Nível: 54
Blinds: 2,500,000/5,000,000
Ante: 50,000
Nível: 54
Blinds: 2,500,000/5,000,000
Ante: 50,000
Mateusz Rypulak raised it up to 9M with from middle position. Stephen Chidwick defended his big blind with , and the two of them saw an flop. Chidwick opted for a check-call of 8M, leaving himself only 26,900,000 behind.
The turn was everything Chidwick hoped for, and the Brit instantly made the call when Rypulak put him all-in. Rypulak were looking to improve on the river to get the knock-out, but it wasn't to be. The river made Chidwick a full house, and the shortest stack of the final table secured an early double.
Jogador | Fichas | Progresso |
---|---|---|
Mateusz Rypulak | 202,800,000 | |
Stephen Chidwick | 93,000,000 | |
|
The action folded around to Mateusz Rypulak on the button, and he made it 9M to go. The other Golden Chip holder, Jacob Mulhern, found in the small blind and came over the top for 23M. Maria Lampropoulou quickly got out of the way in the big blind, and after a bit of deliberation, Rypulak opted for the fold.
Jogador | Fichas | Progresso |
---|---|---|
Mateusz Rypulak |
247,900,000
-9,400,000
|
-9,400,000 |
Jacob Mulhern |
236,800,000
15,800,000
|
15,800,000 |
Nível: 53
Blinds: 2,000,000/4,000,000
Ante: 400,000
The cards were supposed to be in the air by now but between players having their pictures taken and the TV crew getting ready there's been a slight delay. Don't worry, the final table action should be underway any minute now.
Much of the interest before the partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Main Event final has been in both ladies who have reached the final eight. One of the women with the million pound top prize in their sights is 34-year-old Katie Swift. The mother of one also runs a cafe business on the coast down in Kent and her family is right here on the rail supporting her.
"I don't really feel nervous, it's quite strange," she told us. "I only really felt it when I saw my Mum and Dad were here, along with my husband. Other than that moment though, I feel quite detached."
Swift has got to know most of her table opponents, and has armed herself with information.
"The way I see it, it's like having a toolbox and over the week I've been filling it up. I have the call, raise, check-raise, and I just need to know when to put each tool to use against each opponent. I've not been on the feature table until now, so while I've seen some of the players play, they haven't seen me. It's all situational, though, so we'll just have to see how it goes."
The cafe business is being run in her absence - no one is waiting on a bacon sandwich on the South coast - but Katie admits the paperwork is stacking up just like her chips have been in this record-breaking event.
"I do all the accounts, the paperwork, everything like that, so it's been left to pile up a bit this week, but I've been blown away by the messages of support I've received. Everyone has been so lovely, and honestly that's affected me far more than the poker itself. I'm really looking forward to it."
Katie Swift has been in the zone for four days and looks the same right now with the final about to start. Focused, of course, but also an odd blend of being a little detached from the room and zoned into doing everything she can to take down the trophy. It would be the second trophy her family have won this week.
"Our little boy won his cup final and I couldn't be more proud. Two trophies for the family this weekend would be great."
Swift's rail is by far the most vocal and everyone behind her on the rail seems as nice as Katie herself. There's no doubt that she would be a very popular winner both in the room and across the UK live poker circuit.
It has been an incredible five days at the UK's home of poker, Dusk Till Dawn Nottingham, where hundreds of players have given it their all in this partypokerLIVE Millions Main Event. Today is the day they've all been hoping to reach, as the final eight players will battle it out for the trophy, the glory and the £1 million winners check.
Leading the field coming into the final is Poland's Mateusz Rypulak with 257,300,000, but not far behind is UK's Jacob Mulhern 221,000,000. In third is one of the two remaining women left in the field, Maria Lampropoulou, who managed to bag up 194,700,000 thanks to a late night double up against partypoker online qualifier Katie Swift.
Also in the field is British poker pro Stephen Chidwick. He started Day 4 with a mere 2.5 big blinds, but in an incredible turn of events, the Brit more than tripled his stack in the very first hand of the day and never looked back. Chidwick is looking to do the same today as he's beginning the final table as the short stack with 45,500,500 — 11 big blinds.
Final Table Seat Assignments
Seat | Player | Country | Chip Count | Big Blinds |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Mateusz Rypulak | Poland | 257,300,000 | 64 |
2 | Jacob Mulhern | United Kingdom | 221,000,000 | 55 |
3 | Maria Lampropoulou | Argentina | 194,700,000 | 48 |
4 | Jeremy Pantin | Trinidad & Tobago | 157,100,000 | 39 |
5 | Jon Spinks | United Kingdom | 108,100,000 | 27 |
6 | Stephen Chidwick | United Kingdom | 45,500,000 | 11 |
7 | Katie Swift | United Kingdom | 171,500,000 | 42 |
8 | Neel Murthy | USA | 93,200,000 | 23 |
Each of the eight finalists has locked up £72,935 for their efforts, but with a cool one million pound sterling for the winner, there's still all the reasons for the players to make today count. Even a single pay jump will at this stage of the tournament mean a difference of ten or even hundreds of thousands of pounds, thus guaranteeing an exciting and hard fought final table.
As if one million pound sterling wouldn't be motivation enough, there is even more at stake for two of the remaining players. Thanks to their advancements in Punta Cana late last year, Mateusz Rypulak and Jacob Mulhern are participating in a Golden Chip Last Longer, and the last one standing of the two will take home an additional £100,000.
The action gets back underway at 1 p.m. local time, where the tournament clock will be restarted with seven minutes remaining in level 53 (2,000,000/4,000,000 and a running ante of 400,000). Updates will follow the live stream and thus start 30 minutes later because of the security delay of the stream. Settle in — it's going to be a good one folks!
The final table line-up is completed with 29-year-old Neel Murthy from San Francisco, and all but two of the cashes of the American are from Las Vegas. However, there is one result that clearly stands out on the poker resume of Murthy. Back in 2016, Murthy finished runner-up to Vladimir Geshkenbein in the HK$100,000 ACOP Main Event and received HK$5,143,000 (approximately $663,024) for his efforts.
Less than two weeks after another trip to the location his biggest success to date, Murthy has made it to the home of poker in the UK and outlasted a massive field in the 2017 partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn £5,300 Main Event. Another seven opponents are left over to claim the first-place prize of £1,000,000 and the American will start the final table as one of the shorter stacks with 93,200,000, good enough for 23 big blinds when the action resumes.
Katie Swift qualified twice through online satellites on partypoker and earned her seat in the £550 Phase 1 steps. The first attempt didn't go that well and Swift busted in level six, but the second attempt saw her stack go all the way up to 171,500,000 and the 34-year-old from Palm Bay/Kent in the UK is the last outright online qualifier and second woman on the final table of the 2017 partypokerLIVE MILLIONS Dusk Till Dawn £5,300 Main Event.
Swift has a nine-year-old son, who she describes as her biggest non-poker achievement. "I met my husband by playing poker and when we had a kid, we named him Jack. The Jack of hearts, who will always be in my heart." Swift is a business owner and runs a cafe, and she already has some live results in the poker resume as well. In August 2015, Swift reached the final table of the £120 Goliath Main Event and finished second out of a 2,764 entry-strong field for a payday of £46,300.
Swift will be one of the crowd favorites when play resumes and has £72,395 guaranteed.