The result: Down to the final table, which will reconvene at 2 pm tomorrow local time.
The verdict: It's been a very interesting day of play from some of the top players of the game(s). And an earlier finish than we anticipated. The bar is still serving the mojitos, which Mssrs. Vos and Rayan Nathan vouch for, and it's a lovely summer night here in London town. Thumbs up.
As we await the final departure of the day, I couldn't help but listen in on Mark Vos' curious post-exit interview. Admittedly rather intoxicated, Mark Vos retold the tale of Dalby's slow roll and subsequent chuckle with the quad tens versus Vos' kings.
At one point, Vos described how he was feeling by using three words that I cannot repeat in writing, and ones that got progressively worse.
"Oh, I apologise, I'm a little drunk," confessed Vos, girlfriend in arms, as the TD requested his hush-hush whilst simultaneously aghast at the cheeky profanity.
"Wooooooooo," exhales a relieved Jan Sorensen as he survives a hand with the hard-to-pronounce and always forcing me to use the copy-and-paste buttons, Yuval Bronshtein.
With the board reading and the shiny cream plaque on the table informing me that the game is Omaha/8, all the chips fly in on the turn with Jan calling all in to Yuval's reraise.
Yuval =
Jan =
River =
... and Sorensen survives the dangerous, gulp-inducing flush draw for a split pot.
With nine players remaining, one of these players will not be coming back tomorrow for the televised final table. Jan Sorensen is currently the short stack, but the two-time bracelet winner is holding strong. No stranger to the specialist games, this Dane has bracelets in both Pot-Limit Omaha and Seven-Card Stud.
After forming a long-standing relationship with the felt, Eric Dalby has finally departed at the hands of Kirk Morrison in a Razz battle, the New Zealander calling three bets, the final one an all-in from the local lad.
Although the Kiwi Kid was reluctant to call the final bet, it was almost obligatory, but by the final card it was Dalby who required a miracle, looking for an ace or a deuce to stay in the competition. Unfortunately for the Brit, neither arrived and we're a wily veteran down.
Dalby = [][][]
Morrison = [][][]
"Thank you gentleman," said Dalby as he rose to his feet. "Good luck on the final table."
Gary Jones and Yuval Bronshtein have kind of taken over the Stud/8 round, playing just each other in hefty pots. Firstly, point to The Choirboy as he bets Bronshtein off holding (X-X) (his opponent folding (X-X) ).
Then an admittedly larger pot changed hands the other way, as Yuval Bronshtein bet hard on sixth street with their hands looking like:
Bronshtein: (X-X)
Jones: (X-X)
Yuval Bronshtein checked in the dark as the river came to each of them, and Gary Jones checked behind, wearily announcing, "Two pair." Unsurprisingly more perky, Bronshtein responded, "Full house," revealing the lurking in his hand.
Gary Jones rearranged his 47K stack, looking weedy in comparison to Bronshtein's towers, and his expression set Yuval off into a concise sum-up of what his opponent could be thinking: "You're good; I'm bad. I'm lucky; you're not." It was all with a smile, though.
Nope, I'm not talking about the British police force, but German online wizard Thomas "Buzzer" Bihl who's still running strong in this HORSE event with 93,000 in chips.
A quiet, reserved kind of chap, Buzzer is really one of those guys who just gets on with it without so much as a murmur. However, that may be because he's more used to playing in silence from the comfort of his own armchair at home. His prolific online record is enough to make even the strongest of online pros weep into their soup and cry, "I wish I was as good as him."
Buzzer's skills lie predominantly in STTs, but he is also a talented tournament player with an array of lucrative wins including 250K in the big Party Poker competition just weeks before the 2005 World Series. Not bad for a day at the office, and he certainly shouldn't be overlooked here.