2014 PokerStars.com UKIPT Isle of Man Day 2: Darren Woods Cooks His Way to the Lead
Darren Woods, a man more used to preparing and cooking food than making massive bets in poker, will be taking a huge lead into Day 3 of the UKIPT Isle of Man Main Event. Woods, who is a chef by trade, played what seemed to be 90 percent of hands, constantly making big over bets and putting other players at risk in each and every hand. The problem for everyone else was that more often than not, Woods had the goods.
With 40 players coming back on the penultimate day, Woods finished on 907,500 in chips, which would be enough for him to make the final table at this point. This is around four and a half times the current average, but Woods' admittedly high-variance game will certainly make his table exciting tomorrow.
Other big stacks to make it through included Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Martins Adeniya, who finished the day with 448,500, and Simon Deadman.
Deadman eliminated Shahid Hussain and Paul Febers in the same hand with the K♥K♠ against the A♥9♦ and A♠Q♥, respectively, and he will come back tomorrow with a healthy 375,500.
PokerStars SportStar Fatima Moreira de Melo finished with 58,500, having cashed once again in the event she came second in last year. Also making the money and through to Day 3 were Adrienne Rowsome (227,000), Team PokerStars Pro Victoria Coren Mitchell (77,500), as well as Rational Group staff member Lee Jones (120,000). Towards the end of play, Coren Mitchell was running across to the £2,000 High Roller, playing both events at the same time, knowing that the Main Event was going to be finishing relatively early.
The day did not go so well for some of the other members of Team PokerStars. Mickey Petersen, of PokerStars Team Online, was one of the very first casualties of the day, losing with king-queen to ace-king. Likewise, Team PokerStars Pros Jake Cody, Chrisophe De Meulder, and Luca Pagano couldn't get anything going and were also eliminated early on from the Main Event. Team Online's Vicente Delgado, Full Tilt Poker Ambassador Dermot Blain, and Sam Grafton were also amongst the exits.
Tomorrow the tournament will be playing down to the final table of eight, however long that may take. Everyone still in the tournament is now guaranteed a minimum of £1,660, but it's the first-place prize of £65,900 and the trophy that they'll all be aiming for.
The live stream will be introduced with cards face down and a feature table from noon onward on PokerStars.tv, so be sure to check that out.
And don't forget, you can join the PokerNews Live Reporting team at 12 p.m. local time once again as this tournament heads towards its final stretch.
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