Former UKIPT winner Robbie Bull had a bad start early on but has just doubled up through William Chattaway. On the turn of a board, Bull had bet 3,100 but found himself being min-raised to 6,200.
Bull tanked for several minutes before finally moving all in for 10,125 and Chattaway was reluctantly forced to call the rest.
Bull:
Chattaway:
The river was the and Bull doubled back up over his starting stack.
Three players including Johnny Lodden and Mark Vinsky took a flop of . Lodden was first to act and he checked over to Vinsky. Vinsky fired 1,600 and the player on the button came along for the ride. Lodden, however, had different plans as he slid out a check-raise to 5,600.
This raise put Vinsky in the tank for well over two minutes before he ultimately decided to ditch his cards. The button quickly followed suit and Lodden was pushed the pot. The Team PokerStars Pro now has about 44,500 to his name.
It’s a low key day in London today. Sundays typically start this way. For one thing you can drive through the city relatively unmolested, at least until about lunch time. That’s when open season begins again, and the roads clog up again with cars, buses, sirens and people who need to get somewhere. But for a few blissful hours before then though, the city is peaceful and relatively empty.
The start of the EPT London Main Event has been similarly low key, although it’s not that the Grand Connaught Rooms are short of players, as the PokerStars Blog reports.
After an unknown open from the cutoff, action folded over to Barny Boatman in the small blind. He three-bet to 1,425 and Maximos Pertsinidis called out of the big blind. The original raiser let his hand go, leaving the duo heads up to a flop.
Boatman continued for 1,500 on the flop and Pertsinidis instantly flung forward a call. The hit the turn, pairing the board and eliciting a check from Boatman. Pertsinidis took this opportunity to cut out a bet of 3,000. Boatman riffled chips for a bit, pondering his action. Ultimately, he tossed out a call and watched as the completed the board. He checked the river and Pertsinidis knuckled the table in reply.
Boatman confidently rolled over , Pertsinidis mucked his cards, and Boatman took down the pot. He's still under starting stack with about 22,000, but this victory has his stack trending in the proper direction.
"It's pretty easy when you keep flopping sets," said James Dempsey, alluding to the 70,000 chip stack he'd already amassed. "I flopped a set, he flopped top pair, had already lost half his stack and didn't really want to play anymore."
We're up to 203 registered played for Day 1a right after the first break of the day and five have already been knocked out. As it is a custom on the European Poker Tour all Main Events are freeze-out tournaments, so those five will not be back in this event at a later stage.
Last year 209 players entered on Day 1a and with 389 players on Day 1b the event had a total of 604 entries. Here's a look at the numbers of the last few seasons of EPT London.
Javed Abrahams opened to 600 preflop in the small blind and David Vamplew called. Both players checked the flop before Abrahams fired 400 on the turn. Vamplew made the call and they both checked the river.