Roy Hamilton Eliminated in 7th Place (£4,790)

A three way all in preflop saw Wes Hutchison table against Brian O’Conner holding and Roy Hamilton with .

The board ran out with the turn and river cards delivering an emphatic victory for O’Conner and eliminating Hamilton while Hutchison saw his recovery severely dented.

Roy Hamilton – Eliminated
Brian O’Conner – 9,000,000
Wes Hutchison – 1,500,000

Hamilton Doubles Twice

Roy Hamilton made it all the way from Bridgenorth (OK it’s not that far) to Old Trafford this weekend, and is supported by the Midlands Magician himself, ‘Mad’ Marty Wilson. He’s gone from having almost no chips to being back in with a slim chance after two double-ups here.

First, Roy shoved with aces and was called by Dan McNairney, with . The board came a very sweaty , but Hamilton survived. He doubled again when his pocket threes did the business against Philip Toon’s , so is back up to 12 big blinds now. That’s not a great amount behind the average!

Paul Clarke Eliminated In 8th Place (£3,740)

Paul Clarke moved all in with a short stack from the cut-off and Brian O’Conner on the button re-shoved. Micheal Micheal in the big blind gave it a long think before folding face up.

Clarke turned over and O’Conner showed .

The board ran out .

Clarke headed for the rail and Michael felt that he had dodged a bullet on that particular hand.

Lukasz Podyma Eliminated in 9th Place (£2,940)

Wes Hutchison, Lukasz Podyma and Brian O’Conner tangled in a pot where short stacked Podyma was all in preflop.

The flop was and Hutchinson and O’Conner checked. On the turn card Hutchinson bet 1,200,000 and O’Conner folded. The cards were on their backs and Hutchinson tabled for a straight and the #td of Podyma was dead in the water as the completed the board.

Wes Hutchison – 8,000,000
Lukasz Podyma - Eliminated

Average Blinds Dropping

With our nine players at the final table, we have an average stack of 7.2 million chips. Sounds a lot doesn’t it? But with the blinds at 200k/400k/50k , that’s an average stack of just eighteen big blinds.

A reminder that play MUST cease at 2am when the gambling licence runs out, so at that point if there is more than one player left, then there will be an enforced ICM payout.

Hiten Keshavala Busts In 10th

Hiten Keshavala moved all in from the button and it was that man again, Phillip Toon, who called from the small blind. The big blind folded and it was Keshavala who was the player at risk.

Keshavala had and Toon tabled .

The board ran out . This time it took until the turn before Toon spiked his card but the result was the same. Victory for Toon and some more blood on the carpet as another victim headed for the pay-out desk.

The unofficial final table of nine will now be set.

Ski Sunday?

We spoke to the man behind the Ski-Mask on the break, Dan McNairney. He explained to us why he’s wearing his incredible get-up of a Manchester United shirt & scarf combo aligned with a full ski-mask.

“I’m a United supporter, so that’s the shirt, but I couldn’t find my sunglasses so the ski-mask is because I don’t want to give away tells - either via my eyes or eyebrows, which some people forget.’

They’re unlikely to after this weekend.

‘The scarf covers other facial tells, and the ski-mask’s visor is quite bright, brighter than sunglasses, anyway!’

We can’t argue with that. Mainly because we’re blinded by them.

Phillip Toon Doubles Up

There was an open to 700,000 from the player in the cut-off before Phillip Toon moved all in from the button. Xia Ke in the small blind then moved all in too and the other players left them to it.

Toon held and was up against the of Ke.

The flop of shot Toon into the lead and the turn card and river card saw Ke’s stack cut down to 800,000 while Toon was right back in contention with a stack of around 9,000,000.