-bubble finishes.
Will and Tod then contested the next big hand and following a raise, 3-bet and call, we saw a flop of td 4d kc and Tod moved his remaining 6k over the top of Wills 1800 bet. Will tanked but made the call with kh jc and Tod flipped :as: qc and the board was of no help and so Tod left in 3rd with his first points finish and $36.
Will went into the Heads-Up with a massive lead of 21,000 to Brian"s 6000 and dominated the early exchanges. But Brian was then unlucky when he got it in with kc 8h to Will"s kd :2d: on a kh 6s 4c board only to then see the board run out js 4d for a split.
Brian did finally manage a double-up and then began to take control to the extent that Will was now the one with just 5000 chips. After almost half-an-hour of Heads-Up, Brian shoved the 7s qs :3d: flop holding qh th and Will had to make the call with qc :2c: The turn and river blanked and so Brian Yates completed back-to-back victories to take a commanding early lead and leave Tony Trippier, who had backed Will to win tonight at 5-1, slightly out of pocket :)
PREMIER LEAGUE 1
WEEK TWO TABLE
POS PLD PTS
1 BRIAN YATES 2 24
2 WILL YOUNG 2 10
3 ROB HEWLITT 2 10
4 ANDY OVERTON 1 9
5 TONY TRIPPIER 1 7
5 TOD WOOD 2 7
7 STEVE BAYLIFF 1 2
7 ANEURIN VENABLES 2 2
9 CLIVE PADDEN 1 1
10 MARK EAGLES 1 0
10 STEVE REDFERN 1 0
10 PAUL FOY 2 0